On Monday, June 18, press in Malaysia reported that part of the reason for the massive delays at Johor Bahru’s Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex is due to tardiness of officers on duty, as well as the habit of some of them of surfing the net on their cell phones.
The head of Malaysia’s Works, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, Mazlan Bujang, claimed that this was the feedback reported to him recently, among other issues.
The tardiness of officers is one reason why counters for immigration open later than they are scheduled.
As a corrective measure, a special committee has been formed in order to investigate these issues, and officials say that installing CCTV cameras in each of the immigration booths at the CIQ complex is now being considered.
Mr. Mazlan has said that more CCTVs are needed to help tighten security measures. He said, ”These are all serious allegations on disciplinary issues. We need to improve the situation at the CIQ to ensure that we can help reduce congestion.”
Aside from tardiness and browsing the web, the fact that there are not enough scanning machines also contributes to jams and delays at Johor checkpoint. These scanning machines frequently experience technical problems and break down, causing even further delay.
Johor’s official started tackling the problem of heaving connection last February, looking for solutions to the problems. One valid suggestion was for more lanes for vehicles to be made available on weekends during high traffic points.
Some netizens argued that the problem is actually on the Singaporean side, not Malaysia’s.
Others tried to explain the difference of why each side is slow.
Others wondered if its the Malaysian culture that’s responsible for the slower pace
Yet another netizen expressed the hopes that the governments would pinpoint the problems on either side, and come up with solutions that would bring real improvements.