The political system in the country, without any doubt, is broken but in the past few weeks, it seems surreal to even think that politics have seeped into the beauty pageant community. To start with, the selection of Weluree Ditsayabut as the new Miss Universe Thailand is seen as divisive for she has defied all the expectations. Her defenders – a handful few actually – say she has a beautiful face while her detractors lament about her body figure. And to make things worse, it was found out that Weluree made a Facebook comments calling for the Red Shirt protesters to be executed. The comment was since then removed from her account.
Weluree became eventually more like the Yingluck of Thai pageantry. She was repentant about her facebook comments but she is yet to convince the Thai populace that she is the best woman to represent her crown hungry nation. Missosology’s article about her victory earned a deluge of negative comments about her and is currently the most discussed article in the website. If Thailand is serious about having a crown this year or even just to land the semis, Weluree apparently is the wrong girl.
The wrongness of it all could never be more apparent when Weluree and the eventual first runner-up Pimbongkod Chankaew, are the only ones left, holding hands and full of anticipation. In there Weluree looked diminutive while Pimbongkod was regal. Missosology-Thailand could perhaps be in the same page as T-Pageant and other Thai beauty pageant related websites – Pimbongkod should have won. Alas, it was not meant to be and any hopes for Thailand to at least be competitive enough for the semis of Miss Universe 2014 were dashed.
T-Pageant and Thai Miss, both respected beauty pageant portal in Thailand, are now on the move in a series of efforts to deny Weluree her place at the Miss Universe. A formal complaint citing Rules 6 and 7 of the Miss Universe Thailand was now lodged. But the allegations surrounding Weluree’s victory that she won because of her connections may prove to be an uphill battle for the formal complaint. It could simply fell into deaf ears.
Like the political drama in Thailand, the beauty pageant scene is equally full of pessimism, uncertainty and discontent. There is too much politics in almost anything. Removing Weluree from her throne may prove as difficult as removing Yingluck from Prime Minister’s office. It is possible but the integrity and pride of the Thai people unfortunately will not go unscathed.
