You folks must have heard of the last-minute denial of landing
rights by the Indonesian government to Valuair. Everyone's guessing
what was happening, and Valuair's bosses were reportedly baffled as
to what had gone wrong.
You see, Singaporeans are known to be organised and go by the book,
so all the paperwork should have been in order. What could go
wrong?
My boss had a simple explanation. The airline folks forgot to give
coffee money to the authorities in Jakarta. Civil servants are paid
measely sums in Indonesia and they survive on undertable
money.
My boss should know. He travels to Jakarta frequently for business.
In fact, on a recent trip with him, I had to carry some IT
equipment in my suitcase and he prepared Rp20,000 in case the X-ray
scanner folks made things difficult for me. Our working partner in
Indonesia also attests to this way of doing things in that country.
So I believe what my boss said has some truth in it.
What do you think?
SQ22