Malaysia’s National Service Training Programme (PLKN) 3.0 – its third go at national service – has been brought forward, with the pilot to kick off in Jan 2025, instead of June.

       The programme will be implemented progressively from next January with a budget of RM50 million (S$15 million), said Deputy Defence Minister Adly Zahari on Oct 26.

       About 500 recruits will be drafted in Jan 2025, with a bigger intake to follow in June 2025, he added. The target demographics are those aged 16 to 35.

       The first recruits will train at two military camps in capital Kuala Lumpur and Pahang.

       This will expand to 13 camps nationwide by 2026, when the PLKN is fully rolled out.

       Said Mr Adly: “According to the original plan, (we are supposed to start) in the middle of next year but there is a need for us to implement it earlier.”

       He was speaking after officiating the handover of a Melaka state-level project.

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       PLKN was first introduced in December 2003 as a three-month training camp to create more patriotic and civic-minded youth amid worries over racial polarisation and lack of patriotism among young people. Some 85,000 randomly selected male and female participants were drafted.

       It ran till 2015 before starting up again in 2016 as PLKN 2.0, with around 20,000 trainees annually. That was scrapped in August 2018 as government spending tightened.