Ah, much ado about nothing. A misunderstanding that emerged from poor auditory conditions resulted in a full-blown shouting match between a Malaysian customs officer and a Singaporean man passing through the checkpoint.
Believed to have taken place last Friday night at the Sultan Iskandar customs, immigration and quarantine complex in Johor Bahru (that’s the one near Woodlands), footage of the very heated quarrel was captured and shared on the Roads.SG Facebook page.
According to the anonymous contributor who managed to film the altercation — it’s illegal to take pictures and videos at checkpoints — the argument started when a Singapore-registered car was directed to head to another lane to get passports stamped. But the Singaporean driver and his passengers weren’t able to hear properly, and the misunderstanding escalated to the point where the customs officer marched out and confronted the travelers. As you can see in the video, the Singaporean man went absolutely ballistic and insisted that he couldn’t hear from inside the car, so much so that the angry man’s wife had to calm him the heck down.
“I go in Malaysia a hundred times, everybody steady. You rabak ah!” the Singaporean man yelled, calling the officer the Malay word typically used to describe things that are uncouth. “Hey! You’re a Singaporean, this is my country!” the officer responded.
