A beauty pageant winner from Myanmar, Shwe Eain Si, was allegedly stripped of her title earlier this week over her remarks on the Rohingya crisis in the country. The organisers reportedly dethroned Eain Si after a video was shared on social media accusing insurgent group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) of driving communal violence in Rakhine state.
ARSA was formed after a Rohingyan militant group attacked the Rakhinian forces on August 25. Since then, the defence forces of Rakhine/ARSA have prepped up themselves for mass neutralization across the country, regardless of the fact that there are many Rohingyan civilians too residing in the displaced camps.
The pageant organisers claim that Eain Si had breached her contract and hence, she has been stripped of her title. But Eain Si claims that the move was linked to her comments on the crisis that has curdled religious tensions across Myanmar.
On Tuesday, the model denied breach of contract and defended her video as an effort by "a citizen of this country to use her fame to speak out the truth for her nation". To this the 'Hello Madam Group' responded saying, "The decision of Miss Universe Myanmar organisation regarding Shwe Eain Si was not related at all with the Rakhine video."
"Although the video file posted now is good, it would be better if it was filmed more completely," they added.
The video that Eain Si shared speaks of Rohingya militants who have led a 'media campaign' to trick the world into thinking 'they are the oppressed'.
Eain Si talks to the viewers on camera showing some gruesome images of mutilated bodies, wounded infants, ARSA's logo, masked militants holding a flag with guns, bloodshed and some graphical map images.
Eain Si now claims that she was trying to reveal the truth of a humanitarian crisis going on in the state of Rakhine, where an army crackdown on the militants has forced out more than half a million Rohingya civilians fleeing for Bangladesh since August 25. Eain Si terms actions of the ARSA as 'caliphate-style movement' and further define the attacks to be 'out of proportion'.
Moreover, the video released by the beauty queen has driven global attention towards the suffering of Rohingya refugees. It also reveals the extent of abusive treatment given to the Rohingyan children and women by the Burmese soldiers and the Buddhist mobs, causing little sympathy for the group inside Myanmar.
It is not the first time that Myanmar's beauty queen quotient has driven controversy. Earlier this year, a prominent transgender pageant winner was detained after a famous actress sued her for defamation over insults posted on a popular celebrity gossip page.
