NS
Produces 2,500 capital For National Integration, Says Ongkili
Friday, 4 June 2004 (Source: Bernama)
KOTA KINABALU: The country has gained some
2,500 national unity and integration "capital"
in this year's national service training programme through
the exchange of trainees, Minister in the Prime Minister's
Department Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili.
He said 1,174
trainees from the peninsula were sent to Sabah and Sarawak;
and 473 from Sarawak and 452 from Sabah sent to the peninsula
in the exchange programme.
In addition,
about 500 trainees from Sabah and Labuan were sent to Sarawak
and about 10 trainees from Sarawak to Sabah, he said, adding
that the smaller number was due to the lack of space in
the Sabah camps.
"So, this
is a national integration capital of about 2,500 people
who will go back to their hometowns, families and friends
and relate their experience while in Sabah, Sarawak or the
peninsula," he told reporters after closing Phase II
and III of the NS programme at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah
(UMS) camp here.
He said that
if each of the 2,500 trainees maintained at least 10 friends
in the states where they trained, it would mean that they
had helped promote national unity and integration among
25,000 people.
"It has
been a successful programme and for those who were sent
to either Sabah, Sarawak or the peninsula, I'm sure that
they gained more knowledge through interactions with the
local people," he said.
Asked whether
there was a plan to increase the number next year, Ongkili,
who is in charge of unity and national integration, said
that it would be good if it could be increased.
"The cost
is high but we want to see more of such exchange under the
programme. These are ambassadors for unity and integration,"
he said.
Ongkili said
the programme itself had managed to bind the trainees despite
some hiccups.
"As we can
see today, there are also those who shed tears because they
have come to the end of the programme together. Without
saying further, the programme has been very successful,"
he said.
