On Saturday, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) province representative Achintya Holte Nielsen was crowned the winner at the Miss Indonesia 2017 beauty pageant in Jakarta. “Representative” is the key word here, because Achintya is not actually from NTB.
Regional officials from NTB are refusing to acknowledge Achintya’s victory on that basis. Even though her victory could serve as free publicity for the province, officials believe that her representation of NTB goes against their principles.
“As a pioneer of Halal tourism in Indonesia, they should’ve been careful not to include NTB’s name at a competition like this (beauty pageant),” said NTB provincial government spokesman Yusron Hadi, as quoted by Tempo yesterday.
According to Yusron, Achintya does not reside in NTB nor was she born there. Furthermore, the Miss Indonesia pageant organizers didn’t even inform NTB’s provincial government that there was going to be a representative from the island province at this year’s Miss Indonesia pageant.
Achintya, who is of Indonesian and Norwegian descent, was born in Denpasar, Bali, on January 1, 1999. After earning her Miss Indonesia crown, she is going to compete at the 2017 Miss World pageant.
It’s not actually that rare for pageant contestants in Indonesia to represent provinces other than their own, since some provinces either don’t have enough women interested in competing or their governments are officially against beauty pageants based upon religious or social principles. For example, last year, Miss Indonesia contestant Flavia Celly Jatmiko, a Surabaya native, caused an uproar for representing Aceh, the only province in Indonesia that has been permitted by the national government to enforce their own version of Islamic Sharia law.
Albert Johan says
Beauty is not haram, am I right? If pork represented your province, then I could understand this argument. But your own species? Do you need me to put some moby wrap around ??