(Petaling Jaya, Sunday): It is a mark of failure of leadership on the part of the Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik that MAS service has gone from bad to worse.
The Malaysian flying public who have generally no choice but to make use of MAS services often find themselves receiving a raw deal from MAS which, because of its monopoly position, need not make any attempt to provide a consumer-friendly service.
Yesterday for instance, numerous flights to various domestic destinations from the Subang International Airport were delayed, ranging from one to two hours, causing enormous hardships to the travelling public - but no attempt was made to explain the causes of such numerous and prolonged flight delays.
What is worse, there is just no avenue or channel whereby the unhappy public could lodge complaints about unfriendly user service of MAS - and where they can expect prompt attention and reply!
Recently, MAS introduced a new measure whereby disembarkation cards are no more given out in the aircraft and passengers are told to get them on arrival in the foreign country (or even Sarawak and Sabah in domestic flights) from the ground personnel.
This causes unnecessary inconvenience when the disembarkation forms could be filled up in leisure on the aircraft, instead of having to go through the hassle of getting the disembarkation forms on the ground and filling them up before joining the queue to pass the immigration checkpoint. The inconvenience becomes a hardship when a traveller is responsible for children or other passengers who need help in filling up the disembarkation forms.
This is a very minor matter but it shows up the inconsiderateness amounting to a "couldn�t care less" attitude about the convenience of the travelling public - a sad commentary of the deplorable service attitude of the MAS management under a Transport Minister who is not known for his diligence or conscientiousness to duty himself - or he would not be so notorious for playing truant from his parliamentary duties.
(25/5/97)