Singapore has a reputation of being a nanny state. A country where the people will only do what the government tells them to do and expect the government to have a hand in everything.
Frankly, there is some truth in that. And frankly, Singaporeans can’t really blame the Singapore government for this. I mean which county in the world would exactly have a Member of Parliament (MP) suggest government supervision and regulation of beauty contests? For oversea readers, this year’s Miss Singapore World winner, Ms. Ris Low, was stripped of her title after it was revealed that she had a past conviction for credit card fraud. It was then revealed that the second runner-up will represent Singapore at the Miss World pageant as the first runner-up in the contest has a bad relationship with the contest organizers.
Now Mr. Baey Yam Keng, the MP in question, did not suggest this out of the blue. Ever since the beauty contest scandal broke, there had been public suggestion that the Singapore government has some regulations of beauty contests as the winners are representing Singaporeans.
My attitude to all this is, “Who cares?”
I mean this is a beauty contest and this is Singapore. We are not like say, Venezuela where beauty pageants are big businesses. Who care who the Miss Singapore World or Miss Singapore Universe is? Not only do I say that there is no need for the Singapore government to regulate pageants is not enough, I think there is no need for it to be a question in Parliament.
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