Wisma Putra: A Wander-ful service for Travellers?

January 28, 2012

The essay by Tan Sri Mohd Radzi Abd Rahman (below) is shallow as well as it shows his miss of understanding about what Wisma Putra should be about. That is disappointing given he is a Secretary-General whose job is to provide most needed strategic thinking in a moulding of Malaysian unfamiliar routine as well as a conduct of a diplomacy.

The consular service is a teenager aspect of a Malaysian Foreign Office. As a former Foreign Service Officer under a Late (Tun) Ghazalie Shafie, we know that Wisma Putra is about critical open tact as well as projecting as well as representing Malaysia's interest to a rest of a world. Certainly, it is not a transport group specialising in a caring of roving VIPs as well as a arising visas for visitors to Malaysia!

When we was in Phnom Penh in a early 1990s, we was absolved to declare how Malaysian diplomats under a Ambassador Dato' Deva Ridzam's care worked to project a interests in Cambodia. Our goal was involved in advising Malaysian business investors, as well as assisting then a frail government in genius building, upon condition that invaluable comprehension to a Malaysian Government upon domestic as well as economic developments in a horde country, as well as networking with horde nation leaders as well as officials as well as members of a domestic opposition.

The Malaysians visiting Cambodia sought utilitarian recommendation from a Ambassador as well as his senior staff. we was a declare to instances when Dato Deva intervened to safeguard that Malaysians who got upon a wrong side of a Cambodian law were given a satisfactory treatment. we am, therefore, astounded to read that "many Malaysians abroad do not see a need to hit a embassy unless they have been in trouble".

Does this Secretary-General not understand that Malaysians do hit embassy officials when they have been assured that they can get great commercial as well as personal advice, not given it has a "wander-ful service for travellers." If M! alaysian s equivocate a embassy, it is given they do not believe that a goal can benefit them.

Maybe, Tan Sri Radzi is right away confirming a being that Wisma Putra is right away marked down to a consular office, post bureau as well as a VIP transport agency, all rolled in to a single combination whole, staffed by over paid, mediocre as well as amateurish personnel. And that is in truth a great pity.

The essay additionally reflects a intellectual quality of this tip Wisma Putra official. we have yet to see a critical essay from him about a unfamiliar routine or attend to or listen to of him talking during any open forum upon Malaysia's diplomacy. That is not startling possibly given all he can do to write an essay upon consular administration, that should posted upon a Wisma Putra website or given to BERNAMA for wide coverage.

I have additionally not listened a Foreign Minister, Anifah Aman, vocalization in Parliament even with rebuilt answers upon unfamiliar routine issues. It is an open secret that a Foreign Minister is fearful to face his adversaries in Dewan Rakyat. It is in truth regrettable that Wisma Putra is no longer what it was when a Late Tun Ghazalie Shafie was a Permanent Secretary as well as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Today, in open diplomacy, Malaysia is punching next a weight. Our diplomats can't conjunction write nor speak English, a denunciation of international tact as well as commerce.Din Merican

A 'wander-ful' service for travellers

AT YOUR SERVICE
By Tan Sri Mohd Radzi Abd Rahman

Although most Malaysians abroad do not see a need to hit a embassy unless they have been in trouble, a Foreign Ministry's co! nsular s ervice is always ready to help.THE open face of a Foreign Affairs Ministry is a consular service. This is an important arm of a method that Malaysians have been informed with.In a past year alone, around 15 to 25 million people entered as well as left a country. With a increasing series of Malaysians roving abroad as well as unfamiliar expatriates making Malaysia their proxy home, consular feat has right away become a single of a yardsticks to magnitude a effectiveness of a Foreign Service delivery system.

Unlike a economic, political, bilateral as well as multilateral tact a Malaysian shrewd person is informed with, consular service is a "citizen service" that deals directly with a ordinary people, who have been treated with colour as important clients.

The duty of a consular bureau during Wisma Putra, or during a twenty-one Malaysian consulates as well as 81 embassies abroad, is guided by a Vienna Convention upon Consular Relations 1963.

The consular functions embody notary duties, profession of documents, estimate certificates of great conduct, bieing born registration, extending benefit to vessels as well as aircraft, as well as arising of passports, transport papers as well as visas to persons wishing to transport to Malaysia.

