A looong wait at the passport office

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...