Interview with Go-Jek driver and his trending “Is it because I’m Chinese” video

Singapore – Nearly everyone in Singapore today would know of the latest “Is it because I’m Chinese” viral video circulating in the internet that shows a calm Go-Jek driver and a hysterical passenger who wanted to avoid paying ERP and accused the driver of kidnap.

In case you missed it, here’s the link to the story:

https://theindependent.sg.sg/woman-says-to-go-jek-driver-unlock-the-car-now-youre-taking-hostage-of-me-was-only-taking-alternative-route/

Full video can be watched below:

Thanks to Raja Razie and Dzar Ismail, known for their series Ok Let’s Go, we got a broader look into PHV driver’s encounter. The Go-Jek uncle, who’s affectionately known as Abang Kamal, was sweet enough to invite the hosts to his home on February 3, 2019 (Sunday) for a react-to-video-style interview.

They started the interview full of laughs which clearly showed what a chill uncle Abang Kamal is. He also said, “After the incident, my friend requests on fb blow up. Almost 700 friend requests. I headache already. So I thought go offline better.”

Dzar Ismail mentioned how he recently looked at the original clip and saw it being shared over 20,000 times. They commenced with watching the video and pausing at certain points to get more insights.

Abang Kamal explained that he had the urge to start recording the ride when the woman started saying words like “kidnapping” and “being taken hostage” because he knew that he would have a harder time proving himself if the woman was to accuse him of such things. He didn’t stand a chance against “the strong rights of a woman” without concrete proof.

Good call, Abang Kamal.

Contrary to common knowledge that the woman rejected being taken to a police station, Kamal elaborated that she actually agreed at the beginning although they had different stations in mind. The woman wanted to be taken to Tanglin station while Kamal thought it best to go to the nearest one.

They had a few more laughs at the part when Kamal was talking to the woman on the phone, thought to be the passenger’s mother, and saying “No, I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t know who you are.”

Kamal admitted that he is not always this calm and collected, although it was his patience at this moment that stopped the whole situation from getting out of hand.

Next, Kamal clarified that they did not end up at a police station and the unseen officer in the video was actually a Certis Cisco officer.

Dzar Ismail asked what the reaction of the officer was since his face was not captured by the camera to which Kamal replied, “Just that he didn’t know what was going on. When I asked him the direction to the police station, you could hear him say “gostan gostan” but this girl was making a lot of noise. That’s how he got involved.” This was the moment when the woman went ballistic at how the door was locked.

Raja Razie said that the woman could have been scared that the officer was siding with Kamal which made her use her trump card “Is it because I’m Chinese?”

Even though Kamal seemed cheerful during the video, he admitted that he lost some weight and sleep because of the encounter.

Lastly, Dzar asked if Kamal had any advice for passengers and drivers alike. He replied, “You have to be more patient, more patient. Make some good friends, try to avoid all this nonsense.” He also expressed his thanks everyone for the support and shared that his kids poked fun at him for this incident.

Watch the full video here: