A red hot level warning to Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, as reported by BBC.

Newspaper columnist Dina Zaman says some Malaysians are looking to Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi to take a tougher line.

"They don’t think he’s authoritative enough," she believes.

"You need someone to actually sit down and say, ‘Look you can’t do this, you can’t do that’. And yes, he’s a nice man but with… the crime rate, all these things… it just makes you wonder whether he’s too nice."

Millions of people will doubtless visit Malaysia during 2007 and most will have a very happy time.

But until Malaysia’s bureaucracy wants to make sure they all do, some would-be visitors may be deciding to holiday elsewhere.

A few incidents as quoted by BBC.

First, American Wayne Wright is far from convinced by the promise of Malaysian hospitality and the claim of its tourism slogan that it is truly Asia. Even worse, he branded that as the worst experience in his life.

"Honestly this was probably the worst experience I have had in my life,"

Second, Mr Nam, an ex-US Navy serviceman complained he was treated inhumanely which made him felt like a dog.

"I was treated inhumanely," said Mr Nam. "I felt like a dog, I felt like something worse than a dog."

Third, an American couple were woken at 0200 with threats to break down the door of their rented holiday apartment on Langkawi Island, where they were alleged to be Muslim and insisted to be checked upon by a team of 6 enforcement officers.

"They started yelling, ‘We want to see your woman, we want to see your woman’," an angry Mr Barnhart recalled.

"So I asked Carole, who was just wearing a sarong to stand back 15 feet in the light so they could see that she is a white woman - my wife of 42 years."

Meanwhile, Malaysians may have used to the regrettable and sorry words, however foreigners don’t take that as a valid reason, excuse or explanation as you may love to call it.

The reality is, 4 days into action of VMY 2007 and the campaign was marred by unwanted incidents, which is contradicted with the main purpose of ensuring visitors enjoying themselves so much and have such a good impression of the country that they will keep coming back.

Hears it well, YB Datuk Seri?

Permalink | Leave a comment | Trackback
Subscribe to Email Feed | Subscribe to RSS Feed