Malaysia National Security Displaced
May 9th, 2008 by Yvonne
The inefficacy of National Service in Malaysia is under hot discussion over at usj.com.my. Those from my year were the first batch of students selected for the three-month camp after the SPM examinations.
The term National Service sure sounds cool. It invoke thoughts of national security, nationalism, patriotism, and honour. We don’t want to get occupied by the Japanese again, do we?
Having studied one semester of International Relations, Malaysia’s National Service camps appear nothing to me now but a child’s mind game. We’ve seen the great Athens falling from ego, we saw China replaced by one monarch after another despite it’s size, we have America repeating mistakes in the Peloponnesian War. Malaysia being so small cannot afford the same mistake.
Malaysia does not need National Service camps. It should be forming allies with other nation-states through political and economic ties. But we offend one government after another. There was Singapore. Then China. And now the Mongolians too.
We burn bridges as much as our political landscape become a laughing stalk, The saying goes that Singapore with it’s military strength can destroy Malaysia, and I’ve no doubt of that. We would lose by our own faults.
It is also said the Muslim countries would come to aid us against the little island that’s fishing in our seas. But how sure are we, really? Can Malaysia command political support in the face of war? That time, no amount of NS men is going to safe us.
The government of Malaysia should move with times and get busy increasing human security.
National security is in IR. Not NS camps. Come on!
Posted in Politics |
