Puteri Indonesia can be considered as a newbie in the pageantry world as the pageant basically started in late 90s. It began by sending delegates to the Miss Universe pageant but only as an observer. The big break for them came in 1995 when finally, Indonesia returned to the world’s most exciting major international pageant. It wasn’t easy for the Puteri Indonesia organization though. The fall of the dictator Suharto, finally saw the law banning Indonesian women from participating in pageants with swimsuit segment being repealed. Yet in 1996, the organization was actually threatened by a government agency with an investiogation about the country’s participation at Miss Universe which was then held in Las Vegas.
In 2005, Puteri Indonesia experienced another setback when ultra-conservative Indonesians staged a series of protests denouncing the participation of Artika Sari Devi at the Bangkok edition of Miss Universe. But it proved to be blessing in disguise. All that negative publicity helped propel Artika to become one of the semifinalists.
Missosology has quite a long history, albeit a protracted one, in covering the Puteri Indonesia pageant. Their Press Relations Officer allows us to conduct interviews and promote all of its winners every year. There is that cordial relationship between us and Puteri Indonesia with each acknowledging the fact that the pageant is the most prestigious in Indonesia and that Missosology has a reach to millions of pageant fans worldwide.
The early years of Puteri was not really much of a success yet in 2013, Whulandary Herman became a semifinalist which eventually paved way for a 3-year unbroken streak. It was a reward for their hard work and despite of their success they never developed an air of superiority. Puteri Indonesia and the people behind them remained humble and approachable even up to this day.
Not even the low point of our relationship with them changed their attitude. In 2014, Missosology published a series of photos of Elvira Devinamira during her modelling stint that appeared to insult the Catholic religion. This caused an uproar among Indonesians and Missosology was inundated with hate mails. Yet Puteri Indonesia understood the stance of Missosology and never had we received a rebuke or reprimand from their organization. Well in fact, Missosology was still allowed to interview and promote Elvira, who later became one of the semifinalists at the Miss Universe 2014 pageant held in Doral, Florida.
How Puteri Indonesia remained humble and approachable is truly commendable. A Miss Universe winner from this country will probably materialize in the next five years given how they run their organization. They have malice no one and ill-will to nobody. They just work hard by training their girls incessantly and it is pretty much difficult. Indonesia has a large Muslim population – the world’s largest in fact – with groups that are ultra-conservative and are against beauty pageants. In some cases they could get violent. However, Puteri Indonesia never allowed the negativity of any of these groups to ruin their zeal and dedication. They never asked the press to simply shower them with praise and good news. Instead, they welcome criticisms and they look at the negative news with an open and analytical mind.
I just hope and pray that Puteri Indonesia will continue with this course even on the day when they will win a major international crown. I look forward for an Indonesian Miss Universe and I anticipate that the Puteri people, some of which are my friends and who are in contact with me, will continue to be humble and approachable. For I strongly believe that the true test of an organization’s integrity is best reflected not only in the time of failure but also in the apex of their success.
Written by Ric G. Galvez
Founder and Overall Coordinator of Missosology
He can be reached at ric@missosology.org
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