Cultural differences in Kuching among National Service (NS) trainees often lead to misunderstandings and fights at the various camps nationwide, said council chairman Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe. He added after seeing off about 250 trainees for the three-month stint at Serian, Bau and Sematan camps Saturday that they have carried studies concerning these and discovered that most of the problems arise due to trainees' background and they had trainees from states like Kelantan and Kedah who had never mixed with other races, so when they were posted to states like Sarawak, there were many ethic groups, misunderstandings occured because of cultural differences. Dr Tiki said there were also some "naughty" trainees who liked to disturb others and stole others' personal items like mobile phones. He said that he have reminded every camp commander to better monitor the trainees, so that there will be cases od misunderstandings, fights and thefts at NS camps. Dr Tiki also said the council would revise the NS programme and content to ensure these would be relevant to trainees, amid changes taking place in the country's social and political scenes.Redundant programmes will be taken off such as indoor activities doe board games, which be replaced wit outdoor games where everyone can participate. He added that it was important for trainees to be able to play and work as a team because NS was to promote unity among races and build up discipline and leadership.
I have been to National Service before when I was 17 years old in Sungkai, Perak. Without a doubt, I would go for it again, I had the best time there and I have made many friends from all over Malaysia. There were not many fights that went on in my camp, it was actually a very peaceful camp, everyone was very close. We had a lot of fun together, boys and girls. I was actually very lucky that no one stole anything from me. There was actually no complains that anything was stolen but there was one case where one girl had lost her money and her hand phone, so at night when it was time for a meeting, the girls was actually locked in the hall, and a 'bomoh' came and sprinkled rice on us that wasfilled with 'kunyit' so it was yellow. He said that, if the one whole had stole the girl's phone should give it back to her otherwise you will lose your memory tomorrow, and he begin to throw rice at us and everyone of us. It really did freak everyone out and when we were out all of us called our friends and family what they actually did to us. The next day, no one came forward with the stolen things. Other than that, yes, cultural differences is an issue in camps but cultural differences in my camp was not a very big deal, but there were still some, some will have gangs for example, a group which are all Chinese, all Malays and all Indians, it was actually very normal but when it was a important day, the would ask us to separate from each other to get the different culture feeling but in my opinion, in the camp, Malays always had the special treatment compared to Chinese and Indians. I actually enjoyed the activites that was provided, and so did everyone else. Even though they are always issues in cultural differences, at the end of the day, all of us would still be good friends, we would actually sit together at night and talk just about anything in the world. I also had bad experiences during my time in the camp, but overall it was no doubt one of the best times in my life.
(Article)
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