YOURSAY | ‘Huge embarrassment to see main gateway into Malaysia in sad situation.’

KLIA incident: MACC hunting for 'agent' who allegedly solicited RM15k bribe

Man on the Silver Mountain: The most important outcome of this episode is that corruption in the immigration service in KLIA has been exposed. This was not the first. Hunting for the agent should not be a problem. His phone contact is available already, it is a matter of time before he is roped in if the MACC is determined enough.

One does not have to be a genius to know how the agent knew that the Chinese passenger was detained. The web of external connections exists nearly in every part of the government department where money could be made - in the hospital, it is about blood donation or funeral parlour service. There will be agents who contact the patients before they even know it. How do the agents know if not for the inside contacts, the civil servants working on the premises?

It is not about the return ticket but the visa that is important for travellers where it is required, which is the case between Malaysia and China. If the visa does not require a return ticket, why would the immigration want it? The printed itinerary is utter nonsense. A tour guide may have this thing, not ordinary travellers.

As for cash, I have been travelling rather intensively overseas, and not once the immigration asked how much cash I had. In fact, I had to make sure not to carry extra cash that was more than the limit set by the receiving country.

Baba Quay: Are they looking for scapegoats again? This is an excellent opportunity for this coalition government led by Pakatan Harapan to do a cleansing of the Immigration Department.

Tourism, Arts, and Culture Minister Tiong King Sing has exposed the racket which has caused so much misery to innocent and hapless visitors to our country.

Nearly every day, the prime minister delivers exhortations that corruption, corruption, and corruption must be stopped. Now, we see an open, flagrant abuse of this in KLIA. We are not talking of small money but hundreds of millions of ringgit are in play in KLIA!

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, please put a stop to this. It is a huge embarrassment to all Malaysians to see that the main gateway into Malaysia is in this sad state of affairs.

Appum: If the tourist did not qualify to come into Malaysia, then the country must state all the conditions to fulfil before they come in. Here is a case where there were weaknesses not followed (like how much you must possess in your pocket), and no return ticket. These are opportunities for victimisation.

The money-making system goes into action supported by operatives outside. Previously, there was a simpler modus operandi practised by Indonesian Immigration officers for inbound visitors. They took away the counterfoil part of the Departure Entry Form (all had to fill up on entry at immigration), without the person noticing it.

So, when you leave for home at the airport, you would not have that counterfoil to show and return to immigration. This is the time they will make you pay some hefty sum to leave the country (even though you do not have that ticket).

Indonesia has cleaned up a lot of such corrupt practices under President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), what about Malaysia?

MS: The tourist was in a secure area and prevented by immigration from entering the country. Then a mysterious phone call from someone outside offered to spring her for RM15,000. This someone outside must have telepathic powers to have known what was going on inside.

MACC says he is an agent. The question is whose agent? The agent of someone who stopped her from getting out because her papers were not in order.

As with the story of the generous Arab who allegedly simply gave away billions to jailed former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, this one stinks of petai (stinky beans).

Gabbar Singh: I’m impressed with the MACC. They are hardworking officers. But the question to ask is, is the agent working for immigration? Because this agent would not be in the know unless tipped off by the immigration officers who smelled a gullible tourist to be taken advantage of.

So, why have they not taken statements from the immigration officers who were on duty at that moment in time? This is the issue at hand, not the agent.

Suspending the immigration officers first before going after the agent is my take on this subject. So, what is the immigration director doing?

IndigoSwan6963: MACC should ask whether or how visas are issued. This is a loophole where it allows manipulation of standard operating procedures as to whether one with a visa must first have a return air ticket. If it is a mandatory requirement, then the whole Department of Immigration is in question.

You do not stop one from coming in when the visa is issued. The traveller can still buy a return ticket here when he/she knows when they are to return. The intended rule must be adhered to, or the loophole allowed is for “cari makan” (make money).

IndigoKiwi9570: Without inside information, no agent would be able to catch a whiff of this tourist’s predicament since it was at the detention area. It could probably be an inside job using an agent, so why is it so difficult to nab the culprit?

It should be easy to trace the number that called the tourist and pursue the matter from there. Tiong did the right thing, even if he had called the MACC. By the time MACC arrived all traces of a transaction would have been erased.

BluePanther4725: Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail must do something urgently to clear away the massive rot and corruption in our Immigration Department. All the decades under BN/Umno and then Perikatan Nasional have made this monster and now the Harapan-led coalition government must slay it.

World Citizen: What a cop-out story! Suddenly the “agent” who cannot be traced comes into the picture. So, the case is closed and everybody lives happily ever after. Indeed, Malaysia Boleh. What a country.

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