Passport or Pasport?

Fill what’s empty; empty what’s full; and scratch where it itches. I can only say, “How very true”. And I couldn’t help but feel this way when I went to the consulate to have my passport renewed. The crowd in the small room is always usually small, and hence an opportunity to observe fellow bolehland citizens doing what they don’t normally do at home. And yes, despite some idiotic remarks from our very own minister that English is weird, the language of communication is …. English. It amused me thinking what a silly comment that one cared to utter just for the sake of down-playing the commonest language.

The strange thing is when you actually spoke in English, the staff on the other side of the glass wall responded in English too. My guess would be the staff in the consulate got tired of negative responses whenever they ask a question in bahasa. And naturally, or unnaturally, resolved to use the weird language as a form of communication. I have to admit, both sides of the glass wall actually spoke immaculate English. I challenged myself by closing my eyes, and for a moment I thought …….what happened to our distinct accent? Where are the “lahs”, “one” and other forms of colloquialism?

The other oddity is the cost of renewing the passport. How come they charged us a bomb in Hong Kong but much lesser back home? Is it because they provide better services here? I guess not; they don’t serve me kopi-O or curry puff while we waited. They don’t give us any free WI-FI and no GST either. Why the difference in prices, I ask? I don’t have an answer for that except I felt the pinch……..urrgggh right there!

But the weirdest thing of all is the speed in which they prepared your passport for collection. You just have to give them credit for preparing your passport for collection. I guess the limited staff discouraged them from indulging in small talks, but kept them in focus on delivering their tasks.
But the best part is………when it comes to my turn, the system went dead! They tried many times, calling Putrajaya but to no avail. I guess Putrajaya is too busy to entertain them when our streamyx or whatever work at the speed of snail and that is, if you are lucky. Anyway, the system came back much later, probably after summoning 10 contractors who spent more time filling the correct forms and insisting it is not their responsibilities, ….you know the feeling of being sent on a headless chase. At for that one moment I told myself something just don’t change, even if they don’t admit it, there are certain traits of the old habits!