KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 — In protest to an incident where Health Ministry (MoH) officers purportedly dined matriculation students in Perak with a fine of RM1,500, Muar MP Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman took to Twitter and expressed his dissatisfaction with the incident.

Responding to a Twitter post by user @NabilAmirul4 — which contained an image allegedly showing the incident — and requested an explanation from MoH on why such a decision was made.

"If it’s a student, no need to open an investigation paper. Just issue fine,” said Syed Saddiq mockingly.

"We’ve addressed these double standards in implementation many times? What’s wrong with warning them before compounding? What’s so difficult about it?” he asked.

Several Twitter users have come to the defence of the students who were allegedly fined in the incident, saying that these students have been confined or "quarantined” in their college for over five months in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to user @ainurjannxh, health officials had visited the Perak Matriculation College in Gopeng yesterday to investigate a case of food poisoning in a cafe there.

However, the officials still visited the cafe today, and subsequently issued compound notices to the students.

Several Twitter users have also pointed out that being students, the amount of fine was more than what they receive as student allowance for a month.

Malay Mail is seeking verification from authorities over the incident.

In recent months, there has been an increasing amount of accusations against government authorities for practicing double standards when punishing people who violate Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs), where popular celebrities and high-ranking government officials have been dealt with more leniently than the public.