Administrative coronavirus quarantine cock-up

 

Malaysian ministers, their spouses and their politically connected friends frequently travel overseas despite the Covid-19 pandemic and border travel restrictions.

However, they do not feel the pain and uncertainty of applying for the various permits needed before travelling, nor do they appreciate the bureaucratic nightmares faced by the ordinary public.

Why can't government officials perform a dry run and test the efficiency of the system, so that Malaysians who are forced to travel abroad, and return home, do so with minimum fuss?

There is no consistency in the procedure and we are at the mercy of the Little Napoleons who interpret the rules as they please.

Leaving Malaysia and MyTravelPass

The nightmare for one Malaysian, who had to attend the funeral of a close relative overseas, started with the renewal of his passport.

One immigration officer said that a death certificate was necessary if an appointment had not been made to renew his passport.

To add to the confusion, he then said that with a booked appointment, a death certificate would not have been necessary.

My friend said, "He made little sense. The officer did not take into account the urgency of the emergency trip. Moreover, a death certificate had not yet been issued by the Scottish authorities.

"The next available appointment for passport renewal was several weeks away, but the officer refused to listen."

He returned the following day and was met by a different officer who processed his passport without asking for a death certificate. Different officers, different interpretations, different responses, different rules.

Although passport renewals could be processed online through the Jabatan Imigresen website, my friend was uneasy about using the outdated link to process the payment for renewing his passport.

A message had popped up to warn those who clicked on the link that the government website was not secure and passwords could be compromised.

Collecting his passport involved another bureaucratic bungle. The immigration officers used scare tactics to allegedly make him part with more cash.

Two officers attempted to sell him thick passport covers which they claimed would protect his new ‘extra-sensitive’ passports from damage. The women said that the problem had arisen because a new vendor was printing the passports.

So, instead of changing vendors, the officers' solution was to charge the rakyat extra money to protect the ‘delicate’ passports.

This is bribery and corruption. Why should Malaysians pay extra to fix a vendor's poor quality product?

Commenting on the poor service, my friend wondered why no priority had been given for emergency travel overseas. Apparently, all applications would only be processed within 10 working days.

He had an update for Malaysians. From Oct 11, the MyTravelPass is no longer required for Malaysians to travel overseas.

After checking the website on Oct 20, he said, "The government has not updated their website and this will create confusion especially as the website proudly displays the message, ‘Bagi tujuan melancong dan bercuti tidak di benarkan.’

Returning to Malaysia

Different problems were encountered on his return to Malaysia. There was no central website to refer to for the complete procedure on returning home. The information he sourced from various websites was confusing and outdated. They were also contradictory.

He said that home quarantine applications were disorganised and slow. When he emailed his request for home quarantine, he received a reply a week later urging him to apply on the new website, which was misspelt in the email. This made him suspect that emails had been sent manually instead of being automated.

He said that the https://airport.doctor2u.my/ link contained misleading information regarding the cost of the coronavirus tests.

Although he was Malaysian, my friend was not born in Malaysia and his MyKad was rejected by the doctor2u link when he applied for home quarantine.

Without a hotlink for queries to be channelled, he emailed the website to ask for a resolution to his problem and was told, "We have never encountered the problem of an overseas-born Malaysian. We have never seen a MyKad number with these odd digits."

Is this the best response from doctor2u?

The website had described the landing procedure, including the Coronavirus PCR test for each traveller arriving at KLIA. Payment could be made in advance, or in person at KLIA. The test costs RM250 per person.

He alleges a lack of transparency in the whole process. On his return to KLIA, he found that no photos or video recordings were allowed at the arrival area where his home quarantine documents were checked, his pink bracelet added and coronavirus tests conducted.

He then found out that the Coronavirus PCR tests were free for Malaysians, but the website had failed to mention this.

One wonders how many Malaysians had paid for this test, in advance, not realising it was free. Did they get a refund once they found out? Did the staff who did the PCR test mention the refund? Knowing Malaysia, the answer to both is most likely, "No!"

On Oct 20, he also found that another site, MySafeTravel (https://www.myeg.com.my/) had contained misleading information regarding the cost of the coronavirus testing at KLIA.

He said that the Malaysia Airports website was also advertising these paid services.

Upon landing in KLIA, everyone had to download the MySejahtera application onto their phones and complete the travel form which would initiate the quarantine, his risk level status and for him to be given the pink quarantine bracelet.

PCR test equipment

The result for the PCR test at KLIA was supposed to be ready 48 hours later, but his results only arrived after 68 hours and had been backdated. Why?

At KLIA, he was also told that he could use the Grab App to return home, or be collected by a member of the family.

Policemen stationed at the entrance of the car park checked the MySejahtera app of the recent arrivals. They allowed people who were waiting for their transport to walk in and out of the car park to locate their pick-up vehicles.

However, not all policemen were switched on about the procedure for arrivals.

Whilst waiting for his nephew, the policemen stationed at the car park spotted my friend's pink bracelet and thought he was trying to break the rules and had escaped home quarantine. He was made to wait an hour during which time they contacted their supervisors about a follow-up action. In the end, he was released and told to wait for his pick-up.

Many countries have opened their borders and allowed travel despite the pandemic. After being cooped up for months, tourism is on the rise around the world. The economy of many nations is picking up. Heathrow, Doha, Dubai and many European airports are heaving with passengers.

My friend arrived at KLIA in the afternoon, but many duty-free shops were shut. KLIA was like a ghost town, eerie and deserted, according to various friends.

So, are people reluctant to visit Malaysia? Or maybe our contradictory forms and procedures deter them.

Khairy Jamaluddin, the Minister for Health, the Director-General of Health and the Pengarah of the various government departments like Immigration, airports, and police should scrutinise each one of their websites and perform trial runs for the various procedures to test the effectiveness of each; but one can assume they do not care. - Mkini

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MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, Twitter.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.