SUCH observation may sound ‘unpatriotic’ at first sight but that is exactly what Malaysian avid travellers think when they stepped into country’s premier gateway, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), upon returning from abroad.
Educational consultant Dr Mohammad Tazli Azizan who returned home after three weeks overseas lamented that the fast lane which Malaysian smart passport holders used to enjoy “is now being shared with citizens of 53 other countries”.
“Those of us who are used to short queues will now have to contend with long queues of foreign citizens. Lost the special feeling of being a Malaysian,” the co-founder of training provider Skolar Malaysia penned in a post that has been viewed almost 816,000 times on the X platform at the time of writing.
“The check-out process has become slow and tedious due to face recognition issue or unfamiliarity of usage. To make matter worse, there was no immigration officer around to assist.”
Saya harap Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia dan Kementerian terbabit tolong ambil maklum 4 hal ini
1. Selepas 3 minggu saya tak balik ke tanahair, tiba-tiba lane yang warganegara Malaysia enjoy sebab laju, terpaksa dikongsi dengan 53 negara yang lain. Kita yang dah terbiasa queue… pic.twitter.com/1fWzFw9q4O
— Dr Tazli (@DrTazli) June 14, 2024
What was more agitating to Tazli was the rude behaviour of immigration officers when several Malaysian citizens enquired about ‘over-crowding’ at the fast lane zone or if they could use the so-called ‘special counters’ (purportedly reserved for VIPs).
“One of them remarked and I quote him because I heard him say loudly, ‘blame it on the government for it instructed us to open the lane for other citizens”. How can a government officer behave like this?” he chided.
“Hope the government can do something. Please fix the procedure by training the officers to speak politely and not like Tamil movie gangsters. If you visit another country, there is a special gate for its citizens but now it feels out-of-place to mix with other nationalities.”
Reacting to Tazli’s post, netizen Monarkis 𝕏🇵🇸 (@Monarkis2), too, expressed disappointment with a scathing criticism of how KLIA “is now easily the worst airport in SEA (Southeast Asia)”.
“Went to SIN (Singapore), BKK (Bangkok), CGK (Jakarta), HKT (Phuket), DPS (Denpasar) …. Returned to KUL (Kuala Lumpur) feeling sad … like a third world country. Chaos. Nothing works. Dirty toilets. Where is that so called @anthonyloke (Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook) effects? Or is the effect: useless, hopeless, clueless?”
Inadvertently, many seemingly avid air travellers, too, poured scorned on the worrisome deterioration of KLIA with one netizen describing that comparing KLIA with Singapore’s Changi Airport is something of a “heaven and earth” equivalent.
Below are more feedback that perhaps the KLIA management/Immigration Department can look into to improve their services. – June 16, 2024:
