Save Our Miss Singapore World 2009

Sometimes we have to take a mirror and reflect upon ourselves  first, before we lampoon Chinese nationals for their horrible and heavily accented English.

If anyone wants to find a justification for MM Lee’s comments that Singaporeans do not speak good English, they only have to look through the video above.

In an excruciating (at least for the viewers and I suspect, the reporter as well) interview, our Miss Singapore World 2009 winner, Ris Low, spoke for three minutes on her outlook in life and fashion sense.

However, nobody bothered about what she said but instead on how she said it.

Words like ‘Rad’, ‘Leapard prints’ and ‘bigini’ were the centre of attention.

How can our Miss Singapore representative speak in this manner? How can she represent us in the international arena with such broken English?

Mockery proliferated online as keyboard warriors had a field day poking fun at her under a guise of a nickname.

But it is essential to take a step back and evaluate ourselves first. Hands up those of you who are capable of perfect diction? Hands up those of you who can and will speak perfect Queen’s English everyday?

The truth is most of us are culpable of such slips in our speech. None of us can admit that our English is perfect. And I got to agree with a former Miss Singapore contestant that Ris Low is still young, with a lot of room to improve.

Indeed, when our beauty queens need our support the most, all we have got to offer is mere mockery. How are our girls going to find the morale to shine for Singapore?

Let’s face it. Much as we have the audacity to launch vile attacks on beauty contestants online, not many of us have the guts to walk our talk and take part in a beauty contest ourselves.

It is no wonder that although you can see some really beautiful girls out at Orchard Rd, this sight is often not translated onto the pageant scene.

We need to give credit where it is due. There are respectable folks amongst us who are brave enough to put themselves on the plate for scrutiny, despite knowing that they have flaws.

And unless we have the similar courage to do what Ms Ris Low did, we should stop this negativity and show our enthusiastic support.