Jocelyn Chia Gets Invitation to be Newsweek Columnist, “Thanks” M’sians for Making Her Famous

By now, Malaysians are well aware that expecting an apology from Jocelyn Chia for her remarks about the missing MH370 flight is pointless. However, in her recent tweet, Jocelyn, in a way, thanked Malaysians for bringing up her name but maybe not in the way you would expect.

Here’s what happened.

On 1 July, Jocelyn shared her excitement about being invited to be a guest columnist for Newsweek, an American weekly news magazine. It was huge for Jocelyn because it fulfilled her childhood dream. 

“My first ambition in life was to be a journalist, ideally a columnist.”

Jocelyn added that she even wrote an opinion piece for The Straits Times, Singapore’s national newspaper which was eventually published. After having the ambition for more than 20 years, Jocelyn was excited about the invitation from Newsweek to be a guest columnist.

Taking a trip down memory lane, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity excited the stand-up comedian even more as Newsweek magazines were among her reading materials for the Current History course that she had to do.

“And now I have an essay in it!”

At the end of her tweet, she took the opportunity to express her gratitude by saying, “Honestly, this kind of makes me thank Malaysia.”

Jocelyn published an article – I Was ‘Cancelled’ For a Joke on Newsweek, saying that she was attacked by many Malaysian netizens after her MH370 jokes circulated on social media.

“I was in this all alone, against an angry nation of 33 million people.”

Yes, Jocelyn admitted that the viral clip somehow affected her career when she lost her job but in the meantime, her popularity skyrocketed, which led to many invitations for shows and performances.

In response to the claims about her career was bound to “blow up”, Jocelyn said she didn’t think so and it brought a strength in her she never knew she had.

You can click on the tweet below to read her full article.

https://t.co/rkmmch7g9F

My first ambition in life was to be a journalist, ideally a columnist. I even did a stint writing for the @straits_times, Singapore's national newspaper, and have published an op-ed piece in it.

More than 20 years later since I first held that ambition,…

— Jocelyn Chia (@JocelynChia) June 30, 2023

Now that we’ve come this far following the initial circulation of the MH370 remarks, do you think it’s time for us Malaysians to move on?

Also read: Jocelyn Chia Finally Breaks Silence in CNN Interview, Says Some Contexts Were Missing From Viral Clip