Import foreigners to represent Singapore in beauty pageants?
From our Correspondent
With the revelation that the winner of Miss Singapore World 2009 Ms Ris Low was convicted for credit card fraud in the past, Singaporeans are lamenting about the “worsening” quality of Singapore beauty queens!
Since Eunice Olsen won the crown in 2000, the caliber of the participants had become from bad to worse in recent years, according to an impromptu survey conducted by Chinese tabloid Lianhe Wanbao.
Some are not beautiful enough, some are too short while others lacked intellect and “depth”, Singaporeans said.
Adonis CEO Li Jinmei thought that the chief reason for this is that women with both looks and brains are unwilling to participate in beauty pageants as they are not keen to “expose” themselves in bikinis to the public.
Others like the 2007 winner Chen Yue-er is of the view that the lack of sponsors make the contest less attractive to prospective participants.
No Singapore lady has ever won an international beauty pageant which prompted some to suggest importing foreigners to represent Singapore for us to stand a good chance of winning!
A former judge of beauty pageants Professor Wang Jinfa said Singapore should emulate the example of the Singapore Sports Association Foreign Talent Scheme to recruit potential candidates from overseas and groom them well before sending them for international competitions.
Li Jinmei also supported recruiting foreign beauties to Singapore to make up for the “shortfall” here.
Ms Ris Low was lambasted after winning the crown for her sub-par English proficiency with many netizens spoofing her Singlish expressions on the internet.
Her admission that she did not inform the organizers of the pageant of her past conviction did not go down well with many Singaporeans who are calling for her crown to be rescinded.
In an interview with the state media, Ms Low said she was remorseful of her mistake and she still harbors hopes of representing Singapore in the competition held in South Africa in December this year.
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Singaporean on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 8:41 am
I recommend employing Mr. Hu Jing Tao to replace LKY as our MM. At only 10% of the cost.
Singaporean on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 8:42 am
The rest of the 90% of savings and source for all the pretty women in China. You can name anyone.
Old Guy on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 9:28 am
a lot of singapore girls are actually like Ris Low
she’s okay
Too clever will make you feel unhappy living in singapore
Tom on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 9:41 am
1998 – Best Model of the World – Annetha Ayavoo, Singapore.
But then again, she’s Indian. Maybe it doesn’t count. A quick check at ERM website shwos some Singapore winners at the regional and international levels. But damn, they’re mostly not Chinese. Sorry, they dont count.
Dane on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 9:44 am
Good idea to employ single foreign beauties with brains to win beauty peagent and eventually to upgrade the gene pool in Singapore.
Paul on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 10:01 am
Uniquely – Singapore. Can we do it for our Parliament members as well?
Yeong Ko on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 12:22 pm
We should force all girls of school leaving age to participate in Miss Singapore every year. That way we will have both attractive and intelligent ladies representing Singapore.
In case women are against this, because they feel they should be given a choice, just remember all 18,000 to 19,000 men in your year had no choice at all in doing National Service. It’s no burden at all to get a couple of dozen ladies to comply and represent their country, at no risk of death or violence, as with National Service.
A Tan on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 12:26 pm
Good idea to employ single foreign beauties with brains to win beauty peagent and eventually to upgrade the gene pool in Singapore.
Hear! Hear!
FT policy I will support )))
Micky on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 1:23 pm
It occurred to me that most of the time most of the finalists at Miss Tiffany International give better answers than our beauty queen aspirants. And as a bonus most of the Miss Tiffany Internationalhopefuls look better than our beauty queens.
Micky on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 1:23 pm
It occurred to me that most of the time most of the finalists at Miss Tiffany International give better answers than our beauty queen aspirants. And as a bonus most of the Miss Tiffany International hopefuls look better than our beauty queens.
Risky on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 7:38 pm
“I recommend employing Mr. Hu Jing Tao to replace LKY as our MM. At only 10% of the cost.”
good idea? i never thought of that. We just want name and glory!
Colgate on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 7:58 pm
What a great idea; like how we import foreign sportsmen to participate in sporting events bearing Singapore’s flag, we could do the same for this too! I’m sure nobody would be complaining about poor diction when our latest Miss Singapore is a Chinese national; or about the amount of intellect (or ‘depth’) when the representative hails from India, with a double degree.
There is no problem at all. You see, what the government can do is to offer citizenship and monetary incentives; just as they did to most (if not all) other ‘foreign talents’. Heck, we may even get the brits to represent us – with mouthfuls of Queens English; whoever lambastes our (imported) beauty queen is an idiot.
Then again, we cannot blame Ms Low for her substandard communication (and cognitive, and intellectual, and inter-personal) skills, can we? For it was clearly stated that English was never her strength, rather, Mandarin is. And English being our national language (albeit practised in all the wrong forms), we certainly cannot make her speak in Mandarin.
stark truth on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 11:21 pm
problem is, local pagenat organisers do not even help or groom their ms singapores, let alone support them in international competitions. which is why singaporean pageant winners never win globally. because our organisers only care about profits.
HS on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 11:52 pm
Lets import Venezuelans! N Russians!
After a few tries, sure got chance to win!
Imagin Singapore perch on the world as Miss Universe!
Stranger on Wed, 30th Sep 2009 12:18 am
I recommend Bill Clinton to replace Pinky Loon. Bill Clinton is a stud. Pinky is a useless wimp hiding behind the old man.