When Indian film director Sanjiv Mishra was in Malaysia to shoot a documentary, he was detained by Rela officers after mistaking him for an illegal immigrant.

According to a report by Malay Mail, the producer was shaken and scared by the experience where he was surrounded by up to seven men before being shoved into a van.

"These men were not in uniform and didn’t identify themselves and when they surrounded him, he thought he was about to be kidnapped and robbed."

Apparently, Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor was shocked by the incident and apologized. He slammed the Rela for its insensitive approach to foreigners and reminded them not to go overboard while carrying out their duties.

"Once the international media gets wind of the incident, they will ‘whack’ us and Malaysia’s image may get tarnished," he said.

However, that’s not about it. Less than a week after the event, an Indian software professional was handcuffed and detained by police for not carrying his passport while shopping.

This time, the India Government is furious and asked the Foreign Ministry led by Syed Hamid Albar to ensure that such incidents will not repeat.

"We immediately took up the issue with the Malaysian Foreign office and are following it up today (Sunday)," the official told The Associated Press.

"We have requested the Malaysian authorities to ensure that such incidents do not take place again," he said.

For now, the repercussion is yet to be seen and we should consider ourselves lucky to get away without any act of boycott from Indian visitors.

However, by looking into the frequent occurrence of wrong detention, it’s time for the Government to conduct a serious study into the current methodology of tracking illegal immigrants. Be it police or Rela officers, they must be well trained and not to be overzealous when the country reputation is at stake, especially when we’re halfway through the Visit Malaysia Year 2007.

As for the Tourism Ministry, Tengku Adnan should realize this is a costly lesson not to be taken lightly and making visitors feeling at home is an utmost priority to ensure effort poured into making VMY 2007 a successful event will not go down the drain.

Let’s make no mistake about it, we’re talking about a possible influx of 300,000 Indian visitors, something that we can’t afford to let loose.

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