If you want to know how a country's reputation gets damaged, it doesn't start at parliament. It starts at the airport.
On September 15, 2025, two Chinese tourists landed at KLIA Terminal 2 and were approached by a man offering to take them to their hotel for RM60. Thinking it was a fair price, they got into the car. The driver's wife was also in the vehicle. Instead of taking them to their hotel, the driver drove into a dark, deserted area, demanded RM836, choked one of them, and slapped her several times. Their calls to police weren't going through. They eventually managed to get help when hotel staff heard their screams.
The incident went viral on social media. Transport Minister Anthony Loke immediately instructed JPJ to track down the vehicle, and in an undercover operation on September 21, JPJ successfully apprehended the driver at KLIA Terminal 2, impounding the vehicle on the spot. Good. But here's the thing. This was not an isolated incident that the authorities only just discovered. Between 2023 and 2025 alone, JPJ recorded 573 arrests related to tout activities at KLIA Terminals 1 and 2, collecting more than RM2 million in fines. Five hundred and seventy-three. That means this is not a problem. This is a system.
The math explains why touts keep coming back despite the risk. JPJ's own investigations show that these illegal operators earn between RM500 and RM1,000 per day. If they operate 20 days a month, that's RM10,000 to RM20,000, comfortably covering any fines imposed. The penalties are essentially a business cost, not a deterrent. Until the consequences hurt more than the profits, touts will continue calculating whether today is worth the risk and deciding it is.
Malaysia launched Visit Malaysia 2026 with a target of 47 million international visitors and RM147.1 billion in tourism receipts. The campaign has Michelle Yeoh as its face. It has a national budget, new air routes, and the full weight of government promotion behind it. All of that matters. But none of it matters as much as what a tourist's first 15 minutes in Malaysia feels like. And if their first 15 minutes involves being trapped in a car by a criminal who knows the airport better than the enforcement officers do, the entire RM147.1 billion aspiration starts to look shaky.
The airport is Malaysia's front door. Right now, some of us aren't maintaining it as well as we should.
My Opinion
This embarrasses me as a Malaysian. We have a world-class airport and we've let it develop a reputation for being one where tourists need to be on guard the moment they land. Fix the penalties, make them hurt, increase physical enforcement presence 24 hours a day at every arrival hall. And for heaven's sake, make Grab and official taxis the only option visible and accessible at arrivals. No more informal conversations with strangers offering rides. None.
Ronny M (ronny76netstuff@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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