For a few hours, we made history for winning something during the pageant for the first time ever, but the celebration was short-lived as the Philippines were later hailed as the rightful winner – a move that made Malaysians furious.
Miss Universe Malaysia Shweta Sekhon broke her silence over the fiasco through a post via her Instagram recently and told her side of the story.
“No words can ever describe how grateful am I to the Lord for this crazy journey of mine at Miss Universe,” she wrote.
“Many has been asking me questions and clarification about the National Costume. Well 4 countries were briefed to be on standby as we were Top 4 for National Costume and Philippines was part of it too.”
“The entire day the crew went on finding my costume as I was told to be the WINNER. That is why I got into the costume too”
She ended the post by saying that she’s fine with the final outcome and “every girl that came to compete is a winner”.
The post attracted over 13,000 likes and nearly 1,000 comments, a majority of them congratulating her and telling her how proud they are of her accomplishments.
Miss Universe Malaysia National Director Elaine Daly also aired her grievances via her Instagram account.
“I am extremely disappointed at how the Best National Costume announcement at Miss Universe has come to this,” Elaine wrote.
After seeking clarification from the President of Miss Universe, Elaine found out that apparently the Philippines won the online voting, but the producing staff backstage picked their favourite and wanted to showcase her.
The matter wasn’t briefed to Shweta, so everyone who tuned in thought she had won.
“Why would you put a delegate in her costume, have her do interviews and then tell her that she actually didn’t win but was just the producing staff’s choice?” Elaine questioned the organisation.
Well, it’s too late to turn back time now but we all know how controversial Miss Universe can be, especially when it comes to announcing winners.
Regardless of what happened, we’re proud of Miss Universe Malaysia and Carven Ong’s creation. Congratulations!