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DRAFT
Incredible Travel
Stories:
A Tourist Under Suspicion - Part 1
Dr Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
August 20, 2011, Room 1231, 5 am
The Royal Garden, Hong Kong
"I offer you a way out. You go to Macau direct from the
Airport and spend your time in Macau," the female
Immigration Officer (FMO) said to me after an interview
and logging onto her office computer to check out my
background at www.toapayohvets.com. If I did not accept
her offer, I would be sent back to Singapore on the next
plane. If I accepted her offer, my passport would show a
stamp "transit" in Hong Kong. In this way, there would
be no record of me having been denied an entry to enter
Hong Kong.
On August 19, 2011, I had arrived in Hong Kong at 5.45
a.m, from Singapore, flying Cathay Pacific. The
Immigration Counter Officer took longer than usual to
check me out on his computer. Then he wrote on a white
slip of paper with the heading "Restricted." A young
thin Immigration man who was directing passengers to the
various Immigration Counter then detained me.
I went with him into a room as he waited for the
Immigration Counter Officer to return back to him. I
noted a change of shift work as another new Immigration
Counter Officer, together with others, entered the
booths with their silver boxes and chops. So, the
original officer who stopped me from leaving the
Immigration Area had gone home.
The young Officer consulted another officer. Then he led
me to a big room which had white walls, working desks,
computers, around 8 rows of blue chairs and closed
circuit TV. A lady officer had unlocked this room,
switched on the lights and asked me to wait. After some
half an hour, the FMO whom I mentioned in my first
paragraph interviewed me and made the offer I should not
refuse.
She was a young serious woman in her 30s. "It is a
random check on passengers," she had said earlier as she
asked and scribbled on a piece of table, information
about me, my family, my brother and sisters, my purpose
in coming to Hong Kong, the amount of money I had, my
credit card. I said I had no friend in Hong Kong as I
was not much of a net worker and that probably was
against me. Then she offered me the above-mentioned
proposal not to enter Hong Kong for national security
reasons.
"Why am I not allowed to enter Hong Kong?" I asked. This
was the first time I had been rejected from entering a
country.
"It is for Immigration reasons I am not permitted to
tell you," she said.
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"Did somebody commit a cheating scam in my name?" I
asked. I deduced that I was not a criminal since she did
not throw me into the cells. In any case, my life is
that of an ordinary Singaporean.
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"No," she said. "I am not permitted to tell you. If you
go to Macau straight from the Airport, your passport
will be stamped "transit" and there will be no record of
you being denied entry to Hong Kong and sent back to
Singapore (by the next available plane).
"If I accept your officer, it means that I have had done
something wrong. Your immigration records will tell that
I have had been denied entry into Hong Kong."
"No," she said. "It will show that you have transited
via Hong Kong Airport to go to Macau."
"I don't know how the Immigration works," I said. "How
can I trust the Immigration system? Surely, it will
record that I was denied entry to Hong Kong and that I
then agree to go to Macau, avoiding the prospect of
being sent back to Singapore on the next plane." This
would be the way all bureaucrats would work. I was a
bureaucrat once.
I continued in a cordial tone: "How can I trust that the
Hong Kong Immigration would just forget about the fact
that I was detained and interrogated for around an hour
and just record that I transited via Hong Kong to visit
Macau? My travel plans were to visit Hong Kong 2 nights
and Macau 1 night. Now, you advise me to visit Macau for
the whole duration."
The FMO was silent. She was always polite. It was a very
strange first encounter in my 60 years of living. I
seldom tour countries as I built up a practice on my own
and raised a family and paid mortgage. It was 18 years
ago since I last visited Hong Kong and here, I was a
suspect, in my opinion. A dangerous man. Well, we have
"dangerous dogs" under the Singapore's veterinary
regulations. So why not "dangerous tourist" under the
Immigration regulations.
It is the prerogative of any government not to permit
foreigners to enter the country. But there is more than
meets the eye. So, I said: "This is Hong Kong, not a
undeveloped country where government officials can do
what they like.
The FMO offered the same proposal again as she
apologised that she could not reveal the reason I was
rejected.
I said as if discussing a dog's clinical case to the dog
owner: "Your poster on your wall has stated a value -
Integrity and Impartiality. Yet I am asked to leave Hong
Kong without being given a reason (as to why I was
discriminated)."
