[UPDATED] Johor MB pans shameful prolonged power outage at border crossing

JOHOR Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi has described the prolonged disruption of electricity supply at the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex in the Sultan Iskandar Building as an embarrassment to the state government.

He said he has instructed Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) and the Public Works Department (PWD) to resolve the issue.

"What happened caused great difficulty for commuters and is an embarrassment to the state.

"TNB and PWD have been instructed to resolve this issue as soon as possible," he said in a post on Facebook.

The complex at Johor Baru leads to the causeway linking the state to Singapore. It is reported that the power outage lasted for more than 12 hours, with people having to wait in near darkness.

The disruption occurred at 8pm last night and lasted until 10am.

Onn Hafiz also shared a notice that had been issued by TNB regarding the maintenance works carried out around the building.

Based on the notice, the work started at 8pm yesterday and lasted until 4am today.

The CNA news portal reported Singapore's Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) as saying there was heavy departure traffic at Woodlands Checkpoint on the island-end of the causeway at 11am today "due to tailback from Malaysia".

"Delays are expected and travellers are advised to check traffic conditions before embarking on their journey," the ICA said.

No back-up power supply

The majority of the people who were stuck, especially in the morning, were commuters who cross the causeway from Johor in a daily basis to work in Singapore.

Most complained there was no back-up power supply for such an important international gateway with hundreds of thousands of people crossing.

One user vented on social media, lamenting that despite Malaysians paying their taxes, the authorities could not even arrange an alternative power generator.

Another shared that the condition of the elderly and children who were caught among the slow-moving crowds in the heat and darkness was very pitiful.

“There was no light at all. Throughout the whole night no one seemed to have done anything to rectify the situation,” said one person who was there. “It began before midnight. The shops were also unlit.”

“No one was checking, no one seemed to escalate the matter to the relevant authorities to fix or improve the situation.”

One commuter recalled that he left for work early in the morning as he was worried there would be a traffic jam. 

He described being stuck in the pre-dawn hours in pitch darkness. Compounding the problem was that the crowd was huge and it was very stuffy and hot.

"Usually, the passport stamping process would be completed in 20 minutes. But today I had to queue for three hours to have it processed manually,” the person was quoted as saying by Berita Harian.

"The elevator, escalator and automatic passport scanner were also not working, and we did not know the cause of the power cut.

"There should have been a generator available as an emergency back-up plan because this is the main entrance (to the causeway),” he added. – The Vibes, December 6, 2023