‘I only advised Astro to drop swimsuit segment’
Amid the brouhaha over the scrapping of the Miss Astro Chinese International Pageant 2019, the Sentul OCPD confirmed that he had “advised” the organiser Astro to do so but the advice was “non-binding”.
Asst Comm S. Shanmugamoorthy maintained that it was not a directive but “advice”.
“I only advised them to drop the swimsuit segment. It was not a ban.
“The advice was conveyed to the organiser by DBKL,” he said when contacted yesterday.
ACP Shanmugamoorthy added that his advice was non-binding.
“However, the organiser followed the advice. Don’t make it an issue.
“I never stated the organiser should cancel the segment as the matter is not under my jurisdiction.
“It was when I discovered that the segment was there while evaluating the matter that I advised them to remove it,” he said.
Much criticism was levelled at DBKL, which was thought to have ordered the ban at the latest edition of the event held in Kuala Lumpur last Satuday.
ACP Shanmugamoorthy hoped the situation would not be blown out of proportion.
“In the end, it was a win-win situation for everyone involved,” he said.
Kwong Wah Yit Poh yesterday quoted ACP Shanmugamoorthy as saying that the pageant organiser would have to be equally responsible for the moral impact and sensitivity involved in organising such a commercial event.
Meanwhile, Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng in a statement said the reports in Chinese newspapers blaming DBKL for the swimsuit ban were inaccurate.
“DBKL gave the necessary approvals to Astro to organise the beauty pageant and the approvals did not contain any conditions regarding the swimsuit segment,” he said.
The pageant’s judge, Jack Lim, had reportedly criticised the authorities for intervening in the event.
He defended the relevance of the swimsuit segment in enabling the contestants’ beauty and figure to be evaluated.
The annual beauty contest, organised by Astro since 1998, is a notable pageant among the Chinese diaspora worldwide, with the respective winners from various countries going on to the Miss Chinese International finals in Hong Kong, organised by TVB.