APRIL 9, 2004
Ghost sightings cause hysteria at NS camp
Bomoh called in to soothe nerves at Negeri Sembilan camp

By Reme Ahmad

GHOST sightings have caused mass hysteria and panic among some trainees at a Malaysian national service camp in Negeri Sembilan.

The camp authorities called in a ghostbusting bomoh, which seems to have soothed frayed nerves.

The first ‘sighting’ on Sunday night had caused 16 trainees, three of them boys, to be admitted to the Port Dickson hospital for observation. Four more girls were admitted three days later.

‘They said they saw figures big and small, some without limbs and legs in the toilets, and some saw these in the camp perimeter,’ said a senior official at the camp in a forest reserve near Port Dickson.

‘They claimed that some of these elements, I don’t know how else to call them, tried to go into their bodies, and that caused the hysteria and screaming,’ he told The Straits Times yesterday.

The present batch of 508 trainees are the second to use the camp.

To restore confidence, officials called in a ghostbuster, bomoh Datuk Abu Bakar Hassan, to ‘cleanse’ the place. The faith healer apparently caught the unfortunate spirits and ‘threw them into the sea’, the senior camp official said.

‘Whether we believe in these things or not, we have to acknowledge that the trainees were frightened,’ he said.

According to him, other camp supervisors say their camps had faced similar problems, as many are in jungles or areas away from villages and towns.

The first batch of 636 NS trainees at this camp had no such experiences, said Mr Ibrahim Hassan, the camp supervisor who has since moved to another place.

One reason for the sightings could be the stress the trainees face from being in unfamiliar surroundings, Mr Ibrahim said.

The 20 hospitalised trainees have been discharged after being counselled by psychiatrists.

The NS programme has attracted attention in recent weeks, with reports of fights and alleged sexual harassment by trainers.

On the latest problem, the National Service Training Council chairman, Datuk Ahmad Fauzi Basri, said yesterday: ‘It is unusual.’

He suggested that the council meet soon to discuss this and other issues that have cropped up.