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.

Clarification

The Singaporean couple has since reached out to the Roads.sg page to explain what exactly happened (from their point of view, anyway). According to them, the customs officer had acted increasingly disdainful towards the wife after he got irritated when he got misheard. They also disputed the initial claim that the car they were in was redirected to another lane.

“The officer concerned had raised his voice multiple times and also challenged the occupant to a fight prior to the recording of the video clip. The officer concerned then proceeded to the vehicle to confront the occupant and thereafter, the argument in the video took place.”

Though they admitted that the husband should not have yelled out like that, they insisted that the Malaysian officer had been “unprofessional” and “thuggish”. A police report was made after they returned to Singapore.

This article, Singaporean man and Malaysian customs officer get into shouting match after mishearing each other, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters!