Social media butterfly Raine Lee recently shared a post on her Facebook regarding a roadblock incident that happened on 8th May.
Apparently, the police “forced” her to sing the “Negaraku” to prove that she was Malaysian because they thought she was from China. This was also largely due to the fact that she failed to produce her identification as she lost her MyKad 2 months ago.
“I was forced to sing the freaking ‘Negaraku’ song,” said Lee.
“It’s nothing new to be honest, I always get accused of being from China or Thai A LOT not only from cops but from random strangers who have the nerve to come up to me & ASK,” wrote the young blogger.
Although she showed the officers her driving license, they refused to accept it and said that she did not resemble the photo on the license. They then insisted on having her sing the national anthem to prove her citizenship.
The police let her off even though she was only able to sing half of the song. At the end of her post, she wrote, “Moral of the story: Learn the ‘Negaraku’ song & don’t be IC-less.”
So, netizens are now asking, “Can the police make people sing the national anthem to prove one’s citizenship?”
According to The Malay Mail, Bukit Aman traffic police chief SAC Mahamad Akhir Darus said that it is not an offence for policemen to ask Malaysians to sing “Negaraku” if they are unable to produce their identification. However, it is not in the police’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
“My men have not committed any offence by asking someone to sing ‘Negaraku’ if those stopped fail to produce their MyKad, But this is not our SOP. Those on duty have their own methods in dealing with such situations,” he said
The supposed post was deleted by Raine Lee when we checked her Facebook page.
Do you think it’s alright for police officers to make people sing the national anthem? Let us know in the comments below!
Sources: The Malay Mail, The Malaysian Digest.
