A morning task to pick up a family member from the Selarang Park Complex drug rehabilitation centre turned out to be a painful experience last Friday.

I first went to the middle building in the three-building complex and was told that I had to go to the adjacent one instead.

It was disconcerting to see the people there paying no heed to the notices about safe distancing - freely shaking hands and exchanging greetings. After a worrisome wait, I was directed to a third building.

I had to walk out to the road to get to it and when I got there, the officer at the guardhouse pointed me back to the building I had just come from. I suggested that he check with someone in the building about the status of my family member first. After a wait, I was finally allowed into the building only to be told that I was at the wrong place and that I was to go back to the guardhouse and wait there instead.

About 10 minutes later, my family member walked out of the building.

I had some questions for the officer accompanying him but he refused to entertain me, saying his job was only to accompany the person being released to the guardhouse.

After all the unhelpful directions and messy communication between officers, there was no apology from anyone.

It is worrisome that at this high-security complex, where discipline and procedures are usually the order of the day, there was little of these.

Bachan Singh