unfair treatment to native passengers

MIRI: Five rural natives travelling by air from Long Banga were unceremoniously dumped at Marudi on their way to Miri recently.

Stranded at Marudi airport they happened to meet lawyer Robert Ayu who coincidentally was waiting for his flight to Miri. They approached Ayu and requested that their plight be highlighted in the media.

According to Ayu, the five stranded passengers were on board Maswing MH3591 together with nine other passengers from Long Banga to Miri at 11:20 am transit Marudi.

“They had paid the full fare of RM88 to Miri in Long Banga but on arrival at Marudi they were arbitrarily off-loaded to give way for passengers from Marudi to Miri,” said Robert.

They were asked to wait for the last flight on waiting list. There was no valid reason given by the agent at Marudi airport except to say system breakdown.

What annoyed the passengers was that the agent refused their request to be put on board the flight despite the fact that they told they had urgent matters to attend in Miri.

One passenger, Jessy Keling who received the news of the death of her uncle in Miri through the radio flew down from Long Banga, told the agent she had to be in Miri that day for her relatives were waiting for her arrival in order to proceed with the burial of her uncle.

In spite of this explanation, the agent refused to put her on the flight.

“My relatives had to put off the burial to the next day to wait for my arrival if I can get a flight the next day,” she lamented in tears to Robert.

Another passenger Lucia Lerang was catching a connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur at 6pm that day was questioning, why pick on us, is it because we are poor? Why not ask the Marudi passengers to wait for the last flight instead of us?

Susan Udau, another passenger pointed out that they should be put on the next available flight instead of the last flight because they don't have relatives in Marudi. What if there is no seat available on the last flight, where will we stay for the night in Marudi?

According to Robert, this act of off-loading rural passengers in Marudi to give way for passengers in Marudi had been going for quite a while because it is not computerised at the departure point in the rural area like in Long Banga. ENDS.

Caption: UNFAIR TREATMENT: From left, Jessy, Susan and two unidentified friends waiting and waiting.