2 M’sia Students Arrested Over TikTok Video Where They Ranted About Exam Paper That Included S’pore

Imagine getting arrested over complaining about an exam. 

Two Malaysian students complained about Singapore-related questions appearing in their national history exam and were arrested.

Here’s why.

Singapore Questions in Malaysian National Exam 

I’m sure everyone has experienced this at least once: the topics you studied hard for didn’t come out in the exam, while those you neglected did.

That happened to two 18-year-old boys from Hulu Selangor taking their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) papers.

The SPM, or the Malaysian Certificate of Education, is a national exam equivalent to our GCE O-Level exams. In its history paper, there were questions about Singapore’s history, which the two boys were unhappy about.

Posted TikTok Rant

In a TikTok video, one teen was swearing and making rude gestures while ranting about the questions, saying they’re irrelevant to Malaysians.

“To those who made this SPM history paper, what about Singapore? People don’t read about Singapore. Do you think I care about Singapore? Even for water, they use Malaysia’s,” he rants.

“And then with nationalism, the Constitution, making me tired reading about it, but it didn’t make it,” the teen continues. He was referring to how these topics he studied didn’t appear in the paper.

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The Teacher Reported Them to The Police, Boys Underwent Drug Tests

You might have thought that a random TikTok user saw the video, got offended, and then reported it to the police.

But that wasn’t what happened. 

In a turn of events, a teacher filed a police report, saying they uttered “abusive words” due to their dissatisfaction with the paper.

According to Hulu Selangor district police chief Superintendent Suffian Abdullah, a mobile phone used by the boys was confiscated.

The boys even had to undergo drug screening tests, which came back negative. They also did not have any previous criminal records.

“The case is being investigated in accordance with Section 14 of the Minor Offences Act 1995 and Section 233 of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Act 1998,” stated Superintendant Suffian.

This harsh treatment raised a few eyebrows from a group of human rights lawyers, Lawyers for Liberty, who said the police went too far. They stated that the police shouldn’t have raided the boys’ homes and made them do drug tests for a minor offence.

After all, they were merely ranting about an exam, something that every student has surely done before. It was just unfortunate that they posted the rant on TikTok. 

“This would have caused extreme trauma to them and their family. And all this over a video where they vented their frustrations on their SPM history paper,” Lawyers for Liberty stated.

Meanwhile, the two boys have apologised for their comments about Singapore in a later TikTok video.

Police Respond to Criticism 

After Lawyers for Liberty called the police out, Superintendant Suffian defended their actions. He stated that they followed Section 14 of the Minor Offences Act 1995 and Section 233 of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Act 1998.

“The two-day remand order against both students was to have their statements recorded thoroughly and to fact-check with related parties, including (checking) the contents of the mobile phone and to get a disciplinary report from the school.”

“Having been satisfied with the progress of our investigation, both students were released at 11 am today (26 February) on police bail,” he stated.

The investigation paper, once completed, will be referred to Selangor’s Deputy Public Prosecutor.