Borders are closed and nobody gets out of Singapore without a damn good reason. You’re a Malaysian in Singapore who’s hoping things might improve, but as the days go by, it’s looking highly unlikely the borders with Malaysia is opening anytime soon. Now your passport needs a renewal…so what do you do? If you’re like most Malaysians living in Singapore, you pay the Malaysian High Commission a visit to get it renewed.
Unfortunately…and I quote this from Malaysians themselves, the Malaysian High Commission is ‘incompetent’ and ‘inefficient’.
As this expose from The Straits Times showed, Malaysians here are pissed at their High Commission.
Apparently, there is a quota for walk-in applicants to renew their passports. Ok, that’s understandable, right? If not for a cut-off, you’d be working 24/7!
Well…the quota is 30 per day.
To say that people online are pissed at that low number is an understatement. Take into account the number of Malaysians in Singapore and you’ll see why that’s such an issue.
That’s a huge number and even if 1% of that needs their passport replaced for a given month, it’s still more than what the High Commission wants to handle. That is…if they can handle any at all.
Seems like the ‘system’ is constantly down at the High Commission, which means the 30 per day (not counting online appointments or urgent cases), gets dialed down to a big fat 0.
How can somebody NOT be pissed?
Why not use the online application system then? Seems like a much easier way right?
Wrong.
It looks like there’s no clear resolution to this other than to come in the middle of the night (like some of the posters above suggest) and queue to the next morning. That in itself is another problem!
However, it seems that some Malaysians are taking things in stride.
It’s almost like being back in Malaysia according to the gents above!
Well…unless you’re Choo Choo.
Choo Choo seems to think that it’s Singapore’s fault that the Malaysian High Commission is half-assing things.
That’s right Choo Choo.
It’s Singapore’s fault.
Completely logical.