AP - Authorised Perompak

My nephew studied in England and before coming back with a professional qualification, he wanted to make use of his AP entitlement to bring back a car, as most students do. After lengthy consultations with his parents, they agreed, from their life savings, to finance his purchase of a second-hand car, ie, about RM70K equivalent. Eight months later he came back but left the car with his Malaysian friend there as the condition is that the car has to be there at least 9 months after purchase. 3 months later, he made arrangements with his friend to ship the car back to Malaysia.

A week before the car arrived at Port Klang, he brought all his documents to MITI to get his AP. He was in for a shock His AP was rejected on the grounds that he was in UK for less than 9 months with the car. My nephew was made to understand earlier that the car should be there for at least 9 months but nobody told him that he too should be there for 9 months after the purchase. Prior to the purchase, he was there for over 3 years and if he only knew that condition, he would have delayed his coming back for another month to comply to the requirement, but nobody told him about it earlier. That was his big mistake, moreso at the start of his career.

The car is now at the yard at Port Klang but he has no AP to retrieve his car. He and all of us ran helter skelter trying to get the AP. His parents are staunch UMNO and BN supporters, and through his aunt who is a Setiausaha Bahagian, he got an appointment to see the political secretary of Rafidah, the then Minister of MITI. Application was submitted again but was still rejected. Helter skelter again as car is at port for over a month and port charges are RM50 per day. Tried to buy an AP from one of the car importers known to a relative but for commercial APs, the car should be less than 5 years old, but his car has surpassed it by a couple of months. Trauma again. All relatives tried all available connections but to no avail, so the car had to be shipped back to be sold in the UK, very pening lah, buntu fikiran all of us, though we are all hardcore UMNO and BN supporters. Who said the government only takes care of UMNOputras?

Finally, when we all buntu, one relative recommended a close friend of his, a forwarding agent who could solve the problem for us, but surely must pay lah, AP and taxes come to RM80K. The parents had no choice but to beg and borrow ( but not steal lah, they are God-fearing people) to save the car. The car is finally out of the port with some vandalism, of course, the tyres has been changed but the engine can start, so must have been left intact, thank God.

So, all in all, the car cost them over RM150K. The market price of the same model, same age at our local used car dealer in Jalan Ipoh is about RM100K only. Whew, after all the traumatic experience. What a start in working life for a 24 year old graduate.

Till today I am still disoriented by all these, what more my nephew. Anyone out there has got similar experience to share? Where did the forwarding guy get the AP, I still wonder!!!