the worst risult.
poor ris low. fresh off singaporeans mocking her for her poor english, it has to come to light that miss ris low yi min was once convicted for credit card fraud. her plight curiously mirrors that of carrie prejean, the dethroned miss california, who first raised the ire of the LBGT community with her statements during the miss USA Pageant (‘i think i believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman’), which she credited to her faith. eventually, topless pictures of her were dug up and displayed on the world wide web for all to see, leading to furore (‘which good christian woman would pose topless?’) and her eventual fall from grace.
credit card fraud is no small matter. unlike miss prejean, whose only offense was speaking her mind and posing topless, what ris actually did was criminally wrong. stealing credit cards that were left on the counter by absent minded patients, she went on a shopping spree, pampering her self with gold chains (loud i am sure) and luxury meals.
by keeping quiet on the issue, ERM World Marketing, the organisers of the pageant, have done nothing help their own cause. if ris did not declare to ERM that she was once convicted in a court of law, ERM should speak up now to avoid further bad publicity. by not saying anything now, their silence is an admission of knowledge of her past. absurdly, in the straits times today, one ERM employee was quoted to have said “singaporeans did not pay for her’, in response to being told that Singaporeans were asking ris to be stripped of her crown.
it is a slap to the cheek really; while is true that we did not pay a cent for her, she is going to be representing singapore at an international event. we definitely have a stake in her and ERM should respond to the public appropriately. it also insinuates that ERM has a certain ‘control’ over the selection process; something which questions their intelligence. really? you let a person convicted of credit card fraud to join the pageant and even let her win it? you paid for this to happen? naturally, i foresee a negative impact on the next edition of the pageant.
to be fair to ris, if razor tv did not run the embarrassing expose on her poor english, none of this might have happened. but in today’s day and age, especially with the rise of social media, one cannot expect to hide any details of one’s life, even more so if you are a celebrity. she (and the rest of the contestants) should have expected this to happen when she joined the pageant.
eventually, the biggest losers in the entire saga might actually be Singapore. with local pageants losing the public’s interest (that was once a time when mediacorp used to sponsor the pageant, i think it all went down hill after they pulled their sponsorship), poor results on the international stage, this farce might be a hammer blow to the ailing scene.
not that i actually watch TV anymore or care for who wins really.
you forgot to mention the cheating in exams.
on a completely unrelated note, I have acquired mahjong tiles.