Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Reduce the checks at Causeway and Tuas

Each day, more than 300,000 people cross the border between Singapore and Malaysia at the causeway and at Tuas. Link

They are checked at both checkpoints manned by Singapore and Malaysia. Each checkpoint could take up to 15 minutes during busy period.

Is there a need for the travellers to be checked at two checkpoints? It should be possible for them to be checked on one side only without losing control over the data and without any loss of security.

My proposed approach is for them to be checked at the point of entry and for the data on the departure to be provided to the other side. A traveller to Malaysia will be checked at the Malaysia side and the data will be given to Singapore that the traveller has left Singapore.

If there is any reason why Singapore does not want any person to leave the country (and I am not aware of any such reason, perhaps except for NS men), the data can be provided to Malaysia and Malaysia can refuse entry to these people.

Similarly, a traveller from Malaysia wil be checked at the Singapore side and the data can be given to the Malaysian side that the traveller has left Malaysia. Malaysia can also provide a list of people that they do not allow to leave the country.

This arrangement will apply only to the Causeway and the Tuas checkpoints. It will not apply to travellers travelling by air or by sea.

The arrangement will create a lot of benefit to the authorities and the people of both countries, such as:

a) Reduce the time taken for the travel
b) Reduce the manpower required to man the checkpoints by half

It will provide the same control and security as the current arrangement. I am not aware of any reason why this arrangement cannot work. I wonder why the authorities from both Malaysia and Singapore cannot sit down together and work out this arrangement?




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