The State Health Department is currently investigating allegations that officers from the department issued compounds of RM1,500 to students of a matriculation college for SOP non-compliance.
This was stated by the Director-General of Health, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a response to Twitter user @NabilAmirul4 at 12.05am earlier today (April 20).
“Thank you for the report lodged to the Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia. The matter will be dealt with as soon as possible,” he added in the tweeted reply.
The students were purportedly fined for not wearing face masks while at the college’s café premises. The incident is believed to have taken place at the Perak Matriculation College in Gopeng.
The tweet by @NabilAmirul4 was posted at 5.13pm yesterday (April 19). As of 12pm today, it has amassed more than 36,000 retweets, including quoted tweets.
“The students have been isolated for an entire semester but they ended up being compounded for RM1,500 by the officers at the café.
“Our six-month allowance is only RM1,250,” the user lamented.
The matter has stirred an uproar among netizens, with most citing unfairness of the compounding.
A retweet from @abcdelynnn stated, “I don’t understand. Even though we (students) are isolated, the lecturers and staff are free to enter and exit. When there’s a case, the students are blamed?”
The issue has even received attention from the parliamentary member for Johor’s federal constituency of Muar, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.
“If it’s a student, there’s no need to open investigation papers. Just compound on the spot.
“We’ve remarked on double standards of SOP implementations like this for countless times. Is it an issue to warn first before compounding them? What’s so difficult about that?” he questioned.
Chris Teh
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