Referring to Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul’s call for a mandatory two-year national service programme for school leavers, Chandra told FMT he believed such a course would not have a lasting effect on the trainees’ appreciation of a multiracial society.
They would normally “go back to their old selves” when pursuing their careers, he said.
“It’ll be just like studying in school for the purpose of passing exams. You remember things for the exam and after that you forget.”
In making his proposal last Wednesday, Johari said he believed the programme would help build national unity.
Chandra acknowledged that such a programme would expose youths to Malaysia’s multicultural character, but he said the effect would probably be transient and might not justify the expense.
He said there needed to be a more holistic approach to national unity, one that would involve the school system, the media, the family and the community.
Such an approach in helping the young of various cultural backgrounds share their values and attitudes, he said, would have a long lasting effect although the process would take time.
He added that both the government and the private sector needed to pursue inclusive policies.
“Keluarga Malaysia has to be more than a slogan and must be demonstrated in the way people are treated, with true respect for one another,” he said.
National Patriots Association president Mohamed Arshad Raji said the government, if it wanted to go ahead with a national service programme, must plan and implement it thoroughly.
He said Malaysia should look at how other countries were carrying out their programmes and learn from them.
“The government must study how they build their modules. Then, it must test them out in certain states to learn how they can be improved before going nationwide.”
Apart from national service, he said, families, schools and society at large could play a role in instilling discipline and patriotism. This was being done in Japan, he added.
He criticised the discontinued National Service (PLKN) programme as “a total waste of time and a total failure” and asked whether any study had been done on it.
He said people still held the impression that PLKN was politically motivated, that it was to enrich the cronies of those in power.