OCTOBER 11 — It feels as though this administration has not learned from the past and thinks trying bad ideas can make them good again.

I know it is “just” 45 days but as someone who remembers the time post-SPM I wonder if it is really worth making our next generation even more resentful of the administration.

How is army bootcamp truly helpful? Forty-five days is not going to address what is broken in our education and there is also that inconvenience of leaving out the youngsters who never even got to sit their SPM.

Don't they deserve attention?

I have attended the closest thing to national service, which is that weekend ra-ra called Kem Bina Semangat, which is little more than ice breaking sessions with more physical activities.

Yes, I think the government should worry about our kids.

We need to worry about their future. We need to care about the things they care about.

At the end of the day, it is about seeing the nation's children as all our children. Forty-five days is not enough.

The best way to teach our kids to love this country, and learn to love each other as countrymen is to just be the country they deserve.

It is partly the job of our government; but it is also partly our responsibility collectively as citizens.

I think about the people I went to school with; one is now the head of the local branch of a foreign company, another is a doctor, some are engineers, some executives and yet in the back of my mind I still see the children they once were.

Someday that child who lives across from you might be sitting across the table from you in a clinic. That girl you see in church might one day be one of the law pupils doing work on a case that involves you.

It takes just one person to change the life of a single child, for better or for worse.

We can start by giving every child born of a Malaysian citizen automatic citizenship, whatever their parents' gender, and whatever their gender.

We can give stateless children rights and a place to belong.

We can do better than 45 days of a glorified summer camp.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.