S’porean writer detained in JB for 7 days after quarrelling with M’sian immigration officer
Is it just us or are Singaporeans getting into more trouble across the causeway?In a video posted to TikTok, Singaporean writer Atalia Nyx Chua shared that she was at the Johor Bahru Checkpoint on August 7 for a day trip and she ended up being detained for seven days.
Atalia, who has written for the South China Morning Post, said the incident happened at about 8:40am.
The almost 10-minute video has since been viewed more than 84K times.
Sharing a video of the two immigration officers, Atalia called one of them out for being “very verbally abusive towards [her]” even after she told him to stop.
It is unsure what caused the incident.
Atalia then took her phone to film the officers and said that one of them “waved and smiled and gave a peace sign” before “shouting and yelling” at her with “really aggressive hand gestures”.
The use of mobile phones for videos and photographs is prohibited in any gazette security checkpoints or CIQ areas in Malaysia.
The immigration officer then insisted Atalia give him her passport which she refused. She said: “I know once he has it, he’s going to confiscate it, and [then] I will be stuck here.”
Atalia said she walked to another counter where the junior officer who was attending to her “was obviously too scared to say no to his senior” and passed her passport to the first officer.
She was then brought to an office where Atalia says she kept demanding her passport be returned to her.
“He was just laughing,” said Atalia, who later shared a recording of a voice demanding her to delete her videos.
Atalia was also heard fiercely asking why she was brought to the office before asking passersby outside if anyone was Singaporean.
The video then cuts to a clip of Atalia filming the officers hiding from her camera.
“Look at these cowards just hiding and peeping [out], and keeping me there for no reason,” she ranted.
While Atalia was asking passersby for help, she said the Chief officer, a woman, came out and pushed her back into the office.
“She didn’t want me to ask for help or speak to people anymore,” said Atalia, adding they still refused to allow her to leave or return her passport.
The video then cuts to where Atalia continues talking about her experience.
Dressed in a low-cut red and black outfit, she recounted how three enforcement officers then turned up to tell her she would be detained.
One of the officers then took a different tone with Atalia.
“You know, I love putting handcuffs on Chinese women because their wrists are always so slim, and they always look veryswee,” said the officer.
‘Swee’ is Hokkien for pretty.
He also allegedly asked if she ever wore handcuffs before, and said, “I bet you look really good. Your wrists are really small, and you are very fair.”
Atalia then shared that another two male officers started smiling and waving at her while giving her cheeky looks.
She then said she spotted one of them secretly taking a picture of her.
“I went out of the room, and stood in front of him. He was literally looking at my picture at that very moment,” shared Atalia.
She then told him that he wasn’t allowed to take her picture, and according to Atalia, was quite shocked by her.
Atalia then said the officer stood up and shouted at her and “started using his body to keep pushing me back harder and harder into the meeting room.”
As she was backed up against the door, Atalia said the officer threatened to punch her and “raised his fist” before being held back by three of his colleagues.
“They had to physically put their hands on him to hold him back,” she said.
“He got even angrier and took off his jacket, threw it on the floor, raised his arm, and tried to punch me again,” added Atalia, who also said no one seemed shocked at what he did.
Atalia went on to post a picture of the officer who tried to punch her.
“This is that crazy jerk who tried to assault me,” Atalia said in a voiceover.
“You know what is sick? Mohammad Syafiq? After I came out, I saw him like so many of my posts on IG and TikTok. He is a creep,” she added.
A quick check showed Syafiq had set his Instagram profile to private.
Atalia also claimed the offending officer wasn’t disciplined even in the presence of his superiors.
“In Singapore, you will get fired and charged in court. But [to them]. it was a funny shenanigan” she said.
According to Atalia, she felt like the officers have a grudge against Singaporean Chinese. She had heard them calling Singaporean Chinese "dumb" and "so arrogant and self-entitled". She believed they were taking their grievances out on her and were blowing up the matter on that account.
Atalia was then handcuffed by a female officer and was told she was being detained.
She went on to explain that the verbal harassment was so bad that they had to detain her so they could delete the video.
Atalia admitted she deleted it but not before she sent it to a whole group of people and emailed it to herself.
However, the nightmare didn’t stop there. The officers then insisted she needed to give up her phone to them and she was told they would “extract the video through forensics”.
She had no way out and gave up her phone.
Atalia shared that the initial 14 days of detention was cut to seven because she used two very powerful words: "Singapore Embassy"
"And they don’t want trouble with Singapore," she said.
She ended the video saying she will post future videos on her days spent in detainment.
In another clip, Atalia shared that she was so affected by the incident that she had her period come twice in a month. Her first time was on the fourth day of her detention.
“I didn’t know how stressful this whole thing is. I guess the trauma is stored in my body,” said Atalia.
Netizens were intrigued by her account with mixed comments on Atalia’s experience.
While many expressed how sorry she had to go through the ordeal, others were less impressed and said Atalia must have been rude to the immigration officer in the first place.
Some comments also unfairly took aim at Atalia’s make-up and dressing, with one asking: “Did you dress like this when you fought with the officer?”
Photos: greekgoddesofnighttq/TikTok
