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As efficient as it is now to renew passports in Malaysia, it is still a BIG effort to do so whilst overseas.

I live in Perth and the consulate here is as incompetent as the one in Melbourne.

And believe it or not, this is one of a few reasons that have prompted me to take up Australian citizenship, after being a PR here for 18 years.

Because of experiences similar to what you've described above, I just don't have the confidence of getting diplomatic/consular assistance from the Malaysian govt. when I'm traveling.

I encounter problem with embassy staff before while I am in Paris. Call them for help over some issue, they just pass me around saying: Oh, that's so-and-so responsibility. And it goes around and around. When I finally get the person, that fella told me he has to go to airport to pick up a ministry official. MAN! I am in need of help and this is the reply I've got! Even the French who is helping me that time couldn't believe it I was treated like this!

Then, I learned in this kind of country, you need to have your own resource or else when in trouble, you are screwed!

Hi Jeff,
I was a student in Melbourne, and when the time came for me to renew my passport, I quickly found out that the Malaysian Consulate on St. Kilda Road was of very little help at all. The Malaysian Student Department in Sydney was more informative and they provided a list of something like 19 or 20 names of acceptable notaries in Melbourne. I managed to get my documents certified by one of them (NOT the two individuals in named in your article).
The MSD in Sydney phone contact is 02-9327-7565. The staff are quite friendly and helpful to Malaysian students.

That was a disgusting story of inefficiency and negligence and arrogance and....

that was so typically Malaysian....

It is sad and disheartening to note that the only ones who treat Malaysian citizens with care in foreign countries are foreigners.

The citizen should lodge a formal report against the entire embassy once her ordeal is over.

I can share my experiences in Melbourne regarding our oversea Malaysian mission here.

Yes, I have tried to register myself here but have given up as it seems impossible to get any confirmation or feedback either via phone or email as nobody picks up the phone during the hours stated. Yes, it is true, they do not pick up the phone at time. Just have to keep trying and it feels just like the Govt service in Malaysia - have to ring 100 times before they are force to pickup.

The Malaysian embassy in Germany is 100% better - good job on the people there.

There is no information on their website in Australia regarding their consulate in other states in Australia. In fact, the information seems outdated from 2002. Best of all, they do not seem to have any idea regarding events in Malaysia until KL informs them.

Is Dr Mohamed Ali Abdul Rahman and William Lim working for the Malaysian High Commission in Australia ? Why is an Australian Citizen providing better help to other Malaysian citizens when the appointed representative should be doing their job ?

It seems that once you leave Malaysia, you are no longer considered a Malaysian citizen. Hence the passport is only good to leave and enter the country. Otherwise, you are on your own.

My wife lost her personal belongings in a break in at her hotel where she was put up in London in 2001. Fortunately for her, the staff at the Malaysian High COmm was committed enough to help get her emergency travel documents at night (probably because MAS and High COmm have a highly dependency rate on each other.
Enough is enough! Wake up! What the hell are our boys doing? Its a shame, and a real one at that!
This buggers are enjoying life, probably playing golf most of the time! Why should there be restrictions to emergency?

the mindset of civil servants when they are sent for overseas stint is that they are on holiday. Those supopsedly sent to attend seminars will disappear for shoppingtrips, and those on longer tenures in overseas offices, their job is to pick officials from airport and take them sightseeing, even if they are on holidays with their family.
They are nothing more than overpaid tourist guides.

"It's to provide help and support to Malaysian citizens, in distress or in good time, who need our assistance in whatever ways,"

Thats a funny one. My personal experience at least with the Malaysian consulate in Sydney & the Hicom in Canberra is not good.

The real function is to waste our tax through high living & keep tabs of the gomen funded scholars so they don't support opposition parties.

This is quite unrelated to the topic, but it shows some insights inot what our embassy staff have to do.
Wisma Putra staff in "popular" cities, like London, Paris, Sydney and New York spend most of their time going to and fro the airport, fetching malaysian VIP's and their spouses. Almost all of them will bring their wives at taxpayers' expense, and once there, they will demand a separate itinerary for their Mrs while they attend some obscure seminar, meeting or the ubiquitous 'study tour'.
It has been going on for decades and no one will want to change it, because it benefits them all, except the embassy officers, of course.

LJ

I have to say that my first experience in the US was quite unevenful and all was done easily enough through the US Postal Service. Do not recall having to certify my finger prints but yes, the forms were in Malay. For my 2nd experience I had already moved to NY so I made a personal appearance at the Consulate near the UN. The only pisser was that they did not have any change for a twenty dollar bill but I was saved by a good samaritan who paid for the forms. I think it was US1 then. Thanks again, where ever you are.

