Thought of the day

I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquerable soul. / I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul. ~William Ernest Henley, Invictus

Government's promises are like the Ringgit, they depreciate with time.



Wednesday, December 10, 2008

A Trip to KTM at Tanjung Pagar

Christmas and Chinese New Year are around the corner. For people like me residing in a place far away from home, it is wise to purchase the balik kampung bus/train/plane tickets as early as possible. As the adage goes, "Early bird catches the worm" aka the kiasu syndrome.

Went to the KTM website to check if the tickets to and fro Kluang are available and the site is down. Sad to say, I sort of expected this...

Call the General Line for KTM Berhad Headquarters: 603-2263 1111 and no one pick up the phone. Wow, what a great way to conduct a business.



So I had to make a deliberate trip down to KTM Tanjung Pagar to purchase the tickets. Reached the train station at 11.00am, out of 5 ticket counters, only 1 is open. The usual Bolehland culture. From the picture above, if you make a count, you will notice 8 customers in front of me. Guess how long it took to reach my turn?

There was this Malay queuing behind me, kept sighing and shaking his head impatiently and before long, he gave up. The lady in front of me with the black polka dot blouse also caved in and walked off in frustration.

When it's my turn, all tickets on Christmas and CNY eves were sold out. Bageiro.

Some absurdities observed at the station:

  • Say you inherited the building from the British after independence. So it's your responsibility to upkeep and maintain the property, right? Wrong, for the smart Bolehland government, if you don't use part of the building, just abandon it and care even less when someone broke your window.

  • Or litter on your property even when you warned them of a $500 fine.

  • And say you would like to install aircons to cool the air, here's how Bolehland do the piping. Just tunnel through the glasses! That's it. Easy job.
  • If you want to book your ticket one week in advance, I am sorry, you can only do it one day before your departure. What kind of system is this? And you call this advanced booking? (Special case for festive seasons.)
See how a minute operation like this can become with 100% management by the Malays. And then, extrapolate the thought further and imagine what Malaysia would be when the government is headed 100% by the Malays...which is in the progress. (Not that I want to be rascist, but it is true.)

Gosh, I am so proud of my country. Malay sial boleh!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've been there a couple of times. Every staff at KTM work in slow-motion mode. Their attitude as customer service is damn lousy. You should try dealing with them during the fasting month. The ticket seller just refuse to say a word, afraid that she would die of dehydration if she talk to people. She was pretty moody then. The station wall is dirty, the facilities are outdated, electrical wiring haphazardly done, external piping dripping, water from aircond chiiling dripping on the walls, with moss growing, cracked walls, driveway/parking area cracked with potholes, etc.....

Did I mention that the train ride I took last time? I visited the canteen/cafe just to have a meal....I was having my coffee and bread, and a saw a few tiny cockcroaches squeezing out from the gaps of the furniture. Yucks!

It's a disgrace to Malaysia.

Well done KTM, you have done it again, being the top operator in the world, from the bottom of the list that is