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About

"I started this blog for 2 purposes. 1, to chronicle my days and experiences in Malaysia's National Service for my own future references, and at the same time, 2, to provide a personal insight into the life of a National Service trainee for whoever who would care to read."

Recent

"Back from NS, and updating this blog bit by bit. I wrote almost every single day in there!"

Archives

Reading in Malaysian National Service: My Brief Encounter With Tuan Komanden Sunday, August 23, 2009 |

I HAVE to write this down. My brain is still running high on virtual dope right now, hours after i left the place where they sell the dope. Can't help it. I'm ecstatic! I got 18 books for a mere RM60 from the Times Clearance Sale at Hartamas Shopping Centre! Wo0t!


I kept to the "3 for RM10" area the whole time, picked out mostly non-fictions, plus a couple of Sci-Fis. Dad paid for it of course. Bless him. I've never been to this shopping mall before, neither has he. It took some googling of a map plus a couple of wrong turns before we found the building nestled amongst other buildings which was under construction. So bless my dear darling daddy for chauffeuring me all the way here and paying for the books ^^

Okay i realise this blog's supposed to be about NS. So...

I remember reading in NS, a lot. I brought 2 books, one was Ryu Murakami's Coin Locker Babies (it was an impulse purchase, one that i couldn't let go after reading the short excerpt on its cover. I've never heard of Murakami and wasn't aware of the cult film adaptation of his novel Audition back then...).

The first few days in camp, i buried my nose in my book all the time, living an unsocial reclusive life. Nah, actually it serves as a kind of refuge for the moments when nobody approached me for a conversation. I'm the more passive type. I slowly retreat to my shell if nobody initiates a conversation with me but i'd gladly join the party if only someone else other than me speaks first :P

I totally get it that i give people the first impression of being this nerdy stuck-up girl who'd rather read than talk to people. Couldn't care less back then.

Anyway, there was once when i was sitting on the benches beside JLB (i think it was during the Kelas Rohanis), and all of a sudden Tuan Komanden showed up! The man himself! He commended me for reading an English book, then took the book from my hand and flipped through it, pausing on this page and that for a little while.

The horror.

I tried finding the exact page he read but i couldn't be sure which page was it. I'll be damned if he came across any sexual depictions. That grim book was filled with stories about the dark side of the society, and more.

When he asked me what the book was about, i was at loss for words for a moment. I definitely couldn't tell him that it's about 2 abandoned babies, one who grew up to be a pole-vaulter and the other a bi-sexual prostitute. For chrissake, the first sentence of the book was
The woman pushed on the baby's stomach and sucked its penis into her mouth; it was thinner than the American menthols she smoked and a bit slimy, like raw fish.

Now you see why i was worried.

Putting it as vaguely as i could, i told him that it was a novel about the "adventurous journey" of two young men.

Then, my heart still pounding, he handed the book back to me, and mentioned something about how glad he is to see someone finding the time to read even while in NS *beam*

Phew...

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Malaysian National Service: How My Friends Did or Didn't Get Exempted/Deferred Saturday, August 8, 2009 |

I got tired of updating my NS posts from last year.


It's fun to read my own journal and post it up in this blog cuz i get to revisit my past while putting it in proper prose (read Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita a week ago and now i can't help getting depressed over how limited my vocabulary is), but it kinda felt restraining at times. Like all i'm writing is what i felt then and there, and i'm neglecting the objectivity that only became clear to me after i have been through NS. Like i'm writing about bits and pieces of my life when i could and should be writing something more organized, using the fragments of my memory and experiences collected from my time in camp.

So i figured i'll write about something more specific, something i wanna get off my chest but probably never came up in the diary entries. I dunno. Something about... erm, getting exempted from NS, or as Malaysians like to say -- "escaping" from NS for example. Not so much about how to dodge it, but more on how friends i made in camp who registered (lapor diri-ed) either failed or succeeded in getting out of it.

