I went to renew my passport this afternoon. On the way, I was thinking to myself "Hmm... I have not been to any government office for some years... I wonder if things have changed...". What I meant by 'things' were the way the government sectors work. Well my last impression was it's slow, inefficient, LPPL, long queue, long wait, crowded, officers are all either expressionless or like to 'peng white eyes' as if people owe them one million $$.
So I brought a piece of passport photo, my passport which will be expired in 6 months, RM300, my IC and myself. From far, I can see a big sign board hanging outside the building with the slogan 'Amalan kita - Amanah cekap dan mesra'. Sounds good.
When I walked into the lobby, I was 'pssss pssss amoi amoi' by some native strangers standing by the counter. Anyway, I just ignored and went one floor up to the passport office.
First I have to queue up to get a number. When it's my turn, I was told that I must pay RM1 to get a form and need to go to the side to fill it up. Also instead of 1 piece of photo, I need to have 2 pieces. Too bad I only have 1 piece. There are some guys taking photos for people downstair at the corridor but I really hate the pix they took, it's really horrible for the price. So after I filled up the form, I drove downtown to take photo.
Then I queued up one more time to get my number, this time that same Malay lady told me "Did you photocopy your IC?"... It's a moment of complete silence from me... >:(
( $^$&@&&^*&*%@... WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT JUST NOW!!!... )
Well since I was a kid, my mum always told me to be scared of policemen and those government people wearing uniform, so I decided not to 'waste my gas' on this lady. I asked her for a complete list of what I need, and there she said "You have everything except the photocopy of your IC". Okay.
There I went to photocopy my IC, came back, queued up one more time and finally... I GOT MY NUMBER!!! (hohohohohohoho...) So I took a seat and waited... and waited... and waited... till my number was called. So I went to counter 9 to get my finger prints scanned. Then I was asked to take a seat and wait again. So I waited till my name was called by another officer from a 'Lulus' counter. There my IC was returned to me, and I was asked to take a seat again. So after another big round of waiting, I was called upon by the Payment Counter to pay my RM300. Finally, I was told to collect my new passport, tomorrow. (fine, at least I get to roll on my bed at home and not sit here waiting stupidly.)
Overall, this is my comment: It has improved slightly 'cos the office has got air-con nowadays but there are still ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM for improvement. At least if I was the one who handle that number counter, and everyday I see people queuing up few times and not getting everything right, I would at least put up a big sign board showing a list of items everyone needs to get ready before queuing up to take a number. In that case, people won't need to queue up so many times (well at least twice... remember, everyone needs to queue up there to buy a RM1 form first then go away to fill it up and come back to queue up again). It wasn't just me, few other people also queued up few times before they got it all right (some the photo background color was not blue enough, some have no photocopy of IC etc.)
Actually for the form, they should just leave a whole stack somewhere near the entrance for people to pick up and fill. If they are serious about charging that RM1, I suggest they add it on to the RM300 which will be paid at the payment counter later, instead of charging everyone at the number counter and not issuing any receipt.
I searched online just now to verify if the list of items could be found online. Well, not bad it's there but the list is missing 'photocopy of IC'. So if you are smart enough to have checked online before you go there, you still need to queue up twice at the number counter - one time to get the form and to be told that you have missed out the photocopy of IC, then second time to get a number.
'Amalan kita - Amanah CEKAP dan mesra'... well, they must be kidding me, and at the same time fooling themselves.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
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6 comments:
oh. what was the point of photocopy IC if u are there in person with IC? I thought the IC is just to verify you are the person who is the applicant?
Couldnt u apply by post like in sg? that would save u plenty of time in the Q...
I guess they still keep all the hardcopy of application form and IC. Let me think what is the purpose of IC hardcopy... I think it's to keep a record of my info, such as photo, IC#, address, to show as an evidence that they did check my identity against what I filled in the form.
Otherwise, everyone could have filled in some fake info and used other's photo to apply for passport, then pay the officer some 'kopi-o-$$' to close one eye and get it done. There will be no evidence to charge against such act later.
Or may be it's like in that S'porean movie 'Just Follow Law' by Jack Neo, everything needs to make 2 copies of IC photocopy and take 2 working days to get done... I find that very funny... hahaha.
ha ha. i hardly watch jack neo movie because i think they are stupid. I have watched one which is "I am not stupid" and while its not bad, i think some parts are so lame. They tend to over exaagerate but i guess that is cheap chinese comedy style....and because of that show, all my overseas work parnter from taiwan and china use to be shock when i started talking in mandarin and they ask me why i dont sound like the sg film... i nearly fainted...
No lah, where got everything need 2 copies of IC, only one lah. PLUS, ususally if i appear in person for application, the department will do the photocopying not me. haaaaaa
I used to think Jack Neo's movies are cheap and thus never bother to watch them. Then by chance, I watched 'Ah Long Pte Ltd' and 'Just Follow Law'. Hey they are not bad, quite funny but I don't like the latest 'Money No Enough2'.
I think 'Just Follow Law' has quite a lot of funny parts that are related to every work place.
'If you can't show it, hide it. If you can't hide it, throw it. If you can't hide and can't throw, then temporary put outside'. I told this to my colleagues who are handling customer's audit... we laughed like hell.
That 'Fill the form, make 2 photocopy of IC, cc to your boss, my boss and my boss boss...' also quite funny.
Of course the story line is often quite lame. I think Jack Neo didn't focus much on the story line but more on reflecting the s'porean culture which in many cases are similar to M'sian, especially West M'sian (not us here...haha).
You have moved around, that's why you probably see things more from a 3rd party's angle, not so much a typical s'porean I guess.
haha! that stupid wait & sit wait & sit procedure is still around. yeah, y do they have to do that, huh. hey, do u noe u can get the form online? FOC & no waiting. ;P
Yeap, I found out about the online form later and that makes me angry 'cos in that case, there is really no reason why everyone should pay that RM1 without receipt at the counter, must be 'masuk pocket' by those officers... corrupted. Btw, who are you hoh??
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