Paramount among these functions is assisting a nationals inside of limits permitted by international law.

To most Malaysian diasporas, tourists as well as students study abroad, a embassy is a consular office, as well as zero more. The alternative functions of a embassy that deal with a absolved entities such as a palace, president's office, ministries or people land tall appointments have been frequency known to them.

In fact, Malaysians roving or living abroad do not see a importance of entrance in hit with a embassy unless out of necessity such as to register a newborn, a renovation of passports, or when requiring puncture benefit such as during a tsunami, a Bali bombings, 9/11, a SARS epidemic predicament of 2003 or a 201! 0 volcan ic eruption in Iceland that put air transport via Europe during a standstill.

A great series of Malaysians additionally appear during a consulate or a embassy when they have been in distress, in cases where their passports, air tickets as well as money have been stolen or mislaid as well as they have been stuck with no change of clothes.

When this happens, a single has to determine with Paul Theroux that transport is glamorous usually in retrospect. Losing a pass by theft, loosening or disasters is a single of a inconveniences for Malaysians when abroad.

In a box of a mislaid passport, a consulate or embassy is not authorised to emanate a brand brand new pass to reinstate a mislaid one; it can emanate an puncture certificate, a temporary, one-way transport ask enabling a single to transport home, though not valid to be used to transport to alternative countries.

All Malaysian embassies as well as consulates can facilitate a renovation of a Malaysian passport, though not all of them can emanate a brand brand new Malaysian passport.

Where it is necessary for a embassy or consulate to forward an application for renovation or for a brand brand new Malaysian pass back to a Immigration Department in Malaysia, a routine will fundamentally take longer.

Within a boundaries of a consular functions, those who come for benefit have been approaching to be served with a highest level of professionalism.

The consular bureau can assist in notifying next-of-kin in a eventuality a Malaysian is injured, arrested or detained.

It can communicate with a family or friends to ask for puncture repatriation supports or prepare for a lapse of a stays of a defunct to Malaysia.

The consular military officer additionally identifies bodies during a mortuary, visits those detained or detained should there be a ask from them to do so as well as safeguard that due routine of a law is accorded to them in a nation they have been arrested or detained.

To a Malaysian embas! sies abr oad, a hit with Malaysian nationals is a pleasant experience. Especially during a embassies that have been located where frequency any Malaysian travels, it is a delight for a Malaysian shrewd person to encounter another associate citizen.

With a Government's diaspora routine in place, a friendly hit with Malaysians operative abroad is additionally useful. These individuals relate stories of their businesses, their imagination as well as a erotically appealing researches they have been tasked to lift out during their brand brand new place of work.

With affordable travel, a world has become a smaller place.This means a consular offices have to be an effective problem-solver. In carrying out this task, a Malaysian shrewd person is infrequently convinced by magnetism rsther than than logic.

On a single occasion, a stuck Malaysian lady who was back-packing around Europe was "adopted" by a embassy staff with each a single taking turns to provide her with food while waiting for her family to send over money for her lapse sheet home.

Upon reaching home, she sent a postcard to a embassy thanking them for a "five-star hotel" service as well as a glorious dishes as well as comfortable clothes. Such instances have been an exception rsther than than a rule.

There is usually so most a consular bureau can do. Some consular offices have been under-staffed as well as when unable to encounter a expectations of a clients, they have been sternly criticised as well as infrequently hapless stories get to a press.

What is helpful for a Malaysian caucasian tribe is to know what it takes to be in another country.

They should come prepared, take heedfulness to know whether a visa is required to enter a country, safeguard that their passports exceed a six-month validity, move enough money, have a transport as well as medical word ready, check websites of embassies as well as consulates in a nation they have been roving as well as as a precaution in box of puncture or natural disas! ter reg ister themselves during a embassy possibly by e-mail or in person.

The producer Saadi is good when he said that a caucasian tribe without observation is a bird without wings. As a significant writer to open diplomacy, a consular bureau assumes an important purpose in current-day tact though when Malaysians work in tandem with them, a end-product benefits not usually themselves though additionally their nation as well as not all those who ramble have been mislaid (J.R.R. Tolkien).


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