Our youngest daughter left last Sunday for her three-month national service training – at Junaco Park Camp in Sibu, Sarawak.
When she received the notice of her selection for the training she was devastated, and desperately tried to sweet-talk us into finding ways to get her out of it. We made it clear to her that we were extremely happy and thankful that she got selected – we also made it equally clear that once she was selected she had to go, that’s it, period.
Of course we didn’t quite leave it at that – we needed to make sure she would go to Sibu a happy and reasonably motivated trainee, not a sulking unhappy teenager with a closed mind. So we quickly embarked on an aggressive national service promotion in-house. I was very confident that our effort would make her come round to accepting it more positively before the training start-date. I was wrong – the bias must have been more deep-seated than I had thought. Izadeana was unconvinced right up to the time we waved her goodbye as she sat teary-eyed on the bus at Bukit Jalil on her way to KLIA for her flight to Sibu.
Her last SMS to us before surrendering her mobile phone to the camp on arrival that night was “I want to go home”.
The thing of it is, ED (as we usually call her), is very much an outdoor person with a lot of friends – the kind of teenager that I thought would have really looked forward to the National Service experience. She had gone for a two-week camping on a farm in Perth with her class-mates (organized by her former kindergarten) when she was 11, camped at an Orang Asli settlement at 14, climbed Mount Kinabalu (picture) and did white-water rafting in Jeram Besu at 15. She had always been ready to try new things, and had always enjoyed herself at our modest farm in Behrang. So, what had caused this very strong aversion for the National Service training?
And if the number of no-shows at Bukit Jalil on that Sunday was any indication, this reluctance was not just confined to the like of my daughter. Of the 97 scheduled to leave for Sibu from the Klang Valley, only 52 turned up, a no-show of over 46%. This might only be for the Klang Valley-Sibu group and the overall percentage could be less alarming – but still such a waste!
I sincerely believe our National Service Programme is an excellent project. Could it have been better planned and managed? Most definitely – but it is now in place and moving on. As it is, the programme is already in its fifth year and functioning smoothly compared to when it was first hurriedly implemented. We have to keep on working at it until we have the perfect product. Given positive and genuine support of the whole country, it can become a very powerful integration and nationalism nurturing tool – but the people must truly believe that first.
We clearly need to “sell” the National Service Programme more effectively to really win the “hearts and minds” of the whole country (parents and children) convincingly once and for all. I suspect it is currently more a case of “grudging acceptance” with most parents praying really hard for their children not to be selected – and the children shouting “Amen” at the top of their voice!
I hope ED will come back in March a total advocate of the National Service Training and prove me right.
When she received the notice of her selection for the training she was devastated, and desperately tried to sweet-talk us into finding ways to get her out of it. We made it clear to her that we were extremely happy and thankful that she got selected – we also made it equally clear that once she was selected she had to go, that’s it, period.
Of course we didn’t quite leave it at that – we needed to make sure she would go to Sibu a happy and reasonably motivated trainee, not a sulking unhappy teenager with a closed mind. So we quickly embarked on an aggressive national service promotion in-house. I was very confident that our effort would make her come round to accepting it more positively before the training start-date. I was wrong – the bias must have been more deep-seated than I had thought. Izadeana was unconvinced right up to the time we waved her goodbye as she sat teary-eyed on the bus at Bukit Jalil on her way to KLIA for her flight to Sibu.
Her last SMS to us before surrendering her mobile phone to the camp on arrival that night was “I want to go home”.
The thing of it is, ED (as we usually call her), is very much an outdoor person with a lot of friends – the kind of teenager that I thought would have really looked forward to the National Service experience. She had gone for a two-week camping on a farm in Perth with her class-mates (organized by her former kindergarten) when she was 11, camped at an Orang Asli settlement at 14, climbed Mount Kinabalu (picture) and did white-water rafting in Jeram Besu at 15. She had always been ready to try new things, and had always enjoyed herself at our modest farm in Behrang. So, what had caused this very strong aversion for the National Service training?
And if the number of no-shows at Bukit Jalil on that Sunday was any indication, this reluctance was not just confined to the like of my daughter. Of the 97 scheduled to leave for Sibu from the Klang Valley, only 52 turned up, a no-show of over 46%. This might only be for the Klang Valley-Sibu group and the overall percentage could be less alarming – but still such a waste!
I sincerely believe our National Service Programme is an excellent project. Could it have been better planned and managed? Most definitely – but it is now in place and moving on. As it is, the programme is already in its fifth year and functioning smoothly compared to when it was first hurriedly implemented. We have to keep on working at it until we have the perfect product. Given positive and genuine support of the whole country, it can become a very powerful integration and nationalism nurturing tool – but the people must truly believe that first.
We clearly need to “sell” the National Service Programme more effectively to really win the “hearts and minds” of the whole country (parents and children) convincingly once and for all. I suspect it is currently more a case of “grudging acceptance” with most parents praying really hard for their children not to be selected – and the children shouting “Amen” at the top of their voice!
I hope ED will come back in March a total advocate of the National Service Training and prove me right.
6 comments:
good luck ED....
we shall prey that Brunei doesn't suddenly want to invade us..
take care and ask for the live ammo at the firing range.
...from ED: "Abang O, you r not helping lah - anyway one week ia gone"
So ED will be able to handle semi-automatic weapons by March...interesting....
can wake up or not adik?
....we miss you already, even Mya feels the same way :-(
...from ED: Hi all - I cannot believe there are so many things to do including poco-poco. Can you believe that? And now I have lost my voice too.
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