VVIP treatment by Tabung Haji

Let us leave Mazlan Aliman alone for a while. Let us wait till the prosecutors prosecute him and let us wait for his defamation suit to be filed in Court. When this happens, we will have a field day making comments and covering developments. Let Mazlan and all of us all take a rest. We all deserve it.

I will today talk about what I left before the Mazlan’s issue - Tabung Haji. While the quality of the food, like I earlier commented, is questionable, not all of Tabung Haji’s services are that bad after all.

What excited me most was the manner in which we were taken to the airport from Complex Tabung Haji at Kelana Jaya. Sesekali terasa macam VVIP pulak.

We were asked to board coaches which were already awaiting us at the complex. There were about 14 of them. One after the other started moving out of the complex and when all were ready to roll, the outriders arrived.

From Complex Tabung Haji, right up to the airport, we were led by outriders with deafening sirens. Not only were we escorted by outriders, police officer were stationed at all junctions to ensure our route to the airport was clear. No obstacles and no traffic jams. Wow … seronok itu bah …

At the airport, we did not have to line up to check-in, no baggage check-in and no immigration counters. All these formalities were taken care of by Tabung Haji officers at Kelana Jaya itself. We did not even take the train ride from the airport to the plane. The busses took us right to the waiting plane where we boarded.

The only problem we, or at least I, encountered was the sitting arrangement in the plane. Saudi Air practices free sitting although the seats were assigned. So the problem was obvious - everyone rushed for the best available seats leaving some families having to sit separately. Malaysians being Malaysians, they could not be bothered. Just by looking at some of the faces, you could hear them asking – do I look like I care? It is not our problem if you are not able to sit with your spouse or family?