It is quite amazing that young apparently healthy children are dropping dead at National Service camps but the outcry is relatively muted. Investigations are purportedly being carried out, although many of such reports are rarely published to the general public. Moreover, not much medical explanations can be offered for such deaths without a full post mortem examination, an essential process rarely performed in Malaysia in the name of religious restrictions. So how is the Government to reassure parents when many such cases are not well explained and trainees or trainers alike are dropping like flies?

I feel that the National Service programme should be suspended pending a full and transparent investigation. Stages from recruitment, training programmes, the general conditions of training camps and the training or selection of trainers need careful scrutiny.

General medical physical examinations will probably have a low yield in identifying potential health threats and will only sap precious medical resources. It is a futile attempt at correcting the situation.

I feel the training of trainers is of paramount importance here. Perhaps they need a full intensive course on physical training including the ability to recognise potential problems. Failure to recognise early clinical warning signs might prove fatal. Selecting trainers with military backgrounds might be a miscalculation as military personnel tend to be more burly and physically superior. Carrying over such training tactics might not be appropriate for these ‘younglings’ (Star Wars adaptation )

Placing a doctor at each camp might be easier said than done. It would also be an absolute waste of human resource.

Another death might spell the end of this National Service programme. I have a feeling that if the situation persists and that effective solutions are not implemented, it is a future that is impending.