And here we have them talking about making spot checks and revising their client charters under some public service delivery system.

Would they also be doing that on the consulates overseas which as everyone knows is funded by hefty passport fees collected from the rakyat, much of which ending up for umno elites' junket trips, all of which in turn taking place while poor malaysian students and retirees continue to find the service level an additional reason why they should stay away from fair Malaysia?

Don't they have any shame, these socalled foreign-office elites, when they should be showing greater care and speedier despatch but are instead being upstaged in their responsibilities by their foreign counterparts?

To think all of this has been happening right under the noses of everyone year in year out.

So, what are the members of the wooden cabinet going to do about it now that it is being highlighted in blogosphere, an entity they have also been viewing with dismay? For them, this one can add:

"You have something bad going on for a long time. It breeds by law imposed at painful cost to the rakyat. Something else comes along to highlight it for remedial action. You take exception to that channel. Doesn't that make the powerites absolute dictators pandering to their own self-interest? How now do you think the long-suffering rakyat should react? Come, define now the new level of Public Service Delivery for wisma bumiputra."

Hope to see Mohd Ali and Lim"s replies..or are they not in?

Yes, as concerned citizens, we want to hear those two gents speak up for themselves. Or are they having the same mindset as the folks at home? That bloggers are not to be trusted? Come on, prove the bloggers wrong. Don't white-wash it and then answer through mouth-pieces in the mainstream.

"..Wisma Putra should hang dry one Dr Mohamad Ali Abdul Rahman, and one William Lim, who are supposed to be resource persons for the Malaysian Consulate in Melbourne. This Dr Mohamad Ali and William Lim had been a total disgrace to Malaysia. Even Malaysia's High Commission in Canberra was sick and tired of one of them."

clearly, both 'clowns' are not working with the High Comm.

there were merely 'friends of the High Comm' or entrusted Malaysians, who were supposed to assist the High Comm, in several related matters.

jeff, thank you for inviting others to write about their on experience while dealing with the High Comm / Embassy.

however, sure enough, not many people (probably no one) would be willing to tell the tales, of the good encounters, versus the opportunity to bash them.

Hi Jeff
There is one more in Malaysian embassy in Cairo Egypt... he has been there for long and married to an Egyptian lady. Small matters such as getting a stamp, takes 1 or 2 days...
I hope wisma putra can do something about it...

Regards

Last year I phoned Malaysian Embassy in Beijing to find out information regarding Malaysia My Second Home Programme on behalf of a Chinese (China citizen) friend of mine. The official in-charged 'helpfully' giving me a mobile number and asked me to find out info from that person who was obviously an agent. I was rather annoyed and asked him isn't it the duty of Malaysian Embassy the best resource to provide information regarding Malaysia policy/programme such as Malaysia My Second Home Programme? He kept telling me that this person can help me to apply for MM2ndHome Programme. Obviously, apply through that agent cost many many times more the fees than if we apply on our own. The official was not very keen to answer my queries but kept hinting I can get ALL the information from agent. What kind of service and what our embassy does in promoting Malaysia policy? Eventually my Chinese friend gave up the idea of applying MM2ndHome Programme. What is the point for our government to spend so much money promoting this programme and yet the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing just push interested candidate to agent who charged a sky high fees?

Back in Dec 2005, a lot of us got stranded in Kathmandu due to some problems with our flight back home. It was after Christmas and towards the New Year and all flights in and out of Nepal was full. We were basically stuck in country without knowing what to do and waiting for our travel agents to sort it out. After two additional extra days someone in our group called in the press and the local papers wrote a short piece about us stranded in Nepal.
We were unsure if there was any Malaysian embassy in Nepal, because we couldn't find any info about it and we figured the closest would be in India.

But in the same afternoon after the news came up, an official car pulled up in front of our hotel and Mr Hj Mohamad Nizam bin Hj Ramli who is the Third Secretary of the Embassy of Malaysia in Kathmandu walked into the hotel lobby, saw us and asked how we were and how he can help.

It was nothing much he can do really because most of the flights were booked anyway but the fact is that he was there and his presence really lifted our spirits up. He was really friendly, kind and helpful and to us, definitely someone who is proactive.

We need more of his kind in the service.

You can find these malaysian consulate staff in melbourne in the golf courses. At least 3 times a week with at least one day a week at the range.

How can Dr Mohamad Ali Abdul Rahman (Tel: +613 9529 4507), pick up the phone at his office when he is busy trying to lower his golf handicap. Do you think he cares about malaysians' handicap in a foreign land?.

Notice, they don't give out their official handphone numbers?