The FMO repeated patiently as a teacher would do to a
dullard: "It is in the national interest of Hong Kong. I
am not permitted to tell you more than that."
I said: "If I accept your offer, the Singapore
Government will be after me when I return to Singapore.
I will be investigated as to why I accepted your offer
not to land in Hong Kong. The Singapore Government
officer would ask me: "If you had not committed any
offence, why did you accept the Hong Kong offer? And I
will have no answers."
"Wait," she went to consult another officer in an office
to the left of the main door entrance. An older slim
woman in blue uniform. Some 60 minutes had already
passed. Julia phoned me at the bag collection counter as
she had no problem entering Hong Kong: "Where are you?"
I said tersely, "The Immigration Officer stopped me and
is interviewing me." I did not want to talk too much.
"For security reasons, a video recording is in progress"
notice has been tacked to the notice board in this
office. A few strategically place big blue glassed
"eyes" were spying on anyone in the room. I presume
there would be somebody in the CCTV (closed-circuit
television) room monitoring my action and speech.
Was I a suspected terrorist? That was what my first
thought was. I was not permitted to enter Hong Kong as
that would be against the national interest. A drug
dealer? A Triad or Mafia boss with a veterinary practice
in Singapore as a front? A big-time money launderer
flying Cathay Pacific economy class to throw off the
scent of the government hounds?
After some time, a male Immigration Officer (MIO)
wearing a white shirt with epaulettes showing two stars
and in blue trousers arrived and cordially invited me to
an interview in the same room and asked me more
questions as well as the previous ones as he wrote the
answers on a piece of paper.
Incredible Travel
Stories:
A Tourist Under Suspicion - Part 2
Dr Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
August 20, 2011, Room 1231, 5 am
The Royal Garden, Hong Kong
The MIO was a gentleman looked to be in his 40s and has
an air of confidence and experience in catching crooks,
I guessed since he was more senior in rank than the
previous officer. I was a lieutenant in the National
Service in Singapore Armed Forces' Provost Unit Dog
Company some 30 years ago and his two piques would be
equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the Singapore
Armed Forces.
He offered me the use of the bathroom at the far end of
the room or drinking water in the office. The cups were
a cone made of paper with no fanciful trimmings unlike
the more expensive ones in Singapore's office. They were
the paper equivalent of ice-cream cones and that was
good for it meant less trees would be chopped down
unlike those fanciful cups.
I thanked him for the kind offer and sat down in the
same room to be interrogated. I enquired politely as to
why I was detained. "You are not detained, you are being
interviewed," he replied courteously. "If you are
detained, you will not be in this office." I imagined I
would be in a dungeon underground and hand-cuffed going
there since I had never encountered an Immigration
interview in my 60 years of living.
In any case, I was about to be sent packing to the
airport on a one-way ticket to Singapore without even
eating the delicious tim sum and sea food of Hongkong
after 18 years of absence. The power is always in the
hand of the Immigration Officer on the ground. Of
course, Hong Kong is a civilised and most developed
country, not a banana republic and a mad and angry
tourist under suspicion can be got rid off without
reasons being given.
In any case, I was not angry. Each country has a right
to deny visits from foreigners. The world is never fair.
I just did not want to spend 4 days and 3 nights
sight-seeing in Macau as a substitute to visit the
fastest growing capitalistic
one-China-government-two-administrative-systems. I just
wanted to re-visit the old places I went to when I was
marketing Orlando, Florida properties in Hong Kong some
20 years ago. Wanchai, Times Square, Hong Kong
Convention and Exhibition Centre, see the trams and see
the ordinary Hong Kong people.
Yet the MIO thought otherwise. No friends in Hongkong.
No visits since 1988. Unusual for a Singaporean. A
tourist under suspicion. But what was so serious that I
would be denied entry into Hong Kong?
"You have not committed a crime," the MIO told me when I
suggested that the squad who black-marked me interview
me. Why not? They have the fish in the net now.
"It is not that simple," the MIO explained. "In any
case, what do you mean by 'black-marked'?"
Incredible Travel Stories:
A Tourist Under Suspicion - Part 3
Dr Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
7.23 am, August 26, 2011, Singapore
Continued from Part 2.
"Perhaps, 'black-marked' is not the correct word," I
replied. "If I accept your offer not to enter Hong Kong
and go to Macau directly, the Hong Kong Immigration
Office will stamp my passport with a secret code letting
all other countries' Immigration Officers know that I
have been denied entry into Hong Kong today. Maybe the
correct word is 'blacklisted."
