By Stephen Ng
Comment: Reading the story about how an immigration officer treated a man who applied for a social visit pass extension for his pregnant Indonesian wife, I cannot help but recall an incident happening at the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore.
Although this incident happened about 10 years ago, I can still remember vividly the immigration officer who shares the same surname as mine.
It was very late at night, and I did not realise that I had walked into their auto-gate system, thinking that it was similar to the auto-gate system at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The immigration officer shouted at me rudely: "Do you think this is the auto-gate system in your country?" I retorted back: "Excuse me, Sir! Can you be a bit more polite?"
He took my passport away and went back to his office. I waited by the side while he checked my particulars on the computer system. It took some time before I called out to him, "Sir, is there anything wrong with my passport? If nothing, I want my passport back."
To my horror, the officer shouted at the top of his voice. Provoked by his rude behaviours, I told him off: "Sir, I will definitely be lodging a complaint against you for your rude behaviours. This I promise you!"
I took my passport and joined the queue.
On arrival home the next morning, I immediately wrote an email to the Immigration chief in Singapore. I also sent emails to the Minister of Home Affairs in Singapore as well as to the Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Syed Hamid Albar.
My Singaporean reporter friend advised me to also write to several Members of Parliament in Singapore, after he heard that the Immigration Office in Singapore had defended their officer.
He told me that the MPs in Singapore are very efficient. If any complaints to their attention, especially the Opposition Leader, things would move very fast. Unfortunately, I proved my friend wrong. Singaporean MPs are hopeless.
I finally sent an email to the Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Hsien Loong and within 24 hours, I received a reply from his private secretary claiming that investigation had been carried out and the officer was not in the wrong.
Such was the response from the Prime Minister's office. I had no choice but to reply with the following words to the effect of saying: "Sir, if this had happened at Tullamarine Airport, the immigration officers there would have told me, 'Excuse me, Sir, but you are on a wrong queue.' This is the difference between a country where people are more polite, compared to a country with rough and rowdy immigration officers like Singapore."
I left it at that. This incident has given me a very negative impression of Singapore as a country that its people lack a sense of courtesy.
Another story showing the lack of culture in the immigration officers at Singapore Immigration & Checkpoints Authority.
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