A foreign woman in a skimpy red dress that looked like it had been painted on her, stood handcuffed at the corner of this police district headquarters.
There was not the slightest sign that the world had crashed around her, as she, along with about 50 of her friends, remained engaged in their intense conversation… sharing a giggle every now and then.
From the other end of the lobby, my eyes were fixed on her as the senior police officer, whom I had joined in a midnight raid earlier at several locations in the city, tells me of the powers she had that he couldn’t seem to counter, despite his long years dealing in anti-vice work.
“You see that woman in red? I have arrested her twice… this will be the third.
“For a foreigner who is clearly abusing the country’s laws, she seems to be bigger than that and everything else combined,” he said of the woman they had plucked out from a dingy room littered with used condoms, in one of the city’s back alleys.
There is that one magic phrase that will stump the most seasoned of law enforcers, despite them having heard it more often than “Ai… sorang jer ker?”.
That “free pass” phrase is: “I am here on a visit and this is just me letting my hair down with my girlfriends.” And this line is usually shoved in the faces of the raiding parties, together with their social visit passes. It is hard to book them for abusing their travel papers.
These foreign working girls, with Chinese and Vietnamese nationals topping statistics, are abusing the privilege of being allowed to visit this country to make a killing in the lucrative vice trade. They are a major bane of Immigration and police officers who have long noticed the trend of many of these young women (the market is a tad slow for those above 40) going out of the country, just before their visas expire and then quickly returning to pick up where they left off in the flesh trade.
This land of opportunity has drawn many foreign citizens from around the region eager to get a piece of the economic action, many in “niche markets” that have given a massive headache, not only to our law enforcers, but also the public.
In fact, it was a letter from a concerned mother that came out in the papers that prompted me to call up the city police, to see for myself what goes on behind drawn curtains when darkness envelops the city.
I hope the lady has recovered from the horror of seeing a sex worker, operating from inside a mall, luring her young son who was walking a few steps ahead of her and her husband, to sample the forbidden fruit.
This newspaper had, over the last few years, been exposing how vice syndicates were taking advantage of opportunities, thanks to the various loopholes in the system set in place to manage foreigners.
One particular call we made that ran contrary to that of other nations’ protecting their interests was the revocation of a March 23, 2006 circular less than six months after it was issued. The circular, which required Immigration officers to make it a point to get each tourist coming into the country to prove that they had at least US$50 (RM206) per day to spend, was to make sure they were actually here to enjoy what the country had to offer and not the other way round.
The document, signed by the then-Immigration Department director-general, explained in detail why this had to be done. It did not even ask for our men — the country’s first line of defence — to check for their place of stay or their return tickets.
As the country feels the pinch of the global economic slump, it is forced to take measures to boost its coffers. Tourism was identified as one of the economic drivers that could keep the country’s gross domestic product on track.
It is only understandable then, for Kuala Lumpur to introduce a visa-free programme and the eVisa system as it competes with other nations in attracting Chinese tourists and realise its goal of attracting eight million arrivals from China over the next five years.
The 110 million Chinese tourists expected to travel around the world this year alone is a number too good to ignore. By not doing anything, Malaysia risks losing out to Thailand and Indonesia, destinations also preferred by those travelling with China passports.
But, the concerns of the police and Immigration Department cannot be trivialised. Not when we are leaving it to their officers to track those abusing their travel papers. Between 2013 and April this year, over 11,000 women from China, mostly on social visit passes, were arrested for prostitution. According to the authorities, the number of those who escaped is definitely more.
It is comforting to know that the parties pushing for more hassle-free entry procedures for Chinese tourists had given an assurance that all the right mechanisms to prevent abuse would be put in place before these new measures are given the green light.
Under this new programme, likely to take effect from March 1, Chinese tourists do not need a visa if they come in for less than 15 days, although they have to register online or through travel agents to get a special travel note known as “Entri”. (This document will allow authorities to screen the visitors against a real-time “suspects list”. A visa is still required for Chinese tourists staying for between 15 and 30 days).
It is comforting to know that with all these checks and balances, the Immigration Department will also be able to red flag who among these arrivals are involved in vice.
Let us hope that with a solid screening system in place, our visitors from China will be those intent on making beautiful memories from postcard-worthy destinations or find out for themselves why Malaysia is truly Asia.
It is definitely a bonus if those more than one million millionaires and the one billionaire created every week in China make their way to our shores.
I do hope with the compromises we have been making, the tourist dollar earned at the end of the year will be something to shout about.
This Kajai award winner has a penchant for hard-hitting investigative reporting, and has won numerous accolades.
This news editor also leads the NST Special Probes Team