FOR Singaporeans, the National Service programme in Malaysia sounds like a picnic.

But after RM2.3 billion (S$1 billion), 16 deaths and abuses in four years, worried Malaysian parents are threatening to keep their 18-year-olds out of NS.

With the help of prominent lawyers, these parents are planning to mount a nationwide "Say no to NS" campaign starting next month to put pressure on Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Abdul Razak to end the programme.

"We want NS to stop and the camps shut," says former teacher Bernard Khoo, 67. "We are telling the government: Don't even try to repackage it."

Since its inception, the programme has been plagued with bad news: camp brawls, abuse of power, a drowning, rape allegations and racially-motivated altercations.

More than 339,000 youths have undergone the threemonth stint in over 90 camps nationwide.

For the anti-NS group, the death on May 8 of trainee Too Hui Min, reportedly from an infection of the colon, was the last straw.

The group is using the Internet, including blogs and Facebook, to draw support.

But Datuk Seri Najib, who expressed regret over Too's death in Parliament yesterday, said the NS programme was nonetheless a success.

He told my paper: "There have been requests to extend the programme to six months instead of the current three."

NS was introduced in Malaysia in 2004 with the main aim of forging national unity among the many races, while Singapore's NS was conceived on the need to strengthen the republic's security and defence needs.