Malaysia is looking to enlist Interpol's help to locate former Singaporean stand-up comedian, Jocelyn Chia.
Chia is making waves in Malaysia and Singapore after offending the people here with her MH370 joke.
The joke, done during a comedy routine in Manhattan, New York, led many Malaysians to slam the comedian for her insensitive joke.
The fallout was so bad that Singapore's own Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and its High Commissioner to Malaysia Vanu Gopala Menon both had to issue apologies.
No apology from Jocelyn Chia.
Chia, in response to the furore her joke had caused, said she to CNN that she stands by her comedy routine as she has done it over 100 times for more than a year and a half.
“I do stand by my joke but with some caveats – I stand by it in its entirety, when viewed in a comedy club. Upon reflection I do see that having this as a clip that gets viewed out of a comedy club context was risky,” she said, adding that Singapore and Malaysia always have had a healthy friendly rivalry.
In her defense, she said that it was also a norm for comedians to "roast" their live audience. Often, many Malaysians would come up to her and tell her that they love her jokes.
Malaysia wants to investigate Jocelyn Chia.
But Malaysia doesn't share similar views with Chia and is looking to investigate the comedian under Section 504 of the Malaysian Penal Code for the intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace and 505 (c) of the same code for intent to incite.
The 41-year-old will also be investigated under Section 233 of the Multimedia Communications Act 1998 for providing obscene communication knowingly using a network service or applications service.
Malaysian Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said the authorities will get Interpol's help to get Chia's identity and her latest location.
"In addition, the police has also made a copy of the transcript of the suspect's speech in the video," Acryl said, according to Harian Metro.
Joining the investigations will be the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
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Cover image sourced from New Straits Times.
