Blatant corruption, Malaysia-Singapore Link

This was highlighted on a prominent local Malaysian blog, reproduced here in it's entire form.

Dr. Muhammad Ghazie Ismail was the former Senior Vice President of the Multimedia Development Corporation

Dear Jeff,

I think I would like to highlight an incident that made me feel ashamed to be a Malaysian about corrupt Malaysia Customs Officers at the Johore end of the Second Link to Singapore.

I came back from Singapore today for some business and, for the first time, I decided to take the AeroLine Bus Services out of One Utama to Singapore and back. I have no complaints about Aeroline and I must say that the journey was very enjoyable with very polite crew members who made our journey memorable.

I stayed in Singapore for two nights and during that time I decided to buy the Sony PSP for my son's birthday next week. Upon our return, we had to undergo the normal passport clearance from the Singapore side and the Malaysian Side.

However, since we were entering Malaysia, we had to also clear customs with our bags opened. However, I was singled out but the customs officer who wanted to know what I had bought and I told her that I bought a PSP for my son's birthday. She said that I should be brought to the Customs Head in his office, accompanied by a male customs officer to meet this person by the name of Zainal (stated on his nametag) and that I was to pay duties for the PSP.

I explained to the Customs Head that I bought the PSP from Singapore and it was meant as a birthday present for my son and he said that I need to pay duties on it amounting 30% of the purchase price. He told me that I should pay RM50 and I wanted a receipt but he then said that for a receipt to be issued I need to pay RM100 or 50% of the RM244 (30% of the purchase price). I told him to please waiver the duties as it is meant to be a present. He then asked his officer to make the decision, and he decided that the duties should be RM50 without receipt. Of course, I left in disgust.

I am appalled that these officers and Head of Customs at the entrance into Malaysia can be so blatant and this is not an isolated incident.

I was told by the Aeroline crew that this is their normal modus operandi and that innocent victims including Japanese and Indonesian visitors coming into Malaysia via the Second Line by bus have been had by these unscrupulous customs officers and I think they should be exposed as they are doing a great disservice to our Visit Malaysia 2007. It has also left me with a very bad taste in my mouth.

I hope you could print this e-mail and that such corrupt customs officers at the entrance into Malaysia should be dealth with by the higher authorities.

Best regards

Dr Ghazie Ismail