Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent
US-based comic Jocelyn Chia strains relations between Singapore and Malaysia with joke about how Malaysia’s planes cannot fly
Malaysian police will seek Interpol’s help to track down a US-based comedian who mocked the country and joked about the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Jocelyn Chia will be investigated under the country’s laws relating to insulting speech and offensive or obscene online content, Malaysia’s state news agency Bernama reported. Police chief Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani was quoted as saying that the police would ask Interpol for assistance in finding out her full identity and whereabouts.
Chia, whose website says she is originally from Singapore, caused controversy after a clip of her joking about rivalry between Singapore and Malaysia went viral online.
During the set at a New York club, she said that Malaysia had “dumped” Singapore, referring to separation of the island state from Malaysia in 1965, but said Singapore had the best “break up revenge” as it had become a “first world country” while Malaysia was “still a developing country”.
She added that Malaysians had not visited for years because its “airplanes cannot fly”. When some in the audience apparently did not laugh, she added: “What Malaysian Airlines going missing not funny, huh? Some jokes don’t land.”
The Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing in 2014 after it vanished from air traffic radar somewhere over the Indian Ocean, with 227 passengers and 12 crew onboard.
The clip provoked a backlash in both Singapore and Malaysia, the foreign ministers of both countries condemning her comments. Singapore foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan said he was “appalled by her horrendous statements”, adding that Chia did not speak for Singaporeans. “We treasure our ties with family and friends in Malaysia, and are sorry for the offence and hurt caused to all Malaysians,” he said last week.
Chia told CNN that her joke was based on a longstanding, friendly rivalry between Malaysia and Singapore, and that her set has been performed “more than a hundred times” for a year-and-a-half without any issues. She added that when the clip had been trimmed for social media, it was missing relevant context.
“Upon reflection I do see that having this as a clip that gets viewed out of a comedy club context was risky,” Chia was reported as saying.
Rights groups have accused the Malaysian government of using repressive laws to suppress free speech and critical voices, with Amnesty International reporting that between January 2020 and June 2022, there were 87 prosecutions of individuals including artists, performers and political activists.