KUALA LUMPUR: Experts believe that while there are merits to having the Program Latihan Khidmat Negara or National Service (NS) programme, it is not what Malaysia needs right now.
Instead, they are urging for more prudent use of the country's financial resources to bridge the digital divide and plug the country's education gap.
Universiti Utara Malaysia's educational psychologist Professor Dr Rosna Awang Hashim said instead of reviving the programme, there were other pragmatic ways to create an inclusive and patriotic society.
"There is no clear evidence to suggest that the programme helps forge national unity.
"The funds intended for it can be used to establish a Sejahtera Corporation (SC) to train university graduates and hire them to conduct tuition and training for various subjects, programmes and projects for marginalised groups.
"The SC could enlist these graduates for a maximum term of two years and post them to remote army camps and community colleges in towns and villages with a high population density. They should be given allowances and be required to report their work progress periodically."
Rosna, who heads the Academy of Professors Malaysia's Education and Human Development cluster, said such engagements would be more meaningful for the trainees and would go a long way towards plugging the education gap.
Anuar Ahmad, an education expert from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, said reviving the National Service programme could be considered as a post-pandemic option.
"If we factor out politics, I believe the National Service programme is a good initiative.
"But, it should not be the priority. At least not for the next few years, until we fully rein in the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Currently, allocations to run the National Service programme should be used to address the digital divide by providing better Internet access for schoolgoing children. The funds can also be used to help youths from the Bottom 40 and Middle 40 income groups to set up businesses."
He said given that cultivating patriotism was a long-term process, he called on the government to invest more resources to develop history lessons in schools.
Likewise, National Union of the Teaching Profession secretary-general Harry Tan said the ministry must devise a new approach if it wants to reintroduce the National Service programme since its success before its abolishment was "questionable".
Epidemiology and biostatistics expert Associate Professor Dr Malina Osman called for a detailed study to be conducted before reviving the programme since the pandemic had yet to be contained.
Army veteran Mejar Lee Hock Sun (Rtd) said while he believed there were merits to the programme, the authorities should put it on hold until the Covid-19 vaccines were first rolled out.
Lee, who had served as the commandant of training in two National Service camps in Kedah, said he witnessed how trainees embraced the spirit of muhibbah during his tenure there.
"There were interactions between the various races, especially during community programmes to help rural folks and river-cleaning activities.
"But, I don't think it (National Service programme) is a priority at the moment. We can consider it once the pandemic is over. If the ministry wants to go ahead after that, they must conduct sanitisation exercises in all of the programme's camps nationwide since many of them were used as quarantine centres."
Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who is also defence minister, had on Nov 24 announced that the Defence Ministry would present a proposal to the cabinet to revive the National Service programme, which would be aimed at instilling patriotism among youths.
He said 1,394 people initially hired as the programme's trainers and who were affected by the decision to shelve it had been rehired on a one-year contract basis and placed in various agencies.
This, he said, would allow the officers, hired for the 2019-2020 term, to sustain themselves before securing permanent jobs.
The programme was first introduced in 2004, but was stopped in 2015 due to fiscal austerity measures.
It was reintroduced as PLKN 2.0 in 2016, during which trainees were enrolled on a voluntary basis. It was subsequently abolished in 2018 by the Pakatan Harapan administration.
In 2018, former defence minister Mohamad Sabu said RM8.43 billion was spent on the programme since 2004, and rental dues for the training camps accounted for 43 per cent of the expenses.
In March, the Health Ministry gazetted the programme's camps as Covid-19 quarantine centres and subsequently, the Immigration Department has also been renting several camps as temporary detention depots.