masterwordsmith-unplugged

Much as I love to travel, I am always most wary when on holiday. Recently, my cousin was robbed in Paris in the metro near the CDG airport. He was walking in the underground to go to his hotel when two kids dropped their coins just in front of him. Putting his backpack on the ground, he stooped to help the kids pick up their coins. By the time he finished and reached for his backpack, it was no longer there. He lost his passport, mykad, green card, air tickets, money, air tickets to Milan and Istanbul and other important documents. This afternoon, I was chatting with him on Skype about his return to Penang on April 4th. We were both worried about how long it would take to get a new passport and identity card. At the end of the conversation, I volunteered to check with the relevant departments for him.

As such, it was with great joy and happiness when I came across the following article in The Star this evening:

In a bid to cut red tape, a police report is no longer required when applying for a replacement passport or MyKad.

This has been in effect since March 1.

Home Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Mahmood Adam said Sunday that citizens who lose their passports or MyKad could go directly to the Immigration Department or the National Registration Department to apply for replacements.

“The agencies will make a record of the loss and provide the replacement document on the same day.

“A police report is only necessary if the loss was caused by an extraordinary circumstance, such as theft or robbery, where a person is victimised,” Mahmood told reporters after launching the ministry's Meet the Consumers Day at the IOI Mall, Puchong on Sunday.

He said that the agencies have the capability to cancel or nullify the loss documents using the existing security features.

“This move will ease the public's inconvenience and is in line with the Government's move to maximize resources and reduce our cost of operations,” Mahmood said, referring to the four million reports of various nature lodged with the Royal Malaysian Police Force (PDRM) every year.

If you going for a holiday, take care and hang on to your laptop bags, backpacks etc and do not lose any of your stuff.

Next post will be up in a short while. I am actually in pain as my back problem has resurfaced thanks to bad posture when exercising. I took two years to recover from a spinal injury (in L4, L5, S1, S2 and S3) following a hiking accident.

Have a lovely evening!