Bleep of the Day - Since When Do I Wear a Bindi?

This morning we traipsed over to the nearby Gemeente Delft (Local Municipality or 'LM') to pick up finally Sadia's and my Residence Permit ('RP'). My entry detailing the snafu behind the whole RP affair can be read here. As predicted, our respective LM letters informing of RPs' arrival only came on Tuesday, as postmarked on the envelopes.

Since yesterday was a public holiday due to the Easter weekend, the place was packed with people - local and foreign - settling immigration, local tax and other municipal-related matters.

After a 45-minute wait, our number was called and we proceeded to the designated Balie or Counter to submit our pick-up letters. The lady in charge took them away to look for our RP cards. Apparently, it is in a card form, NOT sticker as I mentioned earlier.

My husband went 'Woohoo! Finally our ordeal is over,' to which I replied 'I won't get so excited until the RP is in our hands'. Probably I was being a wet blanket but I needed some 'concrete validation' before jumping up for joy. Or perhaps my womanly intuition was telling me something.....

The LM staff appeared again at the counter - a working desk and chair separated by cubicle walls from other Balie(s) - and keyed something in on her computer keyboards. At this time, I was busy tending to Sadia who wanted to be released from my clutches and onto the floor. As such, I wasn't really paying attention to the lady's stolen glances and facial expression. But my husband already had his suspicion.

She released Sadia's RP card first to us together with a piece of paper printed for one of us to sign. Signing thus indicates the receipt of the card. As we looked at her card, the staff quickly shoved 'my card' in front of us and said "This is not you by any chance?" On the said card, a woman's photo of South-Asian descent looked back at me. It was my name and the correct details but the photo is not me. Unless of course I was an Indian - prominently sporting a Bindi - in another life. But since I'm NOT of the Hindu faith nor do I believe in the concept of reincarnation, I can surely attest to this fact - LM screwed up BIG TIME!

I laughed at first looking at MY card but the lady was not the least amused. When I said that's funny, she coldly countered "I don't think it is THAT funny." Yeah, tell that to your staff who mixed up my passport photo when he or she sent my RP application to the Immigration Office.

Later, I was peeved when she just shrugged and lifted her hands up in the air to gesture "I dunno" to our inquiry as to when I would be able to get the CORRECT RP card. We had to run back home to get my extra passport photo for LM to rectify the photo mix-up. Luckily, we live near to the municipal centre.

Remember I was laughing when the staff first showed me the photo? Aside from the obvious lack of facial resemblance, I chortled partly because of the painstaking hassle and double-checking we had to endure during our first appointment with an LM staff for the RP application. She practically parsed each and every word of our certified documents from Malaysia. With respect to my place of birth and place of residence, she even googled 'Kota Bharu' and 'Kota Damansara' respectively on the internet to ascertain the existence of such places. "Some people made up places in their application" she willingly explained. When Kota Damansara didn't come up on Google Map, she looked concern. After we pointed that it's part of the Petaling Jaya district (which did come out in the search results), the furrow in her forehead immediately disappeared!

And after all that intense scrunity, LM unbelievably still managed to bungle my RP application via the easiest and most idiot-proof route of all - the photo! Certainly and contrary to the petulant staff's protestation, the risible quality of this particular episode is both appropriate and interminable!

This level of incompetence is something I'd have readily expected in Malaysia's public service. So to experience such inefficiency in the Netherlands rendered me speechless. It clearly demonstrates that a developed nation status doesn't necessarily translate to a change in the attitude of its people. Or in this case, the adroitness in ensuring willy-nilly things like this won't ever happen.

Probably my friend Ina is more on the money when she pointedly said "I wonder if Malaysian government departments have inherited their run-around policy from their former colonial masters."

postscript - From my own estimation, it will take between 2 to 4 weeks before I likely to receive the correct RP card. Or if they decide to be thorough, I might have to wait a few more months even! Even then, I keep my fingers crossed that I will get the card before the 'actual RP' expires in September. If not, it defeats the purpose to apply for the RP in the first place!