With no satisfactory official response forthcoming from AirAsia regarding the policy of imposing indemnity form on wheelchair users after more than two months, I decided to refer my complaint to the Minister of Transport Dato’ Sri Chan Kong Choy and the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Dato’ Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

The complaint was sent via email just now and hardcopies will posted to the respective ministers and three other persons in the carbon copy list, namely Senator Prof Datuk Dr. Ismail Md Salleh, Society of Orthopaedically Handicapped Malaysia President Dr. Tiun Ling Ta and Malaysian Spinal Injuries Association President Dr. Rahim bin Noor. I am a member of both organisations. Not long after the email was sent, Ministry of Transport Secretary General Dato’ Haji Zakaria Hj Bahari forwarded the mail to AirAsia CEO Datuk Tony Fernandes asking him to take action accordingly.

Below is the content of my complaint letter:

4 Januari, 2008

Y.B. Dato’ Sri Chan Kong Choy Melalui emel dan pos
Menteri Pengangkutan
Blok D5, Kompleks D
Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan
62616 Putrajaya

Y. B. Dato’ Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil Melalui emel dan pos
Menteri Pembangunan Wanita, Keluarga dan Masyarakat
Aras 1-6, Blok E
Kompleks Pejabat Kerajaan Bukit Perdana
Jalan Dato’ Onn
50515 Kuala Lumpur

Dato’ Sri Chan dan Dato’ Sri Shahrizat,

PER: DISKRIMINASI TERDAHAP PENUMPANG YANG MENGGUNA KERUSI RODA OLEH AIRASIA

Saya ingin membuat aduan tentang perkara di atas yang telah berlaku pada diri saya.

1. Pada 30 Oktober 2007, saya bersama isteri saya telah daftar masuk di Lapangan Terbangan Antarabangsa Kota Kinabalu untuk menaiki penerbangan AirAsia AK 5107 ke Kuala Lumpur. Saya adalah pengguna kerusi roda.

2. Seorang pegawai AirAsia meminta saya menandatangani borang lepas tanggungan (Release and Indemnity). Antara fasal yang terkandung di dalam borang itu adalah:
- AirAsia tidak akan bertanggungjawab sekiranya berlaku apa-apa pada diri saya semasa penerbangan.
- Saya bersetuju menanggung segala perbelanjaan AirAsia yang mungkin disebabkan oleh diri saya dalam penerbangan tersebut.
- Saya telah menandatangani borang itu secara sukarela .

3. Saya telah membantah dengan sekerasnya dan meminta perkara ini dirujuk kepada pihak pengurusan AirAsia di Kuala Lumpur sebab perbuatan yang mewajibkan saya menandatangani borang itu adalah diskriminasi terhadap saya sebagai seorang pengguna kerusi roda.

4. Setelah pegawai itu merujuk kepada pengurusnya, saya diberitahu bahawa sekiranya saya tidak menandatangani borang tersebut, saya tidak akan dibenarkan menaiki pesawat. Saya tidak mempunyai pilihan kecuali menandatangani borang tersebut untuk dibenarkan menaiki pesawat kembali ke Kuala Lumpur. Apabila menandatangani borang tersebut, saya juga telah menulis dengan huruf besar yang terang bahawa saya membantah perbuatan tersebut. Salinan borang tersebut dilampirkan.

5. Saya telah memaklumkan kejadian tersebut kepada Datuk Tony Fernandez dan Encik Bo Lingam dari AirAsia melalui emel. Maklumbalas dari kedua-dua mereka sungguh tidak memuaskan. Sehingga kini, selepas dua bulan, pihak AirAsia masih belum memberi penerangan yang munasabah mengenai syarat ini kecuali mengatakan bahawa ia adalah syarat dari syarikat insurans mereka. Alasan ini tidak boleh diterima kerana Malaysia Airlines tidak mengenakan syarat ini keatas pengguna kerusi roda kecuali satu kesilapan di Jepun di mana Profesor Yutaka Takamine diminta mendandatangani surat lepas tanggungan. Malaysia Airlines telah pun meminta maaf kepada Profesor Yutaka seperti yang Dato’ Sri-Dato’ Sri sudah dimaklumkan.

6. Saya telah menghadiri kursus “Independent Living Program for People with Disabilities” di Jepun dan Thailand pada 2006 yang dianjurkan bersama oleh Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia dan Japan International Cooperation Agency. Dalam penerbangan ke kursus-kursus tersebut dengan Japan Airlines dan Malaysia Airlines, saya tidak diminta untuk menandatangani borang lepas tanggungan. Saya juga telah menghadiri 7th Disabled Peoples’ International World Assembly dan Global Summit on Independent Living di Korea baru-baru ini sebagai speaker untuk kedua-dua perhimpunan tersebut dengan penerbangan Malaysia Airlines dan juga tidak diminta untuk menandatangi borang tersebut.

