Sunday January 20, 2008
By LEANNE GOH and JOSEPH LOH
sunday@thestar.com.my
A new year and lots of new resolutions and targets. The Home Ministry is in for a demanding year ahead, pushing itself to go beyond the good work already achieved at certain sectors like the passport department.
DATUK Raja Azahar Raja Abdul Manap is a man on a mission. Since taking office as secretary-general of the Home Affairs Ministry on Nov 16 last year, he is intent on making sure that the administration of the country's Immigration Department is in order.
He is not happy to rest on the ministry's laurels but wants to now focus on its areas of weaknesses. In a candid interview with Sunday Star, he takes pains to explain what needs to be done in the areas of security, foreign workers and enforcement but is also quick to admit shortcomings in the issuance of visas for foreign spouses and a poor data system.
Raja Azahar, who was the director-general of the Immigration Department for a brief period from April 21, 2006 before he was elevated to the deputy secretary-general post on Oct 1 the same year, elaborates on the changes that the Immigration Department is undergoing as well as its plans for the future.
Border crossings
Raja Azahar: ‘I want to do something for the citizens of Malaysia.’
Raja Azahar said that the Ministry has taken steps to tighten up security measures regarding the movement of both local and foreign citizens, particularly between the northern states of Perlis, Kedah, Perak and Kelantan that border Thailand.
The main concern of the Ministry was border crossings without passports – just a border pass as the only travel document.
“This was the loophole in our system. The minister said that we had to tighten procedures for foreigners because undesired elements could enter the country without any record.
“The border pass was just a piece of paper without any security features – not even a photograph,” he said.
This has changed effective Jan 1 this year.
Raja Azahar explained that those who apply for a border pass have to pre-register themselves and enter their thumbprint into the department's biometric system. But rather than being an inconvenience, it actually makes subsequent crossings easier.
In the case of a six-month pass, he said, “They do not have to show a border pass – they only have to enter their thumbprint. If everything is according to the profile, we allow them to enter or leave the country.”
He reveals that there are approximately 2,000 entries in the database at the moment.
Raja Azahar assured that there were no serious security issues, but the measures were meant to stop those taking advantage of the lax enforcement of immigration laws.
“Anybody who crosses the border will need a travel document and we will have a record of all border crossings. At the same time, we have improved the security element by means of the biometric system.”
Another issue is the potential use of RFID (radio frequency identification device) in visas and passports, which the Ministry is looking into at the moment.
“The whole idea of using RFID is to enhance the security of travel documents, but it can also translate into convenience for the holders.
“We are in talks with Singapore to embed RFID in passports to facilitate faster clearance (through immigration checkpoints). With RFID we can capture all information – we will know if they have a valid passport or even capture their photo.”
However, the use of RFID will not replace biometric systems.
“We still believe biometrics is secure. We will still have to station an immigration officer to check with RFID, but not with biometrics.”
RFID technology is best utilised when it is embedded in visas attached to passports of foreigners entering the country.
“The main reason for RFID is to overcome the issue of forgeries. Right now the visa sticker is just paper, and even with its security features we still have difficulty checking if it is genuine or not. But with RFID, we can check, and this will make sure it cannot be tampered with,” said Raja Azahar.
Reducing foreign workers
On the issue of foreign workers, Raja Azahar said the government was concerned about the country's dependency of foreign labour and various parties have been called in to study the manpower needs of the country.
“We are going to re-look at the policy of managing foreign workers in this country. We have about 2.3mil foreign workers, and we want to lower it to the 2006 figure of 1.8mil,” he stated.
He is aware that there are three industries – construction, manufacturing and plantations – that require foreign workers, mainly because locals do not want to work in these sectors.
“We are in the stage of calling together large companies, associations that represent industry and outsourcing companies for talks to reduce the number.”
He said the government was going to enforce the guidelines strictly when employing foreign workers. He added that the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) had put forward a proposal which would further reduce the number to 1.5mil by 2015.
As for the domestic scene, there is a need to cut down on the number of foreign maids too.
“We are looking into the possibility that only those who earn more than RM5,000 a month will be allowed to employ foreign maids. This issue is still being studied by the EPU,” he stated.
This in itself would create problems for dual-income households. Nevertheless, the Ministry has a solution.
