How the Immigration Dept bends rules for a French national

With reference to your recent report "Minister bends immigration rule for flag-waving Israeli", I would like to share with fellow Malaysians that this is nothing new in Malaysia. Civil servants in Immgration Department had been seen to be bending the immigration rule and seen to be making a mockery of the immigration laws in order to protect a French foreigner who had violated the immigration rule of this country since March 2009.

As far as the people at Immigration Department is concerned, it does not matter to them even if the issue of the French foreigner was brought to the attention of the Public Complaints Bureau, the KSU (KDN) or the Chief Secretary to the Government.

The people at Immigration Department are a creative lot when it comes to their desire to close a public complaint case against the French foreigner. They could sit on the complaint for months. When it is raised up by the KSU, they just gave a reply that the French foreigner's stay in Malaysia was legal and he was visiting Malaysia on professional visit pass from 26 February 2010 to 25 August 2010. When the complaint case was attended by PCB, they just replied that the professional visit pass of the French foreigner was extended for another six months from 26 August 2010 to 25 February 2011.

When the complaint case was raised by the KSN office, the PCB just called up both the civil servants and the public complainant for a meeting at the PCB in Putrajaya. In order to close the case, the Immigration Department just became more innovative and gave a reply that the French foreigner was given an Employment Pass for two years, backdated as 6 May 2009 to 5 May 2010.

Official letters to close the public complaint against the French foreigner came from the PCB office in Putrajaya, the KSN's office and the Immigration Department's deputy director-general. And the latest innovation from the civil servants of Immigration Department is that this French national was given a two-year Employment Pass from 6 May 2010 to 5 May 2013. Who cares whether or not he stayed in Malaysia since March 2009 on social visit pass and on professional visit pass. The civil servants of Immigration Department are above the immigration laws. Even the PCB, the KSU and the KSN could not question their innovations in the legalization of the French foreigner so that he could continue to stay in Malaysia till May 2013.

Immigration rules are meant to be bent in Malaysia and who cares whether there are any irregularites in the issuance of Employment Pass to the foreigner (who worked in Malaysia from March 2009 to 5 May  2010 without an Employment Pass).

The regulations that any foreigner who apply for an Employment Pass must be in their country of origin do not apply to this particular person, as long as the immigration rule is bent by the civil servants themselves.

To the civil servants of Immigration Department, maybe there is such thing called "powerful figures behind the immigration" and as long as someone from the top says "Yes", they just will follow the instruction or risk losing their jobs as civil servants.

It seems the best way to close a public complaint case is to simply ignore the public complaint altogether - since the French foreigner is overly powerful, and continues to stay in Malaysia.
This person is indeed treated differently from his French counterpart William Bourdon, who was deported in July 2010 for violation of the terms and conditions of his social visit pass.

The manner the people at Immigration Department deal with public complaint will be one great precedence to more and more legalizations of foreigners in the future.