The National Service Council has decided to remove all delinquent trainees from the programme and place them at a special centre for closer monitoring and rehabilitation.

The decision was made following a three-hour meeting of the council in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

Council chairperson Prof Dr Ahmad Fawzi Mohd Basri (far left) said the trainees, numbering close to100, from all three levels of the programme, will be taken out from their present training camps nationwide due to their disciplinary problems.

He did not disclose when the measure would be implemented and where the special camp would be located, saying that the council needed time to identify and re-organise the trainers.

"It is not a concentration camp, solitary confinement or punishment ... we want to help them from the humanistic aspect," Ahmad Fawzi told a press conference, adding that parents of these trainees would be informed in advance.

"It is meaningless for us to expel problematic trainees form the programme, it is better to rehabilitate them before returning them to society," he said.

Ahamd said additional training modules would be taught at the special camp while security would be stepped up with the aid of territorial army personnel.

He warned that other delinquent trainees who were not on the council's first list of those to be hauled up, would be identified and taken to the same camp later.

Asked how camp authorities would identify delinquent trainees, he said the former have been given instructions to make police reports on criminal behaviour by the trainees and the council's delinquent name list would be based on the police reports.

"However if the police want to pursue with further investigations, we will allow them to handle the matter," he said.

'Young, angry men'

To another question, Ahmad also expressed confidence that the parents of the delinquent trainees would not object to the idea of the special camp.

"I don't see why the parents have to protest, this is good for them (the trainees)," he said.

The council chairperson admitted that various discipline problems have surfaced at National Service training camps recently including fights among trainees using sharp objects, gangsterism and vandalism.

"I must stress that the fights did not involve any racial element because there were cases of fights involving the same race. There were even fights over queuing to eat," he noted.

"They are all young angry men, they cannot restrain themselves (from fighting)," he added.

Despite the fact that the first batch of trainees are to finish their three-month stint early next month, Ahmad said the decision to place the delinquent ones in the special camp would go ahead.

The first batch started their training on Feb 16 while the second and third batches started simultaneously on March 22. The pioneer batch of trainees involved a total of 85,000 youths randomly selected from the 480,000 Malaysians youths born in 1986.

A closing ceremony will be held for the first batch on May 1, where the successful trainees will be given a certificate.

More spot-checks

Also present at today's press conference were the National Service Training Department director-general Kamarulzaman Md Nor and council member Lee Lam Thye.

Lee said the special camp for delinquent trainees was an effective way to curb the discipline problems.

"If we sack these trainees, we will transfer the problem back to society; if we let them remain in the same camp, it will allow them to bully others again," he told reporters.

In another development, the council decided that the 41 national service camps in the country would be zoned according to their location and the council's 11 members tasked with monitoring their respective designated areas. The council member in charge of a particular zone would be given the authority to take immediate action when notified of any problem.

"This decision is to ensure that we can immediately solve all problems. These include all matters related to food, water supply and accommodation," said Ahmad.

The camp authorities have also been instructed to carry out spot-checks more frequently to prevent trainees from bringing in weapons and illegal substances, he added.