One year ago, last June, a group of Pekan PL N male trainees

from the Chini NS camp brawled inside their camp on a steamy

Saturday evening and were arrested by the police. They were
handcuffed and taken away in police vehicles and their parents
informed of the incident.
Why did it take place or what caused it to happen ?
Such incidents are nothing new to the PL N course or the PL N
trainees. There have been more than a hundred fights or clashes
in PL N camps throughout the country. The PL N course is held
to promote racial unity and loyalty but the clashes and fights
that have taken place only prove that the PL N course has not
been a very successful one.
In fact, it is a failure. The PL N course does not promote
racial unity or loyalty. Its existence is only for promoting
the interests of the ruling class. How do you promote social
ideals when the mass media and the bigshots are always very
keen to harp about race, religion, ethnicity and language.
And even the state of purity of religion and purity of language.
Hmm, so much for social ideals. And so much for unity and also
loyalty.
In some areas, the bigshots in total concert with the local
very shady mass media have 'complained' very publicly and very
falsely about alleged 'handicaps' or 'discriminations' faced
by certain parties who have 'been deprived of their rights'.
So much for PL N courses and unity and loyalty. A lot of bad
bullshit actually.
Definitely, today, in this day and time, there are still rules
which silently order or demand that some people must be treated
more equal than others. These rules are really antiquated and
totally unacceptable in the 21st century, yet the bigshots are
still feverishly insisting on them. Hence the very loud and
incessant 'complaining'. Why continue or why the need to insist
on the PL N courses ? The 'complaining' is actually more like
a form of blackmailing.
The constant finger-pointing that targets minority citizens is
actually a form of violation of their human rights, or as called
in the US, their civil rights.
The brawl at the Chini PL N camp was preceded by name-calling
and an exchange of verbal insults and the reason why such things
can still happen today can be found in the daily regurgitations
in our local mass media. Some of the rubbish is very noxious
and most totally unjustified. This kind of rubbish only serves
to defeat the very purpose of the PL N course.
Remember, the rubbish is always there, everyday and does not ever
cease getting churned out.
Meanwhile, there have been some deaths and even acts of crime
taking place inside the PL N camps. When a PL N trainee passes
away, his or her family gets a compensation of only RM30,000.
This is really a paltry sum and for the parents of single-child
families, a death is a very devastating blow. Giving RM30,000
is like adding insult to injury. A car now costs more than twice
that sum. Worse, the PL N course is compulsory. Anyone who shirks
or misses it can be jailed and fined. Your future also becomes
very hazy and blurry in no time.
The trainees are usually packed together in camps that are far
away from home and located in areas infested with pests and even
strange creatures. They have to stay put together that way for
several months and therefore the strains and tensions of typical
camplife could easily lead to quarrels. Such quarrels or seeds
of such quarrels would have been implanted in them long before
they participated in the courses. By the daily noxious propaganda
poured out by the local mass media.
what with the constant emphasis on 'race', 'religion', 'rights'
and whatever else.
This June 19, 54,000 new trainees will have to submit themselves
to several months of very unnecessary hardships and angst inside
the dreaded camps and endless hours of brainwashing and perhaps
even liberal doses of one-sided verbal bashing. That is why the
brawl took place last year.
It is time to make the PL N course a voluntary one and to make it
a day courseonly without forcing trainees to stay together. With
such an arrangement there would be much less stress and anger.
The trainees could also have a better grip on their surrounding
situational reality. They would be far better able to sift the
good stuff from the garbage and avoid all the bad stereotyping.
And also the unneeded brawls and fights.
At present the PL N course seems to benefit only the ruling class
and also their family business contractors. No one else benefits.
Certainly not the trainees who got walloped or who had lost their
lives. It is hard to support the PL N course until our mass media
is able to separate the grain from the chaff. Right now, they are
discarding the grain and keeping the chaff.
The government should put off the PL N course until things have
really improved ! The recent talk about improved insurance cover
is nothing but merely just a ruse.