QUESTION TIME I was not even aware that there was a problem at the Immigration Department in terms of passport applications and renewals (there are other problems of course but that will be a topic for another day) and therefore was expecting to renew mine which was expiring soon quite easily.

Until one of our friends mentioned that there was a major shortage of passports with long lines at the passport office getting longer by the day and hundreds turned away daily and that the problem was expected to persist for at least six months. What was happening, I thought.

Was this not one of the problems we had licked once and for all, so much so that Malaysians expect passports to be issued in a day - as fast as a mere one hour - giving us a world record apparently, of the right kind this time. Even faster than our friends across the Causeway who some say take as long as three days.

I was upset because my passport was expiring next month and I can’t travel unless I have at least six months unexpired on the document. Did that mean that I would be unable to go on that trip we had been planning for a few months now? I kicked myself in the you-know-where for my complacency.

My friend and I paid a trip to the passport office at around noon the next day. Luckily, he had a driver and so we did not have to park which would have been difficult because most of the parking spaces were taken. When we got to the counter, we were told the numbers for that day had all been issued - by 9am that day.

And upon inquiry we were told that the lines form as early as 3am because only a given number of passports were sent to the passport office a day - this was at the huge Home Ministry complex in Sri Hartamas. And accordingly, the same number of queue tickets were given out. If you don’t get that ticket, you go back home and try again some other time.

And so I decided to try my luck the following day. There were long queues in all passport offices. I picked Shah Alam, because it was closest to where I live. For the first time in a long time I left my house in the morning while it was still dark and reached the passport office by 7.15am.

But already there was a long line, starting from the doors, which open at 7.30 am, down the corridor, a left turn and all the way down to the toilets at the back. There was a U forming as the line doubled up in parts of the narrow corridor. Who says Malaysians don’t know how to stand in line? We all were orderly, no one cut in, and we were in good spirits despite the frustration we were facing.

Along came a guy - you know the tout-type who hangs around at JPJ (Road Transport Department) offices. They seem to have found their way here suddenly. He started counting the number of people in the line and then after saying one hundred officiously (although he was not an officer of any kind) said the rest can go back because the office was going to issue just 100 numbers.

Malaysians being smart, and sensing he had some ulterior motive rather than their welfare in mind, stayed put and decided to take their chances and it is just as well that they did. The tout-type stuck around and seemed to have the run of the passport office, going in and out at will and smiling at some in the queue. Was a scam taking place I wondered, when some of those waiting would leave, leaving more numbers for others - perhaps him? An unsavoury aspect of Malaysian life.

But we stayed in our places, walking forward a few paces every few minutes and an hour later I could see the passport counter. Then there was this guy with a long flowing beard with flowing robes to boot, somewhat elderly, peering into the office concernedly. He pulled his mobile out, made a call, talked animatedly.

And then he was back, with a sari-clad lady and a child in tow, went through the glass doors and straight to a counter. He did not even take a queue ticket! The power of a phone call, and some connections - the connected by and large don’t wait in these lines, yet another unsavoury aspect of Malaysian life.

‘Warga emas’

And then, after one and half hours, we were almost at the counter. But what was this? The officer was waving his arms and saying “Sudah habis!” Oh no! I groaned. Does this mean another trip tomorrow - this time at 3am to make sure I get a number? The Shah Alam office received 200 passports that day, the officer said and that’s all they can deliver for that day!

And then I remembered, they kept some passports for ‘Warga Emas’ or senior citizens - there are advantages to being old…er. “Warga Emas ada tak?” I shouted. “Ada tiga lagi,” came the reply. I moved forward and claimed my ticket. It took another one and half hours before I was called to the counter.

Meantime, what else was left but to observe? They had cameras now - so I wasted RM30 getting my passport photos last night. Surely the photo shop knew I did not need pictures any more for the passports, but they never told me - in fact they said I needed pictures with a white background. Another one of the unsavoury things about Malaysia.

And then there was a line of rather scruffy looking coats and blazers, some of them torn hanging on a rack. If you don’t bring yours - no one told us - you have to wear one of these to have your picture taken. Rather dirty and unhygienic I thought. Why? The only one I could fit in was torn - at the sleeves. The patient officer played pix-person.

I was told to come back in an hour which I did and I was promptly given my brand new passport, five hours after I joined the queue. But there were two hundred more that day who had to come back another day - and line up all over again. How frustrating for them!

I wistfully recalled the good ole’ days. For renewal, all that was required then was to slip in two pictures into an envelope, go to a machine, feed the money into it, check your details and it was over. Come back the next day and collect it or an hour later. What had resulted in an excellent service deteriorating to this?

At the end of day, it looked like a matter of a contract - a large contract. And so changes had to be made. According to a news report, listed Datasonic Group Bhd, which had already bagged a RM318.75 million contract to supply Malaysian passport chips, secured an additional RM223.38 million deal from the Home Affairs Ministry to supply Malaysian passport documents over the same five-year period starting Dec 1, 2016, or 13.416 million units.

However, despite explanations by the Home Affairs Ministry that vendors have been unable to keep up with demand for passports, Datasonic had denied that it was responsible for the delays, saying it had supplied the requisite number of data pages.

But the Home Ministry did not concur with this explanation, with Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed saying that the vendors did not keep to their promise of doing better than the previous vendors, adding that they were considering removing them.

Datasonic seems to be a company which is getting plenty of contracts from the Immigration Department. Over the past six months, it had secured RM802.53 million in contracts, mainly relating to the Immigration Department. Deputy managing director Chew Ben Ben said in a recent interview that the company was poised to secure another RM800 million worth of IT-related contracts from the government in the next six months, a move which would significantly boost its order book.

That’s about RM1.6 billion worth in contracts related to the government. This problem at the passport office is a matter of contracts and insufficient attention paid to transition when contractors are changed. And do we need to change contractors when things are running well? Why? A most definitely unsavoury aspect of Malaysian life.

For the sake of a contract, a truly great service which proudly delivered about the fastest times for passport processing anywhere was brought to its knees. On that day at the Shah Alam office, 200 passports were processed before lunch. They could have easily done twice the number if they had the passports.

P GUNASEGARAM is an independent writer, consultant and trainer. Contact: t.p.guna@gmail.com.