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Why is the “First World infrastructure, Third World mentality” malaise striking KLIA every Chinese New Year with the 72-hour breakdown  of the RM400 million world’s fastest and  most sophisticated baggage handling system delaying 22 domestic and international flights? Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Penang,  Monday): The Cabinet on Wednesday should find out why the “First World infrastructure, Third World mentality” malaise seems to be striking the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) every Chinese New Year with the 72-hour breakdown of the RM400 million world’s fastest and most sophisticated baggage handling system, which delayed 22 domestic and international flights on the first day of the Year of the Monkey last Thursday.  During the Chinese New Year last February, the KLIA baggage handling system also broke down, causing delays to six international flights bound for Beijing, Shanghai, Canton, Guangzhou, Sydney and Jakarta.  The assurance given by the Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd general manager Azmi Murad yesterday that there will be no future  breakdown in the KLIA baggage handling system totally lacks credibility in view of the notorious history of breakdown, disruptions, delays and misplaced baggages for the past  five-and-a-half years.  Is Azmi and the entire management of Malaysia Airport Sdn. Bhd which  operates the KLIA prepared to resign en masse if there are further breakdowns of the KLIA baggage handling system?  At its  opening  in 1998, the then Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik  boasted that  the KLIA had  the most sophisticated baggage handling system in the world, the RM400 million Passenger and Baggage Reconciliation System (PBRS), which could not only detect any passengers who fail to board their flights, but also pin-point a passenger’s luggage and retrieve it within seconds! However, in the first week of operations of the KLIA, the world’s fastest and most sophisticated baggage handling system  proved to be  the worst in the world, creating mountains of baggages because of the  monumental mix-up of the thousands of baggages coming from different parts of the globe. Since then, the KLIA, “the airport of the next century”, has gained international notoriety as the most ultra-modern airport with the most expensive but worst baggage handling system, highlighting again and again the correctness of the diagnosis by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi about the Malaysian malaise which posed a major obstacle to the national ambition to developed nation status – “First World infrastructure, Third World mentality”. Transport Minister, Datuk Chan Kong Choy said the KLIA baggage handling system would be upgraded, avoiding the  question as to how “the world’s fastest and most sophisticated baggage handling system” could become obsolete so fast without proving its money’s worth.  The Cabinet should use the fiasco of the KLIA’s RM400 million “world’s fastest and most sophisticated baggage handling system” to focus on the Malaysian malaise of “First World infrastructure, Third World mentality” – to root out the grave problem in Malaysia of having the hardware but little software and even less humanware.    Abdullah identified this problem succinctly when in his speech to the Oxbridge Society in March last year, he said: “From poor execution to inept management to shoddy maintenance and appalling customer service, Malaysia is in danger of possessing the hardware but little software”.  It is not enough to identify the Malaysian malaise, as a start must be made to root out the disease of  “First World infrastructure, Third World mentality” which presently permeates all levels of governance, including the Cabinet.  Is Abdullah prepared to launch a nation-wide campaign harnessing the support and involvement of  all sectors of society to attack this debilitating “First World infrastructure, Third World mentality” malaise in the country? (26/1/2004) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman