I had to renew my passport a few days back because there was less than 6 months validity and I could not travel outside Malaysia. The rush was induced because I was supposed to go to Singapore for an interview today.

Anyway, being the Internet person I am, I just need to Google for information on renewing my passport. I hopped on to the Malaysian Immigration Department website. It’s ugly I know, but I got some rather useful information that surprised me.

First I found out that students intending to go overseas to study can apply/renew their passports for half the usual rates. A normal Malaysian passport renewal will cost RM300 but if you can prove you are going overseas to further your studies, you need to pay only RM150. Click here to read the details yourself from the Immigration website.

I called up the Immigration Department to confirm this and checked on the things I need to bring. All I need is the Acceptance Letter from the overseas university. I had 2 letters - 1 from Berkeley and 1 from UCL though it’s an conditional offer letter.

I decided to use my UCL Conditional Offer Letter to apply for the special rate. I brought along my Singapore-GCE A-Level results to verify that I have met the university’s criteria and have been confirmed a spot in UCL. (I’ve yet to receive my Unconditional Offer Letter, God knows why UCL’s taking such a long time to change the Conditional to Unconditional though my results had been on UCAS for quite some time already)

Talked to the officer and after verifying the documents (you need to bring photocopies of the Offer Letter and results if it’s conditional), I was allowed the student rate. Note: just bring the all the documents including the envelope the university sent to you cause the officer might be skeptical. Did a few extra documentations - nothing additional to fill up, merely questions by the officers and many thumbprints on the thumbprint reader. After an additional 15 minutes or so, I paid my RM150 instead of RM300 for my new passport. What a bargain!

Now for the 2nd surprise. I called up Immigration Department to check what I need to bring to renew my passport (just 2 passport photos, old passport, photocopy of IC, RM150, Uni Offer Letter, Results if applicable) and asked them which department is the fastest. My family normally go to the old Subang airport for passport application/renewal purposes and was simply told by the officer that the branch in Subang is the smallest one in Klang Valley!

I should go to Shah Alam or Pusat Bandar Damansara instead. There are more counters there. And the surprising part is THEY OPEN ON SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS!!! From 8am to 1pm! WOW. Our immigration departments (though only several) are open on weekends! I’m so proud of this.

It was real easy. I do not need to take leave from office. Dad don’t need to take leave from work. Sis don’t need to ponteng school. We all renewed our passport in Pusat Bandar Damansara on Sundays where they have 40 counters! We collected our passport 3 hours after paying our money. Just spent the whole morning and we sorted our documents to travel again! (Note: the counters stop giving out numbers by 11am)

Also, do not go to Putrajaya to renew your passport. The department there is mainly for Diplomatic passports. They produce only 40 normal passports per day ONLY though the officer told me there are plans to make it open for public in the future.

WTF? Dong Jiao Zong (however u ever learned how to pronounce that) wants Science and Maths to be taught in Chinese in Chinese Primary School? WTF. WTF. WTF.

WHY ON EARTH?! Are you people nuts? It took the government such a hard time making English the medium of instruction for Science and Maths in schools and now you want to revert the policy? And your argument is to protect Chinese culture?

Hello, being in a Chinese environment with Chinese subjects is not good enough to learn Chinese eh? Not all Chinese kids are good in English too ok. I see so many students from Chinese schools graduating with poor speaking and writing skills. Do we want our Chinese kids to be further disadvantaged in this globalised world?

Anyway, this is a note the Education Minister. PLEASE KEEP THE CURRENT POLICY OF TEACHING SCIENCE AND MATHS IN ENGLISH. I was the last batch of students to be taugh in Malay and I despised that fact. I went on to pursue my A-level in Singapore where everything was taught in English. Luckily for me, I use English at home and I did not have to struggle much in Singapore with language. But for many others I bet learning everything in English was tough. So please keep the current policy for our future generation’s benefit.