Futile Trip to the High Commission of Malaysia, but not that Futile

The Final Stage includes renouncing my Malaysian citizenship and attending an appointment at ICA after the renunciation.

At the advice of my sisters, I wrote in to High Commission of Malaysia to book an appointment for the renunciation after I completed Stage 2. This is what it replied:

There are no appointment slots available in June 2022.  You may walk in for Consular services (except passport and visa matters) without prior appointment from 1^st July 2022 onwards, Monday - Friday (8.00 am to 11.00 am).

I had heard that the appointment could take months so this piece of news made me a happy woman.

I meticulously prepared all my documents required for the renunciation and went on a school holiday early in the morning.

As I was walking towards the High Commission of Malaysia, I was filled with a sense of melancholy. Well, this is a part of my identity after all. Am I really going to give it up now? Sigh! Yet I know I have to. There is no reason for me to hold on to it anymore. 

As I was walking into the lane leading to the embassy, a steady stream of people holding a set of yellow documents was walking out. I wondered a little what they were there for. Passport-making didn't seem like it.

Guess what?

At the gate of the embassy, I was asked to join a long queue near the guardhouse to get the Borang, which was a piece of yellow document which I had to fill up.

I didn’t think it was too much to ask, until the lady who gave out the Borang told us to return on another day! I was shocked. And apparently, I wasn’t the only one who was indignant about it. I guess everybody there received the “no need for an appointment. Can just walk in to submit the documents” email. When enquired “what if I can’t make it on this date you have given?”, the lady simply replied, "Then you have to queue up again to get another number for the appointment." 

I persisted,"Can I submit my documents today?"

The lady said,"No. The appointment for today and tomorrow is all full."

With that, she went behind the gate and closed it after her, leaving me standing there feeling like a fool.

So it’s not “no need for appointment” but “have to come to the embassy to get a stupid number for the appointment”!

I was beyond angry within. What backward system is this? And an inaccurate reply too!

Do they think we are like the majority of the population in their country who don't need to work and can jalan jalan anytime they feel like it?

I was literally a picture - no, a playing video - of an super active volcano spilling lava, molten and ashes all inside me! It instantly made me regret not renouncing  my citizenship more than 20 years ago! What was I thinking all these years?!! No bits of the initial melancholy about having to renounce my citizenship was left. 

Still, I had to leave the embassy and come back another day.

Sigh!