Miss World Singapore winner slammed for her Myanmar origin
Charity Maru has clinched the Miss World Singapore 2015 crown but some netizens were less charitable about the choice of the 24-year-old Myanmar-born winner.
Maru, also known as Charity Lu Lu Seng, received her Singapore pink IC in 2007 and is a freelance translator who comes from a Kachin family.
At her crowning on Wednesday (21 Oct), Maru told Yahoo Singapore, “I’m a minority here. I’m a Kachin, that means I came from the Kachin State from the northern part of Myanmar.
“But Singapore has given me this opportunity and trusted me with this responsibility so I’m very grateful for it. And I’m gonna try my best to win an award at the international Miss World pageant.”
Some netizens have gone to the official Miss World Singapore Facebook page and various online forums to slam the event organisers. They criticised the choice of a contestant who is not local-born to represent the country at the finals of the pageant in Sanya, China, in December.
A certain Raj Kumar Kapoor commented on the page, “This Miss Singapore World 2015 contest is a bloody joke !!! Stop this in 2016, unless you want to crown the Top 5 to FTs and flat pancake aunty looking face!!!”
But most people expressed support for Maru and extended their congratulations and best wishes to her for the upcoming finals.
The four runners-up in the local pageant were: Kuek Ziyi (1st RU), Charis Lin (2nd RU), Ashley Chin (3rd RU) and Sheen Cher (4th RU).
