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By T. S. Shankar
While the present three carriers — the Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) and Indian Airlines (IA) and Air India (AI) — operate daily and tri-weekly services respectively between Chennai and Kuala Lumpur, a peculiar problem confronts them. Apart from the Chennai link, the MAS operates bi-weekly service to Bangalore, once a week to Hyderabad and four times a week each to Mumbai and New Delhi. All the three carriers operate wide-bodied jets to airlift the ``illegal Indian immigrants'' who were told by the Malaysian Government to leave the country by May 31, the deadline earlier set by the Immigration Department. The deadline has now been extended ``indefinitely'' taking into account the ``legal issues''. Besides, it cannot accommodate over 1.5 million illegal overstayers in its jails. Indians and Indonesians top the list of illegal immigrants. Amid this backdrop, the Malaysian Government unfolded its colourful month-long cultural extravaganza programme christened Citrawarna or the Colours of Malaysia 2002 Parade on May 26, with invited mediapersons from 23 countries. The Malaysian Tourism Minister, Adbul Kadir Bin Haji Sheikh Fadzir, said his country was keen on further strengthening its bilateral ties with India and was confident that such annual cultural showbiz would foster the friendly ties. With Malaysia so much looking forward towards India, its amnesty scheme asking the illegal overstayers to leave the country has put all three airline operators in a tight spot. While the daily Airbus-320 flights by IA, the tri-weekly by AI and daily by MAS are now transporting the ``illegal workers'' back to India, the story of the returnees is revealing. ``We are paid 500 to 750 Malaysian ringgits a month and provided dormitory accommodation and three-times non-vegetarian meal and we are responsible for constructing world-standard expressways and high-rise structures in different parts of Malaysia,'' was how an un-willing Indian overstayer told The Hindu before boarding an IA flight to Chennai at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. All the three airlines are operating to full complement of passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Chennai and to other southern points for the past two weeks. No confirmed seats are available till the first week of June, both the Indian and Malaysian aviation/transport Ministries have to extend a helping hand to accomplish the task of fulfilling the Immigration Department's directive. Though MAS has expressed its willingness to operate additional flights between Kuala Lumpur and Chennai requesting for traffic rights to be granted to uplift commercial passengers on the return sector, AI which first initially agreed backed out at the eleventh hour fearing that it would unleash a price war in the lucrative route, forcing the MAS flight to return as a ``ferry service'' from Chennai to Kuala Lumpur. Meanwhile, with both AI and IA registering acceptable on-time performance and with the revenue graph steadily growing up, it remains to be seen whether the Civil Aviation Ministry will come to the rescue of Indians who are under the constant deadline threat of the Malaysian Immigration Department.
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