Baggage plundered

Baggage plundered

From Kompas

The 1995 haj season is on the doorstep.

I feel this is a good opportunity to ask PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines, who will be carrying the haj pilgrims from Polonia airport in Medan to Tabing airport in Padang, to clean up the "mice" that have been ferreting in the baggage at the airport.

Haj pilgrims, upon their return from Mecca, have been complaining about lost baggage for years.

When haj pilgrims ask about their lost baggage, a company officer says "be patient" because it won't take long, or, go and look in the storeroom and slip some change to the storeroom boy.

Loses can vary from whole suitcases to articles inside a suitcase. A few pilgrims have lodged complaints but most of them, to avoid bureaucracy, just could not be bothered. Others simply forgive the wrong doers for fear that to do otherwise would spoil the significance of their pilgrimage.

The funny thing is that airport officers always ask pilgrims to put everything in their baggage and prohibit them from bringing hand luggage into the cabin. The reason, they say, is to ensure the comfort of the pilgrims.

One high official of the transportation ministry who made the pilgrim was involved in a quarrel with the company's employees about what he labeled as a stiff ruling that would eventually ruin the airline.

I have gone on haj three times. In 1980, 1985 and 1994 as the leader of a haj group and on each occasion my belongings have been plundered. To prevent a recurrence of this I appeal to the airline to temporarily cage those "two legged mice" from operating so as not to smear the image of this state-owned firm.

Name and address

withheld