7. Saya ingin merujuk kepada cadangan daripada 18 pertubuhan OKU yang diserahkan kepada Dato’ Sri Chan pada mesyuarat di Kementerian Pengangkutan pada 12 Mac 2007 di mana kami meminta supaya syarat yang mewajipkan pengguna kerusi roda menandatangani surat lepas tanggunan yang diamalkan oleh syarikat penerbangan dilarang sama sekali. Salinan cadangan tersebut dilampirkan.

8. Syarat yang diskriminasi ini melanggar hak asasi saya. Saya berharap Dato’ Sri Chan dan Dato’ Sri Shahrizat akan mengambil tindakan dengan segera supaya perkara yang sebegini tidak berlaku lagi. Ia juga untuk memelihara hak OKU yang termaktub dalam Rang Undang-Undang Orang Kurang Upaya 2007 dan Konvensyen Mengenai Hak Orang Kurang Upaya (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities).

Perhatian Dato’ Sri-Dato’ Sri di atas perkara ini amat dihargai.

Sekian, terima kasih.

Related entry:
BEAT�s Recommendation To The Ministry of Transport Malaysia

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Scott Rains alerted me to the following news report. It seems that the act of discrimination against wheelchair users is not limited to Malaysia’s AirAsia. The Hindustan Times news titled Airline Displays Callousness in December 19 reported that Sanjiv Sachdeva was asked to sign a bond to absolve Jetlite from all responsibilities should anything happen to him in a flight on December 16. Jetlite is an India-based low cost carrier. Sanjiv has filed a complaint with the Directorate General of Aviation and the Commissioner of Diabilities.

In the same newspaper report, another wheelchair user Mahesh Chandrashekar was subjected to similar conditions by Deccan, India’s first low-fare airline. Mahesh was reported to have said that the language used in the indemnity form sounded prejudiced, embarrassing, derogatory and appeared as if a favour has been doled out to a passenger with disability who is travelling on a fully-paid ticket.

Indemnity forms are worded in such a way that the person who signed it absolves the airline from all blame should anything happen. Too bad if that person dies or is injured as a result of flying with the airline. To add insult to injury, if the airline has to incur additional costs because of that person, the said person has to bear all that. Tell me, where is justice in that? Heads I lose. Tails also I lose. Mana boleh? Unbelievable? Go read the indemnity form that Airsia made me sign.

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The following news report by The Sydney Morning Herald regarding air travel for disabled people in Australia is equally relevant here in Malaysia in the wake of unfair conditions imposed by AirAsia on disabled people.

Airlines dive in survey of disabled passenger satisfaction

Bonny Symons-Brown
December 17, 2007

PEOPLE with disabilities have significantly more trouble accessing airline services than five years ago, despite the introduction of a national standard to protect them.

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre surveyed 110 people with disabilities, their carers or advocates and found that only 14 had an overall positive experience when dealing with airlines.

Its report concludes that there has been “a systemic failure of airlines to improve access”. It has been submitted to a federal government five-year review of disability standards for accessible public transport.

The standards are a regulatory framework for all modes of public transport but there is no compliance monitoring or licensing requirement for airlines to meet the standards.

Even if the airlines do meet the standards, the report warned, the standards do not adequately protect the human rights of people with disabilities.

The complaints included airline announcements that delays were due to a wheelchair passenger, travel being refused unless the disabled person was accompanied by a carer, and broken wheelchairs due to negligent handling. In one case, a passenger was left on the tarmac with no assistance to the terminal entrance.

The centre’s chief executive officer, Robin Banks, said restrictive airline policies on aids such as wheelchairs or assistance animals and inadequate communication between staff and customers with a disability had lead to negative experiences for many disabled travellers.

“People reported things like they felt humiliated or they felt embarrassed, some of them said they wouldn’t be flying again, and the sense that people were afraid of the experience being repeated,” she said.

“The other really strong and common theme is a sense of frustration and a sense that the person they were dealing with couldn’t resolve, or was unwilling to attempt to resolve, the problem.”

The report, co-ordinated with the NSW Disability Discrimination Legal Centre, calls for an airline-specific code of practice to be developed in consultation with people with disabilities and administered by a relevant federal transport agency; mandatory reporting requirements, with data released annually; training courses in disability management for all airline staff; and an industry-based complaints process.

Ms Banks said that in a country such as Australia, where air travel was an important part of public transport, people with disabilities should not continue to confront accessibility problems.

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