The MIO had said that he would chop my passport "Transit
in Hong Kong" on the way to Macau and that would show
that I had not been denied entry into Hong Kong on
August 20, 2011. I had been classified as a tourist
under suspicion. Either I accept his offer to go direct
to Macau transiting Hong Kong or be sent home on the
next plane.
In reply, the MIO said: "If I want to let other
immigration officers know that you are blacklisted by
us, the information will not be inside your chop
"Transit in Hong Kong. It is done another way."
I guessed it would be some codes encrypted inside the
passport and understood only by Immigration Officers.
"In 1988, I was a member of the Singapore Turf Club's
task force invited by the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club.
There was no problem."
The MIO said: "Hong Kong is no longer under the British
rule. Since 1997, Hong Kong is the special
administrative region (SAR) of the People's Republic of
China."
I knew about SAR but kept quiet. Well, I had no friends
in Hong Kong as referees and had not visited Hong Kong
for the past 23 years. So I used the only reference I
had. But the name of the Racing Clubs cut no ice with
the MIO.
The MIO said: "If you go to Macau from the Hong Kong
International Airport, there is a direct link and you
need not step into Hong Kong. Then I need not send you
back to Singapore on the next plane. I consider it a
hostile and unfriendly act."
 "What
have I done wrong to be a national threat to the
security of Hong Kong?" I asked as if discussing the
prognosis of my canine patient suffering from cardiac
tamponade. The prognosis would be poor and I would ask
the dog owner to spend the last few days with her old
dog.
The MIO said: "You have not done anything wrong. However
I am not allowed to let you know the reason."
So, here I was. Two and a half hours had passed. My last
few minutes inside Hong Kong. No more second chances of
visiting Hong Kong again if I accepted this offer. There
were more implications than just being banned from Hong
Kong.
"If Hong Kong bans me as a threat to its national
interest, I will also be banned from entering Macau
since Macau is also part of China," I believed that both
share the same blacklists of tourists under suspicions
since Macau is also part of China, being one of the two
special administrative regions under the one-government
two-systems policy of China.
"No," the MIO said. "Macau has its own information
system as to who to prohibit from entering Macau."
I did not ask him how he was so sure that I would also
not be welcome in Macau since both SARS have their
independent system? Don't they share a blacklist of
undesired person? That would be logical since both are
part of China. I might also detained for a 3-hour
questioning and Macau would do the dirty work for Hong
Kong Immigration Office by sending me back on the next
plane.
I said: "China will also ban me since Hong Kong has me
on the blacklist."
The MIO said: "I see that you had visited China and had
no problems."
I did not retort that it was some 2 years ago so as not
to offend the MIO.
"Does it mean that I will not be able to visit Hong Kong
forever?" I asked.
"Not necessarily. Things may change with time."
"I am 60 years old," I said as a matter of fact and not
to elicit sympathy. "I don't have time on my side."
Besides, I don't realistically see any changes for the
better for me once I accept his offer not to step into
Hong Kong now. By accepting his offer, I imply that I
had some nefarious links and am in Hong Kong to execute
some plans against the national interest of the Hong
Kong people. Since I said I had brought in only
HK$4,000, it would not be money laundering or support.
But so far, my luggage had not been checked and so it
was my word he accepted.
"I am suggesting that you go to Macau as sending you
back on the next available plane is a hostile act. I
don't want to commit an unfriendly act. You can spend
your next four days visiting Macau."
I said: "My main purpose was to visit Hong Kong. To see
the changes since 23 years ago. Macau is just a side
trip as I have never travelled to Macau before."
"What do you want to do in Hong Kong?" the MIO asked.
"To see Times Square," I said off the cuff.
"You come to Hong Kong to see Times Square?" the MIO
rolled his eyes in surprise. I guessed I had provided an
incorrect answer. But what was the correct answer in
such a situation?
"Well, I would
like to visit Times Square which I went in 1988," I now
figured out that Times Square was not on his list of
tourist attractions for Singaporeans. "To see the
changes after 23 years. I would also be going shopping."
I did not elaborate that I was staying in Regal Hong
Kong in Wanchai (police cordoned the hotel due to a
robbery incident was memorable) and had visited Times
Square many times then. I said little and that could be
not good.
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TOA
PAYOH VETS
