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DAPSY calls for the postponement of the National Service Training Bill for a six-month national debate and consultation   Media Statement by Loke Siew Fook (Petaling Jaya, Thursday):  In a reply during Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat prosiding on Tuesday, March 25, 2003, the Defence Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib Razak who is also the Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on National Service has said that the details of the National Service scheme including its curriculum and model will be made public by end of May. He further revealed that a new act will be tabled in the Parliament in the June session to give specific powers to enable the National Service program to be implemented.   The credibility of what Najib said in the Parliament as a Cabinet Minister is now questionable for two reasons. Firstly, he has broken his promise to make public the details of the National Service program by end of May. As of today, 12 days into the month of June, no public announcement by Najib has ever been made whatsoever on the subject. This a very bad example by a Cabinet Minister for not adhering to what he has promised in the Parliament and a very bad reflection of the low efficiency of the government bureaucrats for failing to meet deadlines in such an important government’s plan.   Secondly, if it’s true that the National Service Training Bill will be presented in the coming Parliamentary session, it will be again be bulldozed and rubber-stamped by the backbenchers without comprehensive and proper debate on the bill. Parliament will reconvene on the coming Monday, 16th June but I understand that Members of Parliament had yet to receive the bill.   In such an important subject involving hundreds of thousands of youth, all MPs should be given enough and proper time to study and receive feedback from the public on the proposed bill. The government should immediately furnish all MPs with the proposed National Service Training Bill and postponed the tabling of the bill for at least six months to enable public debate and scrutiny of the various aspects of the National Service.   Recently, a vernacular newspaper reported that the selection process for participants in the National Service will be done through a lottery as the original 450,000 youths expected to be involved in the program at a cost of RM5 billion had been scaled down to 100,000 youths. This if it is true will be most ridiculous and will pose even greater problems and questions in the whole mechanism of the enlistment for National Service as the principle of fairness and equality among our youth will be a big question mark!   DAPSY calls on the Defence Minister to immediately make public all the details of the proposed National Service program followed by a six-month public debate and announce that it will not be implemented until a national consensus is reached about its viability and suitability in our society. (12/6/2003) * Loke Siew Fook, DAPSY National Secretary