Trainee ‘didn’t seek leave’
BY ZULKIFLI ABD RAHMANPEKAN: A national service trainee, who claimed that her request for leave from her stint was rejected although she was hit with a mysterious skin disease, had apparently not made any such application.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak wants to know the camp's decision and measures that were taken in view of her condition.
He said Nooraini Abu Bakar, whose face and hands were covered with rashes, had not submitted an official request to the NS Training Department for leave from training.
Trainees who provided the department with reasonable medical reasons could be given exemption, he added.
“I feel sad and I sympathise with her condition. I will ask for a full report including all her medical reports. We also want to know whether she got the ailment at the camp or outside,” Najib said after attending a gathering at Kg Tanjung Batu near here yesterday.
Nooraini and her parents insisted that they had requested for leave from camp officials but were told that the camp needed the go-ahead from the department first.
“I had the rashes about a month after I reported for duty in March.
“When the rashes became worse, I was told that the camp had to get permission from the department and they also asked for a medical certificate.
“I was informed that I can go home on May 20, which is about a week earlier than the rest of my fellow trainees.
“The camp officials also said they would inform the department about my request. But nothing came out of it until I completed my three-month training on May 28,” she said in an interview at her home here yesterday.
Nooraini said her uncle had also called the department but later told her that it was difficult to get anyone to confirm her request.
Her father Abu Bakar Putih, 62, and mother Maria Abdul, concurred with Nooraini’s claims.
Maria said her daughter’s condition was so bad that she couldn’t walk when they visited her at the camp last month.
“We cried when we saw her. She had to be carried by her friends.”
Nooraini also said she had received many calls after her story came out in the newspapers yesterday.
Callers had offered her advice, even trips to Kuala Lumpur to seek special medical care, she added.
“My medical bills have come up to hundreds of ringgit. I hope the Government will help as my father is the sole bread-winner in my family,” she said.
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