Officers should treat visitors with respect

I HAVE been travelling around the world for over decade and have dealt with immigration officers in many countries.

Some are pleasant and some are not but never have I experienced a bad moment in my country until last Friday.

I had landed in Malaysia from Singapore after a short visit along with my wife and sister-in-law who both carried foreign passports.

When I had departed the country three days earlier, all three of us were attended together by an amazingly friendly immigration officer.

On our return we did the same but only to be treated like some idiot who didn’t belong here

The officer was rude.

First she raised her voice and asked why all of of us were together.

When I explained she chased us away and told us to come one at a one.

As a Malaysian I produced my passport and to my shock she asked if I had a visa.

I then asked her if it was ok for my wife and sister-in-law to be processed after me.

She was angry and asked if they had visas etc and went on a rampage as if we had done something against the law.

Both my wife and sister-in-law are given visas on arrival.

As we were running late and I didn’t want to create a scene so I directed them to the foreign passports counter.

What transpired after that was simply shocking. The officer went back to reading her story book.

Being gatekeepers of the country I would assume that the officers would be courteous, polite, helpful and friendly.

To the director-general of Immigration I shall not name your officer but I am more than happy to give you the full account of the incident, including her name for your action.

And to the officer concerned, I hope the book that you were reading had a happy ending!