Daphne Maia

Ris Low, former Miss Singapore World 2009, now de-throned and infamous because of her bad diction during an interview with RazorTV, and also because of A Series of Unfortunate Events which were leaked to the media, somehow.

I must say that I was one of the many who laughed at Ris Low and cracked jokes about her (Boomz!). I still do think that the above interview clip is funny. But I definitely won't make jokes about her anymore. Read on! (This is a long entry, but please bear with me!)

While I cannot vouch for Ris and say that she deserves our sympathy (or even pity), and I cannot deny that she has been indeed, untruthful to ERM World Marketing (the pageant organizers), the media, and the public, my opinion of her has definitely improved by leaps and bounds after I watched a series of interview clips that she did with RazorTV, 3 months after her first interview with them.

After watching the above 8 clips, I, being the grammar and language Nazi that I am, will be the first to point out that Ris Low did not speak perfect English - in fact, at many points during the interview, her pronunciation, syntax, and word use was clearly Singlish - but she scores points for a marked improvement, and how obvious it was that she's trying very hard to improve her speech.

3 months ago, in front of that unforgiving RazorTV camera, Ris Low was nervous, and had no prior experience in being interviewed, live. Now, she carries herself with poise and a serene demeanour (note how most of the time she keeps her back straight and is aware of her actions, hand gestures, etc. Ris Low, in this interview, has show perfectly how a lady with poise should behave. At the same time, she manages to show her bubbly personality (bipolar or not) and you cannot deny after watching the clips, that Ris has definitely tried to be as honest as she could during the interview. The interviews are not perfect - I can point out some inconsistencies, but hey, she's really young and still inexperienced in life, although she has probably gone through more adversities than most of us have.

Many-a-times she could just vehemently deny something, or tell a little white lie. But she tells the truth now (and good that she's learnt, too), even though she knows it makes her look bad. She had the decency to at least appear apologetic, without compromising on who she is deep down, without compromising on her confidence in herself.

She did wrong, no doubt - she cheated and lied, but all of us have made mistakes at some point in our lives. What gives you the right to stand on such moral high grounds and look down at her and say that that lie you told your parents last weekend is not as bad as the fact that she deliberately stole credit cards and used them? What makes you think that lying to your boss about being ill when you were really nursing a hangover is not as a bad as her hiding the fact from pageant organizers that she had a criminal record? Are you so perfect? No. And neither is Ris Low. I won't say she's not guilty - she is - but if someone has committed mistakes, we don't necessarily have to pelt them with stones. Let's give her a chance to make up for it.

Detractors say that Ris Low is not drop dead gorgeous and hence, not worthy of the crown. I agree that she's not drop dead gorgeous, and neither is she what I would call a perfect beauty (although I must admit that the few clips we've seen of her during the pageant don't look half as bad, probably due to the make up, hair-do and dress). Then again, that's what's all matters during a pageant, isn't it? That you look your very best on that night, and carry yourself the best you can on stage.

But back to my point. Ris Low face does still score higher than the average girl you'd find on the street, and that's because she's got this sweet, bright and cheery smile that lights up her face and her eyes when she breaks into one.

As Jerrick mentioned on my Plurk thread earlier, "It's always easier to tear people down. But some people won't give credit where credit is due."

I definitely think Ris Low deserves a bit of credit now. She has come forth and admitted to all her mistakes, and yet, she maintains that she will be strong enough to carry herself through this bad episode.

So I say, Bravo, Ris Low! Bravo! Don't make the same mistakes again, and we'll see you at the Miss Singapore Universe pageant in 2011 or 2012! I would give her a 2nd chance. Wouldn't you?

Food for Thought: Was Ris Low a victim of the media and the public? So who are the 'villains' here? The media, for leveraging her dark history to sell papers, and possibly sensationalizing news about her to sell even more papers? 1st runner up, Claire Lee, for breaking the news to the media, with information that had been shared with her in confidence? The public, who love a scandal any time, and played a hand in making the news worse? Netizens who were completely relentless, ruthless, and unforgiving in shooting down every thing about her? Everyone. You and I and everyone else had a part to play in it. And now that she's come clean, now that she's cleaned up her act, I say we should give her a chance to continue with her life - she may never be in another pageant or be in the lime light again, but everyone deserves a chance at the rest of their lives.