Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet) is shocked and ashamed that Malaysia has banned a Singaporean couple from entering Malaysia for six months just for wanting to complain about the actions of immigration officers.
Malaysia should be welcoming public complaints from anyone against public officers and government departments or agencies, and not be perceived as ‘retaliating’ against any who dare to complain.
According to a news report, the couple’s complaints or dissatisfaction was, among others, about the stamping of the Malaysian Immigration entry stamp on the passport, where allegedly the officer had left a blank page on the passport and stamped the page following. “I think this needs to be standardised because its not fair for us (Singaporeans) to be paying for our passports and the officers are just wasting our pages.”
This may not be a big deal for people who sometimes travel overseas, but for those who regularly travel between countries, it may mean that the passport pages run out early before the passport expires, thus requiring the passport holder to spend money to get another new passport.
When the alleged victims asked about how to lodge a complaint, they were allegedly told to do it online – and when requesting assistance on how to do it online, they ended up being banned from entering Malaysia for six months.
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“He told us to do it online, without explaining it to us. He also raised his voice and told us to do it outside the office. There was no need for him to act that way.
“After my wife asked him a few times on how to do it on the website, he was irritated and took our passports from us. We were taken to another office on level 2 where we were issued with a ‘Refusal of Entry’ letter by one ‘Asisten Superintenden Rexsus’, an Indian female officer,” said Qayyum.
He said when they asked for an explanation as to why they were issued with the ‘Refusal of Entry’ letter when they just want to know the reasons, she couldn’t give them an answer.
“Instead, she raised her voice and sarcastically gave us a choice of being banned from Malaysia for either 6 months or 1 year. After which, she told us we were banned for 6 months from entering Malaysia for no valid reason.”
The conduct of Malaysian public officers, if true, is appalling and a national embarrassment. Public officers must at all times be respectful to people who seek their assistance, irrespective of whether they are rich or poor, as in this case apparently the couple was travelling on a motorcycle.
In Malaysia, we have heard before about the ‘bad’ behaviour of public officers, even law enforcement. Ideally, they should always be courteous.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim should ensure that public officers should always be courteous to the public, and a failure to do so ought to be a misconduct.
Complaint procedures should be made easy, and in fact where one cannot directly make a complaint to an officer on site, then there must be at least someone who is there to assist if complaints are to be lodged online.
The response to these dissatisfied clients of Malaysian Immigration who wanted to seek clarification and lodge a complaint was the issuance of a “refusal of entry” into Malaysia for six months – which is shocking and unjust.
One must acknowledge that some amongst us are just fearful of complaining against public officers or the government. The state is duty bound to eliminate this fear, including the fear of retaliation by the government.
Madpet calls on Prime Minister Anwar, the minister and the government of Malaysia to immediately revoke and cancel the “refusal of entry” and to apologise to the victims.
An inquiry should also be done into the incident and the alleged complaint with a view to ensuring that justice is done – which may also include compensation for the victims and disciplinary action. The problem may also have been caused by inadequate staff, resulting in the few being overworked. If the couple had committed a crime, charge them in court.
Madpet also calls on the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission to investigate. The Immigration Department is under the EAIC’s jurisdiction, and the EAIC has the power to investigate any complaints of misconduct it receives from a member of the public or that are referred to it by any person. Madpet will try to also lodge a complaint.
The EAIC should have the power to investigate any matter within its jurisdiction that comes to its attention, without any requirement of a complaint lodged by anyone.
Charles Hector issued this statement on behalf of Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet)
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