A move to make pregnancy testing compulsory for girls entering the National Service Training Programme is stirring debate in socially conservative Malaysia, where premarital sex and unintended pregnancies remain uncomfortable topics.

Launched in December 2003 to foster tolerance, patriotism and a service ethic, the National Service Training Programme (NSTP) is three months long and compulsory for 18-year-olds randomly selected from a national database.

NSTP Director-General Datuk Abdul Hadi Awang Kechil announced the pregnancy test to Bernama on August 19th, four days after a trainee gave birth in a toilet at Kem Sri Ledang in Jementah, Segamat, in the southern state of Johor.

Vexed camp officials rushed the teen to the Sultanah Fatimah Specialist Hospital in Muar. The baby died on arrival.

Since the inception of the NSTP, six trainees have given birth during training.

Nevertheless, authorities are assuring the public the pregnancy test is not a done deal.

"The matter has to be brought up to the higher authorities first for discussion," Abdul Hadi said. These include Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, as the NSTP comes under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence.

For now, Abdul Hadi hopes trainees can save programme staff the harrowing experience of unexpected pregnancy and birth.

"Be frank with us so we can defer the training or give exemption," said Abdul, adding that the main aim of pregnancy tests would be to ensure the safety of the mother and unborn child.

Some could be offended

Meanwhile, Malaysians have been debating whether they want tax dollars spent on pregnancy tests, and whether such tests are a good way to discourage premarital sex.

Former NSTP instructor Kok Kok Kiong said it would be more practical and cost effective to make candidates sign a declaration form.

"If a candidate is lying, it absolves authorities from blame," said Kok, chief administrator for Pure Life Society, a children's home in Kuala Lumpur.

Tests should only be carried out when health officials have good reason to suspect a candidate is pregnant, he told Khabar. "Making it a blanket test will be costly."

With an estimated 84 NSTP camps nationwide and 300 trainees per camp, authorities might be looking at test cassettes for some 12,600 female trainees. Based on a price of RM 9 ($2.84) per kit from Lelong, an online shopping domain, taxpayers might be looking at footing a RM 113,400 ($35,829) bill, a sum many feel could be better spent elsewhere.

In Malaysia, where many still find sex an uncomfortable topic of open discussion, many families would be offended by the test. The standard understanding is that well-brought up teenage girls do not have sex out of wedlock.

"The only one who should be able to demand a pregnancy test from an 18-year-old are her parents," said Elaine Tan, a mother of two.

Nevertheless, "as teen pregnancies are not all that uncommon, I can't fault the government for wanting to know if a trainee is pregnant or not. Just a precaution so they don't have girls giving birth in toilets or miscarrying while training," she told Khabar.

A debate over effectiveness

Mother of three Lina Ardini Nichol sees no special cause for alarm about the tests. Airlines and corporate entities also require candidates to go through mammograms, pregnancy and HIV tests, she said.

"All you need to do is pee on a stick. Nobody is going to do a hymen check," said Lina, a Muslim.

She added, however, that no amount of testing can curb teen pregnancies and premarital sex. Education, she says, is the key.

Women's Aid Organisation Executive Director Ivy Josiah, meanwhile, believes mandatory testing may compound the problem, with young girls resorting to desperate means to hide their pregnancies.

"We don't want to traumatise these young people (to the extent) that they feel their only resort is to risk a botched abortion," she told National Express Malaysia.