Although the proposed national service is not a bad idea in and of itself, I fear it may be a way of further indoctrinating our young that loyalty to Malaysia equals loyalty to Barisan Nasional.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad says there is a greater racial divide among young Malaysians today. Who is to be blamed for it when the government has shamelessly practised racial politics?

One generation has grown up seeing how the privileged of society can go from rags to riches in a short time. There is nothing really wrong with that except that the people could see that much of the newly-gained wealth was gotten with little sweat and effort, and just by knowing the right people in the right camp.

Their living standard has improved but unfortunately, the people equate this mostly with material gains and status symbols like expensive cars and imported coffee.

There was little heed paid to the right kind of social development. Greed has gripped our local municipal councils and politicians. There was a time when public swimming pools, tennis courts and squash courts were within a 15-minute drive anywhere in the Klang Valley.

Privatisation took away almost everything and people no longer have access to public pools and courts unless they become members of these now private clubs.

Petaling Jaya has three big parks; Taman Jaya (where I played as a kid), Taman Aman, and Kelana Jaya Park. Look at any new developments in the last 15 years. How many parks like Taman Jaya (which barely survived the 1990s) have been built for the public?

In the UK, for every 1,000 homes, there is a public facility which includes courts and a swimming pool.

Here, we have instead (almost) one shopping mall for every 1,000 homes in the Klang Valley. No wonder our young lepak (loiter) in shopping malls.

The government simply needs to look no further than its own policies to provide a solution to all its problems.