The callousness, arrogance and snobbish attitude of Malaysian embassies and consulates around the world is well known among all expatriate Malaysians.

The last place you should seek help if there is a civil war or civil unrest in a foreign land is to go to the Malaysian embassy or consulate. They are the ones to boot themselves out first, worry about their families and their golf clubs, to a safe place, before they even blink an eye at you.

THese are govt bureaucrats still behaving like idiotic bureaucrats in a foreign land. They are self-serving, and don't give two hoots if you as a malaysian in a foreing have a problem.

That's not only in Australia, the same in NZ, USA and Canada.

These bureucrats not only cause our ministries to rot, they even set out to rotten the name of the country overseas.

The Malaysian Consulate in LA has caused me endless grief, let me describe my ordeal when trying to register my newborn daughter as a 'warganegara':

First, just getting to talk to an officer on the phone takes forever, and once you do get hold of someone,they act as if its a priviledge to talk to them, like they're doing you this huge favor. Unfailingly I swear, my lowly "Selamat Pagi's" are greeted with "Ah, ape?!". Can you believe it??!!

We spent a considerable amount of time arranging for our appointment with the consulate, booking hotels, rental car, and other travel arrangements, as we live in the Bay Area about 400 miles north of LA. We were to drive 400 miles to the consulate, we tried hard to ensure that all documents needed were in order, thus I had asked these officers at the embassy several times exactly what I need to bring to get her registered.

Three of the items from the ridiculously long list are original passport, ic and birth certificates(why the need for all three?!! Clearly, government has no faith the the smartKad IC fiasco - think Project M where illegals were granted ICs by the thousands in Sabah, but I digress...).

We had all the items, except for our original Birth certificates and the lady I spoke to told me that certified true copies were fine.

Now here's the kicker: after telling me that its ok to bring along a certified true copy of the birth certificates in place of the originals not just once, I called to confirm (again for the umpteenth time, a few days before the appointment), the lady told me that they only accept copies certified true from Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara. My wife's was, but mine was from an officer from Amanah Raya Berhad (a fully own goverment subsidiary, part of the ministry of finance!). But no, it can't be accepted (they don't even have faith in other goverment bodies since everyone is corrupt!!).

Had she told me in a nice way, ok fine. But no, she demanded "who certified true copy"? I said I don't know, does it really matter? "I want to know who certified it". So I called my wife, and she told me the details. I called back again and was put on hold for a good 20 minutes, and when I told her mine was certified by Amanah Raya,
she laughed condescendingly and said that it wouldn't be accepted. Can you believe it??? They treat us as if we're immigrants!! This is exactly the reason why no one comes back
to Malaysia, they make us jump through hoops and make a simple thing impossible!

It was end August 1981. My Malaysian passport together with another 30 something passports of Australians, Kiwis, Germans, Belgian, British, Irish, Swedish and Jamaican passports had been sent to the Iranian embassy for Visa applications in Athens, Greece. We were supposed to collect it the next day. It was the time of the Ayatollah and shortly after their revolution.

That night or so...the Iranina Prime Minister was assassinated and the embassy in Athens remained closed the next few days and the embassy officials could not be contacted.

The Aussie embassy in Athens was contacted to help..and we got our passports a few days later with the Visas endorsed.

Aussie Aussie Aussie!..Oi Oi Oi!

My sister applied for a new passport last September in Canberra. They told her to wait 5 months. As promised it took 5 months to receive the new passport. She received it early February.

eksk

You know why they need 5 months to do your sister's passport in Canberra.

September is spring time in Australia and hits into summer in February.

That is the golf season in Australia.

You are lucky if the Malaysian High Commission and consulat staff in Canberra and Melboure spend two days a week in the office during spring and summer time.

You can't expect people like this Dr Ali and the Wisma Putra bureacrats assigned to Canberra to work on your sister's passport when they have to be at the golf course at least twice on a week day to get their golf handicap down.

That's asking too much from you and your sister to work on the passports of your sister and other Malaysians during spring and summer time. Its golf season !!! They need to work on their golf handicap not passports.

Folks

Here is one way to make these chaps in the embassies, high commissions and consulates accountable:

a) if you go to the office, take along your mobile phone with video capabilities.

b) Take the video shot of what is happening, take shots of their faces, what they say etc

Then put it up on You-tube or post it to one of the bloggers.

Or if you are making a phone call to the consultant or embassy, take a video.

At the moment, these characters are hiding behind the fact that complaints have no proof.

Use the video capability of your mobile phone to record your interaction with the consulate.

You-tube is a good medium now , besides sending complaints to bloggers