It is time to stop the 'monkey business' involving the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) baggage handling system, said an opposition leader today.

"During the Chinese New Year last February, the KLIA baggage handling system also broke down, causing delays to six international flights bound for Beijing, Shanghai, Canton, Guangzhou, Sydney and Jakarta," lamented DAP leader Lim Kit Siang.

The same malaise has affected the state-of-the-art airport in this Chinese New Year, which was celebrated late last week to usher in the Year of the Monkey.

Last Thursday, the system broke down for 72 hours, causing the delay of 22 domestic international flights.

According to airport authorities, 585 baggage were left behind as sorting them would have affected further delays and resulted in some passengers missing their connecting flights.

These left-behind baggage were delivered to the passengers on later flights.

The RM400 million baggage handling system - touted to be the world's fastest and most sophisticated when it was launched five-and-a-half years ago - had broken down almost a dozen of times.

Lim said that the assurance given by the Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd general manager Azmi Murad that there will be no future breakdown in the KLIA baggage handling system "totally lacks credibility" in view of the airport's notorious history of breakdowns, delays and misplaced baggage.

"Is Azmi and the entire management of Malaysia Airport Sdn Bhd which operates the KLIA prepared to resign en masse if there are further breakdowns of the KLIA baggage handling system?" asked Lim.

System to be upgraded

Since the most recent breakdown, Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy said that the baggage delivery system would be upgraded.

However, Lim questioned why "the world's fastest and most sophisticated baggage handling system" could become obsolete so fast without proving its money's worth.

The opposition leader said that when the baggage handling system was launched in 1998, then transport minister Dr Ling Liong Sik had boasted that it could not only detect any passengers who fail to board their flights, but also pin-point a passenger's luggage and retrieve it within seconds.

However, the system broke down in the first week of its operation, and many times over the past few years.

Lim also called on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to put words into action to overcome Malaysia's 'First World infrastructure, Third World mentality'.

Abdullah had criticised the country's 'Third World mentality' in his speech to the Oxbridge Society in March last year.

"From poor execution to inept management to shoddy maintenance and appalling customer service, Malaysia is in danger of possessing the hardware but little software," he said.