An Indonesian woman's euphoric "balik kampung" New Year joke backfired after she found herself on the wrong side of the law for proclaiming that there was a bomb in her bag.
According to Sinar Daily, the incident happened recently at the check-in counter of the Penang International Airport on Thursday 29 December 2022, where she and her two friends were on a scheduled flight to Medan that same evening.
The 33-year old woman, said to be working as a factory operator in Ipoh, Perak, has been remanded for two days pending investigation under Section 506 of the Penal Code for criminal intimidation.
As it turned out, just like the immortal words from the old Bee Gees classic, the wannabe stand up comedienne may have ended up discovering, too late, that "the joke was on her"!
It must have been a sense of deja vu too, for some of the airport personnel there, as in the past, Malay Mail had reported on 31 August 2019 that three individuals had been arrested for making a false bomb hoax call. On that occasion it made the headlines on Merdeka day!
To be fair, such incidents have also been reported in other airports. Rojak Daily had reported previously that at the Kuching International Airport on 21 July 2016, a 27-year old passenger who happened to be an army lance corporal, had said that he had a bomb in his bag. Thankfully, it turned out to be some tempting "edible explosives" in the shape of ikan terubuk (salted fish) and some kek lapis Sarawak (layer cake).
Meanwhile, back in 16 August 2016, Astro Awani had also reported that a flight to Pekan Baru from the Melaka International Airport was delayed for two hours because the counter staff there had overheard the taboo word "bomb" in a conversation between a married couple. It could be that the couple may have been nostalgically talking about how they'll miss the local mamak's "roti boom" (often comically mispronounced as "roti bom").
Of course, "roti bom" may not be the only hot button word forbidden at our local airports. Just in case your partner develops a last-minute urge for some roti canai before boarding the flight, to play safe, just propose to her roti planta or roti tissue.
Finally, let's hope no one ends up behind bars, for innocently uttering another potentially inflammable word - "bom-ba" - even if there is a fire raging inside the airport!
The unwritten rule for the universal is whenever we are in the airport or even inside a plane, or just about anywhere for that matter, always remember to watch our tongue.
JK Joseph is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav.
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