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Malaysian National Service, or Program Latihan Khidmat Negara was first proposed in late 2001, brought to committee the next year, and finally brought to action in 2003. Initially it was thought that all youth of a certain age would be drafted but later the numbers were restricted due to lack of resources.
In late December 2003, the names of 85,000 conscripts for the first National Service program was made public. The government announced that these youths were randomly selected out of the roughly 450,000 youths born in 1986, through a computerised process.
The program has its own theme song and logo. Conscripts are issued two pairs each of three different types of uniforms: a class uniform, a sports uniform, and a combat uniform. The combat uniform's design is of blue camouflage stripes, made out of light blue, dark blue, white, and black. The general color scheme for the class and sports uniforms is blue, and black.
The programme is split into 4 modules:
Physical - Obstacle courses, jungle trekking, survival training
Nation Building - Classroom module, about patriotism and related topics.
Character Building - Another class based module. How to help yourself and others. Games are part of it. A book for each trainee to use during this module. Has a drama made for it, called Mulanya Di Sini.
Community Service - Trainees are sent in groups to places in surrounding areas to give the trainees a chance to serve society.
In the 2004 program, conscripts (referred to as "trainees") spent a month in physical training camp, followed by two months at a nearby university or sports complex. The program consisted of three separate, overlapping batches. The first batch of 24,000 began in February and ended in May, while the second and third batches began in March and ended in June. Trainees were divided among 42 training camps scattered all over the country.
After the 2004 pilot batch completed netional service, the MCA youth, on behalf of themselves and 8 other Chinese-based youth organizations issued a memorandum to the NS Training Council calling for more non-Malay trainers. They also criticised the lack of counsellors, imbalanced diet for the participants,
poor communications among the various secretariats and no code of conduct
for camp commandants or directors, trainers, facilitators and supervisors.
In 2005 program, 85,000 youths will be selected out of the country's 471,000 youths born in 1987. They will be placed in 71 training camps, in three different batches. Each batch will undergo three months of training. However, the 2005 batches will not overlap, as with the previous year's. Instead, the three batches will span a total of nine months. Training of the first batch started on 13 December 2004 and will end at 6 March 2004. There were delays for trainees from the East Coast due to severe flooding in the region.
The 2005 session will be exclusively held in camps, since all of the university's involved suffered losses due to trainee vandalism. After the lessons learnt in 2004, security will be tightened. Stricter rules are to be enforced too. The canvas tents of 2004 will be replaced with brick walled barracks.
The list of the conscripts for the 2005 program is expected to be released on 28 August 2004.
A well-known insider account of daily life in Malaysian National Service is Operating Instructions by Kim.
The program is run by Malaysia's Ministry of Defense.
Song
Lyrics for Khidmat Negara Song
KAMI ANAK ANAK MALAYSIA..
PELBAGAI BANGSA PELBAGAI BUDAYA..
KAMI SEHATI SEJIWA..
BERGANDING TANGAN...
DEMI NEGARA..
MALAYSIA NEGARAKU YANG INDAH..
AMAN SENTOSA..NEGARA MAJU JAYA
KAMI SEDIA MENYUMBANG TENAGA..
DEMI KEDAMAIAN..NEGARA TERCINTA
MINDA TINGGI..TEKNOLOGI TERKINI
ANJAKKAN JATIDIRI..TAK TERSISIH
KAMI SAHUT CABARAN DUNIA...
WARGA REMAJA GENERASI BERJASA..
MINDA TINGGI..TEKNOLOGI TERKINI
ANJAKKAN JATIDIRI..TAK TERSISIH
KAMI SAHUT CABARAN DUNIA...
WARGA REMAJA GENERASI BERJASA
KAMI ANAKANAK MALAYSIA..
BERSEPADU MENGHADAPI SEGALA..
KAMI SEHATI...SEJIWA
BERKHIDMAT DEMI NEGARA..TERCINTA
KAMI GENERASI..BERJASA
KAMI GENERASI...BERJAYAAAA
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