The brain handles positive and negative information indifferent hemispheres,” (by: Professor Nass). Negative emotions generally involve more thinking, and the informationis processed more thoroughly than positive ones, he said. Thus, we tend toruminate more about unpleasant events — and use stronger words to describe them— than happy ones.
Bad emotions, badimpressions, bad experiences have more impact than good ones. BAD things quicker to form and more resistantto disconfirmation than good ones.
This could be the reason why I can’t help but write , while Istill can vividly recount that badexperienced and I just couldn’t let go.
Most nationals are enjoying the luxury of having to stay andvisit Singapore without visa. But ifyou come from Asian countries other than Japan, South Korea, Indonesia,Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines where we are only allowed to stay socialvisit pass of 30 days. And this is wherethe issue starts to evolve when you plan to extend your stay.
Those who wish to extend their stay merely have 2 options, use eExtension facility or visit the (ICA)Immigration and Checkpoint Authority's Head quarters . 2nd option isto leave the country cross over toMalaysia and return but this is quite risky.
For a simple crossing over get away can turn into a worst Nightmare. Apparently the immigration officers are well aware ofthis trend of coming for a day and returning. They are verystrict to females entering Singapore through JB and sometimes also in ChangiAirport .
They say the trick is to going back to Singapore is to queue for a Malay immigration with a kind face, but what happens when there isn’t any? When the only choice leftfor you to choose from , 2 Immigration officers , 1 trainee and 1 Senior – tiger looking officer- poor bhoi! when luck is not at your side, that is yoursort of dooms day!. Push your luck andFace your fear. (rock and roll)
Believe me, when this happens you can betreated like rogue migrant. Once the Immigration Officer carefully scrutinized your passportand referred you to their superintendents well, pray evenharder you know where it is heading to. This is where your ordeal reallybegins.
You will be escortedto one of their offices where you will wait for your turn to be interviewed. There were other nationals in the “chamber” but mainly from Asian countries.
You will be asked of so many questionsand be lectured. At some point you feel humiliatedduring the interrogation especially if you will gone to a part where theOfficer would even go up to the extent of literally counting your monies , and trying togauge your financial capacity and how much more you have and you can afford. Although this didn’t happen to me , believe me you wouldn’t wish to be in such a situation.
Anyway, crossing theborder was quite an experience. Filipinos who are overstaying in Singapore are notorious for exiting via Johor and coming in again, so you cannot blame theofficers on both sides of the border to be automatically suspicious. But what if, this things happens and it involves children? At their age they will remember this experience, the trauma of going through the process.
I wish I can write more about what is fair and unjust, but I have to remind myself that we are livingin a foreign country, and their rules are design for the convenience of its Citizen not for us.. not for us.
Our opinions are just limited to the corners of our mind, our hands are tied ,our voices will not be heard , we just have to echoed it in silence.
In my search for a much deeper understanding, to convince myself that what had happened is within the boundaries of what we call “process” I came across of below. Although I haven’theard about this from other people, I didn’t see this kind of announcement either. And I know this isn’t applicable to those who will cross the border to visit Lego land and Hello Kitty town, which location both in JB which you can finish even for a day.
“Singapore Immigration officials imposed a rule when exiting and entering Singapore via Malaysia. You should stay in Malaysia for five(5) days before you can enter to Singapore again. This is a big change compared to the 24-hour-stay rule before.”
If you
Good luck!
Comments
Post a Comment