NS Schmenes!!

I grew up in a time when it was alright to cane children when they are naughty.

Squeals and screams of a kid being caned by the parents next door was something that was normal. Children gets naughty, parents get frustrated, children don’t listen, so, caning was feared upon and was the only thing that could deter us kids from repeating the same mistake.

I was once chased all over the house by my Mum who came at me with a cane, one of those ‘rotan buluh’ for talking back. After that, I kept everything to myself, at least until I reached the age of 18.

Parents back then believed in hard core discipline. They allow teachers to do whatever that was deemed necessary in the name of education. I remembered being caned by my history teacher for not achieving the desired minimum of A-. I got a B, and it was unacceptable in that class of mine.

When I showed the mark to my Mum, all she said was, ‘Padan Muka’.

Talk about tough love.

The thing is, all the kids of my generation, turned out alright.

I also noticed that back then, kids don’t complaint much about school to their parents. Even if they do, it seemed that the parents had full confidence in the education system and that all of these experiences will enrich their children.

So when I read a reader’s letter on The Star last week about changes that was implemented in the NS module upon receiving complaints from parents, I started to laugh.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/6/26/focus/18058838&sec=focus

The reader strongly believes that the government was doing the right thing. I thought it was a move to produce wimps rather than strong individuals. They wanted NS to be more, quote; ‘safe and comfortable’ for trainees; unquote.

Honestly, I don’t remember any of the camps I went to as ‘comfortable’. We were exposed to all kinds of hardships and whatnots. Our activities were standard military training. We broke down sometimes but most of the time we suck it in. Safety wise, all of us were educated on the proper codes and procedures to cope with crises, should it happen.

Of course, we always had a higher commanding officer during our hike and camp outs in the jungle, which NS seemed to be oblivious to. Plus, trainees that were down with any sickness or allergies were immediately sent to the clinic / home, depending on the seriousness of their situation at the time. There were some trainees who insisted on staying even though their condition didn’t allow it, and were forced to go home!

The food was not 5 star but it got us through the day just fine. In short, we have no issues and we push ourselves to excel.

We came out of it a brand new person, with renewed opinions and respect not only for ourselves but for others as well. Even if we do complaint, our parents would only shake their head and tell us that these people know what they are doing and that it’s only for our own good.

It really did us good. It toughen us up and it taught us how to be mature in handling different situations. In life, that is priceless. We didn’t mind the shouting at our face part, dropping down to twenty pushups everytime one member of the team screwed up and we didn’t mind eating stripped down version of your local Nasi Padang stall except on Fridays where the dishes would be much more colorful and appetizing than any other day.

NS sounds like a joke now. And since when the flying fox, under full supervision became a ‘dangerous’ activity, since when strenuous activity should be cut down for book worms and those who are not used to these kinds of activities and since when do proper medical checks rely on the parents’ honesty when filling up the form?

Check out NS in Singapore, now THAT’S NS for god sakes. If we want to rule out hiking in our NS modules, then I suggest for the Malaysian NS to be carried out in kindergartens practicing on monkey bars, works?

Great, the youths of Malaysia are now Wusses. Pffbtthh!