Why are taxi touts operating freely at KLIA2?

LETTER | After conducting training on customer service at Kota Kinabalu, I flew back to Kuala Lumpur last Friday afternoon. 

Exiting from the arrival hall, I was accosted by touts offering taxi service, but I kept walking towards the arrival gate where passengers board cars to leave the airport.

While waiting for an e-hailing car to arrive, I noticed the space just outside Gate 2 was swarmed with taxi touts and they were busy making exchanges with each other or on the lookout for their next target when not harassing passengers.

It was an ugly sight but the powers-that-be seem unperturbed as the touts appeared very confident and comfortable, like they were operating in their own backyard. I noticed there were many CCTV cameras pointing at where touts and passengers were waiting, but they were either dummies or those monitoring them chose to turn a blind eye.

If I am monitoring these cameras and given the permission, I would have shown the image of these touts on large display screens to warn them that they are being monitored, even if no enforcement officer bothers to act there and then.

Touts are emboldened wherever authorities are apathetic, and they operate with impunity by colluding with corrupt enforcement officers. 

But if open transgressions at such an important gateway to our country are not curbed, it would be unconvincing to claim that safety and security is in place nationwide.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.