“We are talking to the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to assist in the setting up of child-minding centres that employ foreigners.
“We won't implement such a ruling before other things are in place. One suggestion is not to have one maid per home but a few to look after a group of children at a child care centre. The same applies to house chores and cleaning; we can have professional cleaners that hire foreigners to handle many homes.
“These already exist, but they are operating illegally. We know this has to change and will ensure this provision is in place.”
Increase in personnel
Raja Azahar also explained the rationale behind Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s recent announcement to employ in access of 3,000 additional enforcement officers for the Immigration Department.
“As we know, tourists, foreign students, expatriates and foreign workers are required to generate economic activity. This is the dilemma we are facing – to balance between easy access and abuse of these facilities. We want to make sure these people are really genuine,” he stressed.
Going back to the point of RFID devices that may be embedded in visas, he explained that the additional personnel would be needed to conduct checks.
He clarified that inspectorate teams would be formed which would be assigned to specific targets such as students or workers.
“These teams would go to factories or plantations. We do that now, but on an ad-hoc basis.”
Approval for the additional personnel has not been officially approved yet, but the Public Services Department has been asked to expedite the process.
“The ministry hopes to get the approval sometime this year, and we plan to get the personnel in stages because they must go through a basic training period of about three months. However, interviews have already started, and all our senior officers are involved with recruitment.
“We have a few hundred vacancies at the moment, and anticipating that we should have this approval, we will have them (the excess) in our waiting list. We have started the process, so by the end of next year all should be in place,” he revealed.
On foreign spouses
By his own admission, one area of the Immigration Department that needs to be improved is its system of handling foreign spouse visas and permanent resident applications.
“This is the one thing that the Immigration Department has ignored. Everything else is good – for example the passport system. But when it comes to applications for long-term visas and permanent residents, they are behind.”
One point that has raised the ire of many Malaysians and their foreign spouses is the announcement made by Deputy Minister Tan Chai Ho that foreign spouses would be granted a five-year visa. This did not appear to ever materialise, and married couples were required to return to Immigration offices yearly.
Raja Azahar maintained that the five-year visa approval is in place. However, while visas may be given for a five-year period, they still have to return to renew the social visit pass, which is issued on a yearly basis.
He explained, “Once approval is given, you go straight to the counter, produce your passport and it will be done. This is the same as the Malaysia My Second Home programme. They are given 10 years, but they still have to return yearly to get the social visit pass.”
Raja Azahar agrees that it does cause inconvenience to go yearly.
“We will look into it and do something. The obstacle we are facing now is the law – it requires people to apply for this pass, and only gives the authority to do it on a yearly basis. Maybe the law is outdated.”
Another situation is in cases of divorce, and the foreign spouse will invariably be at the wrong end of the stick – in many cases the spouse will be required to leave the country, even if there are children from the marriage.
“We are going to change this policy very soon. The paper has been passed to the minister to be approved,” he assured.
“If they have a family, and their kids are Malaysian, we should not ask the mother to leave the country. We are concerned with the welfare of Malaysians. I have issued the instruction to the Immigration Department, and they should be processed faster compared with normal cases.
“If the father is a foreigner, then it depends. Who takes care of the child, the courts will decide and this is on a case by case basis.”
Additionally, cases involving permanent resident and visa applications at the current moment invariably take a long time to process.
The root of the problem is obvious – all the files are still kept under a manual filing system and are not computerised.
“The process takes such a long time because they are using the manual system. They keep it there for five years, and sometimes the file is full of dust. There is no system to recommend which should be faster or not. Sometimes, it can take weeks for me to locate a file.”
However, he rationalised that certain files are inactive because the information is not complete.
“If the applicant does not come in, the file will be idle.”
The good news, however, that a new fully integrated system for the Immigration Department should be ready by October this year. This not only links the entry point systems (for border crossings) and visa applications, but will provide for the electronic filing of the permanent resident and long-term visa applications.
“Everything must be computerised now. The system is supposed to be completed in October this year, but the data still has to be keyed in. I estimate that there are maybe more than 20,000 files,” he divulged.
It appears that Raja Azahar has his work cut out for him during his tenure as the ministry's secretary-general but the satisfaction is in achieving progress.
Besides, as he adds as we conclude the interview: “I want to do something for the citizens of Malaysia.”
