Singapore — The livestream of travel vlogger Jason Ng’s hotel quarantine ended abruptly around the same time that he apologised for comparing the process on arrival in Singapore to that of a “Nazi concentration camp”.
He wrote on Facebook late on Thursday (Dec 3): “I should have been more sensitive about the fact that this is a public platform that I am on and should have watched my words. I deserve the backlash and I sincerely apologise to all the good people of Singapore who were offended by what I said.”
The video with his remarks has been made private. Mr Ng explained in the post that he took the video down since most of the people had just clicked dislike and left “nasty comments without even watching”. He added that those who wanted to hear the actual context of what he said could send him a direct message to receive the link to the video.
However, while he himself took the video down, he found that the 24-7 livestream of his hotel quarantine suddenly ended, and he says does not know why.
Mr Ng, 44, who returned to Singapore after being away for 17 years, had said in the video that the process could have been “made a lot better”.
He stated that the way the staff who facilitated his arrival and transfer spoke had been “a very totalitarian, dictator kind of thing” and that “the process honestly made me feel like I was being ushered in a Nazi concentration camp”.
Some people online blasted him for these remarks. They pointed out that while the blogger stayed at a 5-star hotel for free, those who were put into concentration camps had faced an unknown and frightening future.
A commenter named Ebonyloveivory said: “What a stark contrast, comparing this to the time of the Holocaust, during the war. Where people were literally marched, tortured, gassed and worked to death. At the end of the day, this is for your safety and the safety of others. It’s not for your amusement or entertainment.”
Mr Ng explained in his public apology that he is “not a professional artiste nor celebrity and … not trained in proper PR skills” but rather, he is “more like the typical kopitiam uncle sitting around and chatting with friends and sometimes using jokes and analogies that are inappropriate”.
In the two days before he wrote the post, he said he had been apologising and explaining himself on his livestream, adding that he “felt very warm” because once people “came to my stream and checked me out, they realised I was not the person they thought and actually became friends”.
He had wanted to continue the livestream but it “strangely and mysteriously stopped” on Thursday (Dec 3), and he’s been unable to reconnect since then.
“Guess its time to call an end to this then … a pity i never made it to day 14,” he added.
However, he wrote that he values greatly the friendships he made during this time and thanked those who took the time to get to know him and changed their opinion about him, as well as Carlton Hotel for having taken such good care of him.
He added he is leaving on Monday (Dec 7), just as his quarantine ends: “So I won’t even get to step on SG soil this time … I don’t deserve to be in this country.” /TISG
Read also: Travel vlogger livestreams 14-day hotel quarantine, gets lots of love from Singaporeans
Travel vlogger livestreams 14-day hotel quarantine, gets lots of love from Singaporeans