A Singaporean woman’s day trip to Johor Bahru turned into a week-long ordeal after an alleged ‘heated argument’ with a Malaysian customs officer.
The 36-year-old woman, Atalia Chua, was detained for seven days and six nights, claiming that she was harassed and pressured to sign a Malay language form during her detention.
She was released after her brother contacted Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
Shares experience online
Chua shared her experience in a now-deleted TikTok post and later provided more details to Mothership.
According to Mothership, she arrived at Johor’s Bangunan Sultan Iskandar checkpoint, north of the Woodlands Checkpoint, at 8:40am on Aug 7.
After two failed biometric scans, she approached a counter where she encountered an “aggressive” male officer.
The officer informed her that the counter was closed, but when Chua pointed out that a woman had just been served at the same counter, the officer became upset.
Chua then moved to a different counter, but the officer continued to shout at her in a mix of Malay and English, which she described as “verbally abusive and aggressive”.
Asked the officer to stop shouting at her
Chua asked the officer to stop shouting and threatened to film him.
At first, the officer “smiled, waved, and made a ‘peace’ sign” but soon demanded her passport.
Believing he would confiscate it, Chua refused, but he later retrieved it from the second counter and walked away with it into an office.
Chua was told at the customs office that she could leave if she deleted the video, which she did eventually.
However, she alleged that the officers still confiscated her phone, stating it would be sent for forensic analysis.
Chua was then brought to a detainment office and strip-searched by female officers.
Release after 7 days
According to 8world, she was first given a form written in Malay and asked to sign it, but she refused, as did their refusal to let her contact her family.
Over the next three days, both sides remained in a stalemate.
According to her, she was originally supposed to have a meal with her family, but suddenly lost contact.
@greekgoddessofnightq Locked up for 7 days over Singapore’s National Day weekend, no less. Just my luck, wrong place wrong time; Malaysians hate Singaporean-Chinese a lot. And I felt this. If I was Singaporean-Indian or especially Singaporean-Malay, they wouldn’t have even detained me and be having teh tarik party with me. #tiktoksg #sgnews #sgviral #singapore #malaysia #johorbahru #fypsg #foryou #foryoupage #fyp @CNA @Mothership @Bloomberg @CNN @BBC @South China Morning Post l@TODAYOnline @Fox News @We are a newspaper. ♬ Tobey – Eminem & Big Sean & BabyTron
Her brother inquired around and finally learned that she had been detained, but due to it being the weekend, he was only able to visit her on the morning of Monday (12 August).
The next afternoon at 4 PM, after signing the “stern warning” document, she was able to board a bus to return home.
Receives ‘stern warning’ letter from customs
In a document provided to 8world, it was stated that she had violated the Malaysian Immigration Department’s regulations by not following the instructions of law enforcement officers.
Under the relevant regulations, offenders could be fined up to RM10,000 (about SGD3,000) or face imprisonment of up to five years, or both.
However, the authorities decided to issue her a stern warning and close the case.
