Sharing Some Titbits from My Recent Travels…

 

1. Politics in Malaysia

I enjoy engaging cab drivers in conversation, especially during longer journeys — for example, to and from Seletar Airport to my hotel downtown, or between my apartment at Saujana Resort and KLIA. They often have a practical understanding of the world around them that many of us may overlook.

Just last Monday, I booked a Grab car to take me to KLIA for a trip to Jakarta on a Malaysia Airlines flight. My driver was a certain Abdullah Husain. I praised him for keeping his car neat and clean. He told me it was only a month old.

After some small talk about the weather, hometowns and families, I ventured to ask him about his views on Malaysian politics.

LYB: Given Anwar’s thin support among the Malay community, what are his chances of Pakatan Harapan winning the next general election?

AH: No way Anwar can win the election.

AH said the entire PH government revolved around only one man — Anwar Ibrahim himself.

“Do you see his ministers talk?” he asked. “Rafizi speaks a lot now, but that is because he is no longer in the Cabinet.” (He was referring to Rafizi Ramli, the former Economy Minister.)

LYB: Who will win the next election then?

AH: PAS!

LYB: But are Malays not concerned about PAS’s track record in the states they currently govern?

I told AH that I had visited Kelantan not too long ago, and that I genuinely felt sorry for the lacklustre state of the economy there. He countered that this was because Kelantan had not received the support it deserved from the federal government.

I also told him that the Chinese community feared PAS. He replied that the Chinese in Kelantan were happy under the present PAS state government. I did not feel it was appropriate to tell him that, in reality, only the older Chinese had chosen to remain, while many younger Chinese had moved to other states.

I shudder to think of the prospect of PAS forming the next federal government. AH believes UMNO would join PAS as a junior partner. In his view, UMNO no longer has the grassroots support to revive its former glory.

The Chinese community, to him, does not feature in the political equation at all.

To me, however, despite the setback suffered by DAP in the last Sabah state election, it will still be the Hobson’s choice for the Chinese community. MCA may have recovered slightly, but it remains far from being able to close the gap.

2. Jakarta’s Soekarno–Hatta International Airport

One cannot quite fault the designers of Terminal 3 at Jakarta’s Soekarno–Hatta International Airport for its overall structure. The terminal was extended from an existing building, and aircraft therefore have to be docked along only one side. That said, much still leaves to be desired in terms of internal layout.

Upon arriving at the gate assigned to Malaysia Airlines — located at one end of the building — one has to walk almost one kilometre, even with the help of moving walkways (or travelators).

The long rows of automated immigration gates look very impressive — very state-of-the-art — until you try to use them. They do not work with my Malaysian passport. Worse still, there was nobody around to help. All of us had to scramble to the manual counters. And guess what? Only two counters were open.

I was among the earlier arrivals, so the waiting time was still tolerable. But what about the bulk of passengers who arrived later?

For departures, immigration is again located at the far end of the hall. Between the check-in area and the immigration hall are the usual airport shops. Customs and security screening were fortunately efficient, but once again the rows of modern auto-gates were not friendly to foreigners like me. I had to use the manual counter yet again.

After clearing immigration and descending to the gate level, I had to walk another kilometre or so to reach my gate.

Two questions came to mind:

1. Why can’t immigration and customs be located in the middle of the terminal?
2. Why is Malaysia Airlines, which operates many flights a day to Jakarta, assigned gates at one extreme end of the terminal?

A Question of Attitude…

After my accident in 2016, my left heel pad became permanently impaired. I now walk with a slight limp. For longer walks, I carry a cane to help my left leg bear my body weight. On occasions, I use the assistance lane at airports. I thought I had a perfectly valid reason to use the one provided at Jakarta Immigration. However, When I approached the counter, the officer was clearly unhappy that his peace had been disturbed and gave me a distinct “why are you here?” look. I pointed to my leg. He reluctantly attended to me but could not hide his displeasure and subjected me to some unnecessary questioning. I remained polite, lest I be sent back to the long queue.

The contrast with what one sees at Singapore Immigration could not be sharper. Although some officers look like retired granddads and grandmas, they are unfailingly courteous, ushering passengers into available lanes and indulgently guiding one how to use their face recognition system efficiently.

The same applies in Malaysia, where QR-code counters are available for Malaysians. Older people like us can sometimes be confused by the procedure, but there is always someone on hand to help.

One wonders why Indonesia does not send its officers to Singapore or Kuala Lumpur to observe how neighbouring countries run their systems.

3. Social Etiquette

I was invited by a professional society to join its delegation to Jakarta. I could not help noticing that many of us are still not quite up to scratch when it comes to basic social norms — punctuality, personal hygiene, dressing appropriately for occasions and even table etiquette. The last two being important in Indonesia, for hosts in their society’s upper echelon tend to take them seriously. And they can feel extremely awkward when their guests are visibly uncomfortable or lost in such situations. (However, punctuality is usually a non-issue in Indonesia; it is just a matter of my personal discipline.)

Raising awareness would certainly help to address this problem.

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to serve as a board member of a social enterprise chaired by Royal Professor Ungku Aziz, then retired Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malaya. I once proposed to him that all university students should be required to attend a short finishing programme before graduation — a kind of mini-MBA in which the basic functions of business are introduced. For example, non-business students should understand P&L statements, balance sheets and cash flows, while non-STEM students should be exposed to basic technological literacy. Alongside these, social etiquette should also be taught, to better prepare graduates for workplace and societal expectations.

He was very supportive of the idea. Unfortunately, there was no practical mechanism for me to follow up and push it through.

End