KUCHING: Beneath the glamour and glitz of beauty pageants, there are underlying concerns such as unfulfilled promises of payments and the absence of a regulatory body to protect pageant
participants from such issues.
Two beauty pageant queens claim they have not received the prize money promised to them after they won a local pageant in Jan 2017 — more than two and half years ago.
“This is not about the money, it is about the unfulfilled promises made by the organiser,” explained Audrey Isis during an exclusive interview with New Sarawak Tribune.
Isis claimed that she is still owed RM2,200 — her prize for being crowned queen of the pageant — as well as her subsidiary title.
Cinthy Yii, on the other hand, is allegedly still owed RM2,700 in total — RM1,500 for emerging as the first runner-up, RM200 for her subsidiary title, as well as RM1,000 for one of the tables she paid for during the grand finale.
Yii claimed that after they were crowned in January 2017 and won their prizes rightfully, payments were not made to the top four winners.
“We chased her for our payments every day and she kept on promising that she would pay up. She had a lot of reasons and excuses,” said Yii.
According to the duo, another beauty pageant organiser also stepped in to provide assistance by contacting the organiser and asking her to issue official letters to the pageant winners in February 2017 and confirming that they would receive payment.
But it was all in vain. At this point, the top four pageant winners decided enough was enough and Isis, on behalf of the four winners, lodged a police report against the pageant organiser.
“We followed up with the police who said that they had advised the organiser to pay us. She agreed, but nothing happened,” claimed Isis.
This allegedly led to a string of requests for their rightful payments from the organiser over the next two and a half years but till now, only a multitude of empty promises and excuses from the organiser.
Yii also claimed that the
organiser had a history of not
fulfilling payments to event
venues.
They expressed their sentiment of being at a loss as to how to address their unfulfilled payments.
Yii shared that last month she had visited Kuching South City Council (MBKS) to enquire if pageant organisers needed any
permits.
“There is apparently no licence for these things. There is nobody in charge, so who can we complain to?” she asked in exasperation.
Both Isis and Yii strongly advised aspiring contestants to check the backgrounds of organisers before joining any beauty pageants.
“Make sure there is an
agreement with clearly stated terms and conditions as well as a definite black-and-white record of the prizes,” cautioned Isis.
