KUCHING: Comedy is not a licence to mock and insult people, least of all a nation.
Kota Samarahan Municipal Council (KSMC) chairman Datuk Peter Minos said being funny as a comedian is one thing, but hurting the feelings of other people in the name of comedy is simply uncalled for and not acceptable.
“Malaysia, like all nations, is not perfect but Malaysia is still our nation and nobody must be allowed to mock and insult us,” he said.
Minos was commenting on former Singaporean and now American Jocelyn Chia who had publicly insulted Malaysia in her joke at the Comedy Cellar in New York City that caused an uproar on social media.
She riffed on the historically testy relationship between Malaysia and Singapore, and the MH370 plane that went missing in March 2014 with all 239 people on board presumed dead.
Minos said Malaysia and its people have every right to condemn her and the Malaysian police is right in wanting to investigate her action.
He said Singaporean leaders were also not amused and not pleased with what the comedian did.
Such was the outrage over Chia’s joke that according to a Bernama report the Malaysian police have begun an investigation and are seeking Interpol help to locate Chia.
“Pretty obviously the comedian has grudges or bad feelings for Malaysia but still it was wrong for the comedian to have used her profession to put down and shame Malaysia the way she did,” he said.
Minos reasoned that her action could be typical of people who left and abandoned their homeland and nation to mock and insult others.
