Ris Low has stepped down as Miss Singapore World and will not be representing Singapore at the international Miss World 2009 paegeant in South Africa this December.
The organisers of Miss Singapore World pagaent, ERM World, made the announcement today and said in a press statment that her resignation takes place with immediate effect.
This is the official statement:
ERM World Marketing (ERM) would like to announce that Ris Low has resigned as Miss Singapore World 2009 with immediate effect. She will no longer represent Singapore at Miss World 2009 in South Africa.
We have met her parents Mr. and Mrs. Low and Ris to discuss the matter and they have agreed to allow their daughter to resign from the crown as we feel is in the best interest for the Miss Singapore World Pageant and Singapore at large. We are accepting her resignation.
There was no way of checking if a contestant has a criminal record or suffering from depression. Ris Low was determined, well behaved and performed well throughout the 2 month competition and even went on to win 8 special awards. This is not easy task to accomplish from a group of 22 contestants. With her good performance and beauty, she excelled in the competition.
On her English language, we felt that person who made fun of her on YouTube was malicious and did not do her justice. The video clip was presented in a way to ridicule her. The incident was a onetime interview which misled the Singapore public to believe she spoke English poorly. During the Grand Finals competition held at the Shangri La hotel on the 31st July 2009, she spoke perfectly good English, had a good answer (short, sharp and sweet) and performed very well to impress the 11 judges that she was good enough to win. So perhaps her spoken English could also be an effect from her Bipolar disorder.
As a teenage offender, we feel sorry for her circumstances but we cannot compromise on our contest rules, regulations and the image of the Miss Singapore World Pageant.
ERM did not give any comments earlier to the media and press because we were taken aback by this incident and we did not have any documentary evidence to justify the allegations and could be faced with legal implications later. Ris Low committed this offence as a young offender, and we had to be sensitive to handle any comments delicately where a young offender is concerned. The treatment would be different if she was over 21 years of age.
We like to add that this is the first time in Singapore beauty pageant history that such an incident has occurred. We had to be careful with the approach.
We will be interviewing a new representative to represent Singapore at Miss World 2009 in the coming days and will announce a new representative shortly.
So far, you have excused yourself of any fault. The faults are with Ris for her poor spoken languge due maybe to her Biopolar order, her dishonesty as well as the public unfair judgement based on one interview.
Any guests who attended the final can share what went on at the interview session?
Their statement closes the incident as far as Ris goes but it in no way salvaged the Miss World pageant or ERM's own reputation.
She wins they complain. She resign also complain.
What else do you want?
We are just a complain nation because thats what we are good for.
Why so naive. Of course she didn't resign on her own accord. Read the statement by organiser. Parents speaking up finally. Organiser has to involve them to see the bigger picture - resign or else we sack and sue.
This is not true. She was actually given another chance in second interview by Razor on her 'encounter' with a stalker: http://www.divaasia.com/media_video/4945. It can been seen clearly that she fared badly with bad choice of words, ridiculous narations, fakey accents and weird mannerisims which had already sealed her fate.
She then wanted to do a third video interview again to 'show the public' that she is able to speak properly. What a joke! Can Mas Selamat escape three times?
She's clearly taking the event organizers/sponsors for a ride. Good riddance for such rubbish material.