As you would have imagine, this topic is frequently discussed among those of us who obviously did not" escape" from NS, while we're trapped inside. I can still remember the echoes of
"I rasa nak balik aje lah..."
"Sial betul kena NS ni..."
"Terpaksa datang juga..."
to quote a few. I hear them Malays whining about it every day. Same goes for us Chinese. Don't understand a single word of Indian but i'm pretty sure they gripe about it among themselves too.

This went on not just during the first couple of days or the first few weeks. Throughout the course of the program, it remained a hot topic of discussion.

The first two weeks, a number of our fellow NS trainees who registered and reluctantly showed up at the camp managed to get exempted, much to the envy of the rest of their peers who're still stuck in camp trying to figure out how to get out of the shit hole.

Some of those who left got their free ticket to liberty (and pursuit of happyness) because they were declared physically unfit by the medics. These are the ones who're leaving permanently, never having to come back again.

Some left to pursue further education. It's like this, if you leave camp before completing something like half the duration of the program (there's a specific duration, i can't recall the exact number of days), you're deferred. In which case you are required to join the later NS batches after you have finished with your studies. If however, you leave after a certain number of weeks, you get to end your National Service training for good, permanently, as in tamat latihan with your NS certificate and all, despite not having gone through the full 3 months term.

In one case, this friend of mine, after having spent a fair amount of time in the camp, finally managed to get her family to enrol her in some IT course. Rumor has it that she's not planning to study IT at all. Her family just paid a small deposit, have the school issue a formal letter that says she's enrolled, and use the letter as proof of her furthering her education so that she can end her training way sooner than us. It worked for her.

Of course, there's also a lot of talk about just paying the RM3000 fine and get the hell out of there. But that's just talking crap since none of them can afford it, even if they are willing to pay. It's just a kind of fantasy they like to indulge in once in a while.

Since i'm in the Group 3, officially Kumpulan 3 Siri 5/2008, many of my friends are aged 18 and above. Quite a number are primary/high school dropouts, or having went through Remove Class, then had to defer because they were in Form 5 when they were called to register for NS. Basically, whatever the reason, most of them have already joined the workforce already, and not just for a mere few months.

I found out that some of my friends in camp actually came all the way back to Malaysia from Singapore for NS training. Not because they're so keen to join NS or anything like that. Uh-uh. But because they got a letter from JLKN that says they are not allowed to defer any longer. So this friend of mine had to quit her job in Singapore and come back to Malaysia for NS. Who is to say she'll get her job back 3 months later?

She's not the only one. Another friend confided in me that he's the breadwinner of the family and now that he's in here, he wouldn't be able to work for 3 months. How the hell is he going to support his family? I'm not sure whether he's exaggerating his predicament but fact remains that there will be a fraction of the impoverished society's younger generation who are going to be picked for the mandatory National Service. RM300 allowance ain't gonna feed their family for 3 months.

Way back before i kena NS, i recall hearing some acquaintances of mine joke about getting pregnant just so they can dodge National Service. Well, this girl in my dorm has a 2 year old kid already (who came to visit once, with the dad) and yet she's still in here with us. So much for getting pregnant.

Just realized i'm writing a way too lengthy post. More on NS in future posts ^^

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Post-NS quick update Saturday, August 1, 2009 |

Good lord, i haven't been updating this in ages. Got lazy. That's me. I just can't seem to stick with one project for long. Initially i'll get all pumped up at the idea of doing something but sooner or later, usually the former, me and whatever i'm working on, we'll just somehow, grow apart and lose touch with each other.


Damn. I was there for almost 3 months and this blog is only up to day no. 10!?!?! Damn.

Okay since i'm having a semester break now i might as well update it a little. I have 3 burned CDs and a DVD full of NS photos and videos but i'd rather not put them in this blog, for anonymity's sake. But really, if anyone would wanna figure out my identity, it wouldn't be that hard anyways.

By the way, my NS mates? Some of us still do keep in touch ^^ Mostly SMSes and some rare phone calls once in a while between me and them. And a couple of them who have since been working in Singapore do sometimes gather to yum-cha and reminisce the old times. Can't believe it's been almost a year since i was in NS.

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