KUALA LUMPUR: Social media personality and political activist Syarul Ema Rena Abu Samah, widely known as Ratu Naga, has been detained in connection with a video alleging that pupils at a Chinese school in Teluk Intan sang the national anthem in Mandarin.
Her lawyer, Zaid Malek, stated that his client was detained by Perak police at about 12pm in Petaling Jaya on Thursday (April 10).
"She was arrested under the Sedition Act 1948 and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act," he said in a statement.
Zaid asserted that no criminal offence arose from anything Syarul Ema said in the video.
"The arrest is thus unlawful and high-handed.
"She took down the video within 10 minutes of uploading it on TikTok, upon realising her mistake regarding the language in which the anthem was sung.
"Despite this, the video was uploaded by others, obviously with the intent of widely disseminating it," he added.
He urged the police, the Attorney-General and the government to immediately drop the investigation against Syarul Ema.
Reports indicate that three police reports were lodged concerning the issue.
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Hilir Perak OCPD Asst Comm Dr Bakri Zainal Abidin stated that the matter would be investigated under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code for uttering statements of public mischief and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act for improper use of network facilities.
ACP Bakri said police first received a complaint about the three-minute 40-second video on Friday (April 4) at about 7pm.
"The video began with a group of children singing the Perak Anthem, followed by a commentary by a political activist that caused controversy.
"The individual raised an issue about the National Anthem being sung in a language other than Malay and claimed the act violated protocol," he said in a statement on Saturday (April 5).
It was reported that Syarul Ema allegedly accused the Chinese school pupils of disrespecting the national anthem.
Syarul Ema also apologised on her Facebook page on Friday (April 4) for mishearing the song and removed her post within 10 minutes of uploading it.
