National service has been made compulsory for all Singaporeans to protect the country from foreign threats since our independence. However, in recent years, a problem arises where many young men attempt to avoid the national service, and others have criticized that 18 years of age is inappropriate. On the other hand, others have praised the national service for “turning” boys into men. However, are they actually ways where the national service can be amended and improved to prevent males from dodging?National service has been made compulsory for all Singaporeans to protect the country from foreign threats since our independence. However, in recent years, a problem arises where many young men attempt to avoid the national service, and others have criticized that 18 years of age is inappropriate. On the other hand, others have praised the national service for “turning” boys into men. However, are they actually ways where the national service can be amended and improved to prevent males from dodging?
Let us first look at why many NS men actually want to escape serving national service. Firstly, many of them want to continue with their studies and view the NS as a “waste” of their time, especially those who just graduated from Junior colleges. Also, a 2 year break from studies might cause the students to “forget” some important facts they learnt in school, which might be essential in their university life. Also, as males tend to experience late puberty, at the age of 18 some boys might not be fully developed, hence they will not be ready for the intensive training during national service. National service is also a common problem for fresh university graduate men. Fresh graduates, due to compulsory national service, are 2 years older than the same batch of female students or foreign students. The government also encouraged private companies to give pre-NS men a higher salary to compensate for the 2 years where they have to serve the national service. Hence, in times of economic downturn, private companies might turn to fresh graduates foreign students because the salary they are entitled to would be lower than that of NS men. Additionally, NS men have to serve reservice until they are 40 years of age. And while they are serving reservice, the companies might be short of workers, yet they could not employ another worker or simply just sack the NS man. Thus, this poses a problem to private companies if they employ NS men. This, in turn, brings disadvantages to NS men when they enter the workforce.
Therefore, I suggest that perhaps the national service could be shortened to 1 ¾ years or 1 ½ years. This would allow the NS men to enter the workforce at an earlier age and reduce the various disadvantages which national service might bring to the NS men. Alternatively, national service could be postponed to after the men have completed all their studies. I believe that this would greatly reduce the amount of dodgers as many of them escapes from the NS simply to complete their studies. Also, the government should do their part to promote the national service to 17 and 18 year old boys before they enter NS, instead of imposing cold rules like subjecting all boys to report to the MINDEF if they were to leave the country for more than 3 months, and to fine them severely if they fail to abide to those rules. Also, I believe many Singaporeans despise the national service because the citizens have no national pride. Unlike the Japanese, many Singaporeans are not proud at all to be in Singapore. They don’t think highly of themselves and their country, but instead prefer the western world, which is probably caused by the media. Thus, I believe that building up the Singaporean culture and pride is essential, so that Singaporeans would take the national service seriously, and not dodge it as and wish they want to.
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