By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
The Korean organizers of a Southeast Asian beauty pageant are threatening to sue a winner from Myanmar they dethroned after she claimed that they pressured her into having breast implants and they should be the ones saying sorry.
"It is natural for me to feel that an apology should be demanded to rectify the damage they have done," May Myat Noe told reporters in Myanmar capital Yangon this week.
"I will return the crown only when they apologize to Myanmar, for the dignity of our country."
It was the Southeast Asian country's first win in an international beauty competition, having only recently emerged from a half-century of self-imposed isolation and military rule.
The 16-year-old won the Miss Asia Pacific World competition in South Korea last May, only to be abruptly dethroned this month, organizers claiming she was rude and just not "lovely" enough."
"To choose a winner, personality, integrity, loyalty... and lovely characters (sic) is important, but she never qualified enough by her attitude," the pageant said in a statement.
Pageant media director David Kim told the Anadolu Agency that Myat Noe then absconded back home with the $100,000 bejeweled tiara, and $10,000 of false breasts sponsors had paid for.
Organizers this week issued their letter of disqualification, which states that if she made false and seriously defamatory allegations against the pageant, "we reserve our right in full... to issue legal proceedings for monetary damages" against her and her family.
"If she is keeping lie, then we will proceed what we mentioned above," Miss Asia Pacific World Founder Y.C. Choi said Wednesday.
Myat Noe, however, has not had enough.
She has also accused the Myanmar pageant organizers of falsifying her age - Miss Asia Pacific World had her listed as 18 - and has also denied accepting the breast implants.
"I was put under duress to undergo head-to-toe cosmetic surgery, which I refused ... I didn't have breast implants, but I don't want to go into details, to preserve my dignity," she told reporters in Yangon.
Organizers this week sent AA images of what they say is a Korean language form in which she gives her consent for the operation, photos of the room in which they claim she had the surgery, and a signed outpatient form which appears to include three words in English - "Breast," "Op," and "size," and what could be a measurement in inches.
"She argued that we forced to do it, but it’s no sense because why we spent our money and time to spend on this?" the organization says in an accompanying statement. "It [the agreement] clearly stated our organization’s promise and responsibility to do it when the winner or top runners-up want to."
It adds that plastic surgery "is our promise for all participants when the girl become winner or top runner-up... Its most girl’s dream to operate it free of charge."
Myat Noe has also said that organizers informed her that as part of her role she would have to raise money to produce a music album by escorting “business tycoons whenever they require my company” - an allegation that Choi also denies.
Lawrence Choi, president of Miss Asia Pacific World Super Talent Organization, has previously said that Myat Noe was dethroned as she had “lied and never had respect” for the organization, media and fans.
A statement of misdemeanors includes allegations that she tried to make a profit from her title, that her mother abused their working relationship to extend her stay - and Myat Noe was then unwilling to pay extra expenses incurred - and that she had disgraced the organization by borrowing money from a nurse to buy $18 bras after the alleged breast implants.
"We don’t like our queen make a lie," it screams.
While the president had initially left the door open for another winner to be selected, the pageant’s Seoul-based media director told AA that the matter was closed.
David Kim said that there would be “no second chance” for the dethroned victor or any other contestant – and that the organization is now busy planning 2014’s second edition of the pageant in November, on the southern Korean resort island of Jeju.
The 16-year-old, however, appears determined not to back down.
“I’m not even proud of this crown,” she said Tuesday after opening a blue box and setting it on a table. “I don’t want a crown from an organization with such a bad reputation.”
www.aa.com.tr/en
