It's time to scrap the National Service.

It's time to scrap the National Service.

I'm not the only parent who will not entrust my children to this worthless cause. It has proven to be unsafe since it was initiated. How many have died in the camps already? How many more have fallen ill?

Why must we sacrifice our children ... for what? It was a hare-brained idea to begin with. And yet despite the public resistance, the Government has insisted on carrying on with it.

Some who have gone through NS may have got something out of it, but many more detest it. But the upshot of it all is this -- if there are going to be cases of people dying while serving NS, it simply does not justify having it. If the Government cannot guarantee the safety of each and everyone of those serving NS, it should feel shame and stop this unsafe scheme.

I call on our elected representatives to speak up and earnestly press for the abolition of National Service.

I urge all parents to resist -- by refusing to send their children when they are called up for the next round of NS. Let this be a form of conscientious objection.

We must be together in this -- so that if the Government wants to persecute us for it, they will find it harder to persecute a mass of people than if it were only a handful.

I call on civil society groups to pledge protection for parents who resist should they be hauled up for persecution. Such protection could be in the form of free legal representation.

Let us show solidarity in standing up against what we don't have faith and trust in.

Sincerely,

Kee Thuan Chye