BANGKOK // Thailand’s contender for the Miss Universe beauty pageant has relinquished her crown after she allegedly called for supporters of the ousted government to be “executed”, sparking a social media furore.
A tearful Weluree Ditsayabut, 22, said she was giving up the chance to represent her country after a barrage of online criticism upset her family.
She was accused of calling for “the execution” of the “damn Reds” -- a reference to the “Red Shirt” followers of former premier Yingluck Shinawatra and her family, which has won every Thai election since 2001.
“The land of Thailand is dirty because of people who want to get rid of the monarchy,” she was quoted as writing.
The remarks, made on her Facebook page late last year, have since been removed.
At the time protesters were massing on Bangkok’s streets calling for the resignation of Ms Yingluck, in a political crisis that culminated in a coup carried out by Army Chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha on May 22.
Thailand has been torn apart by a bitter division since Ms Yingluck’s elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire tycoon-turned-populist politician, was removed in an earlier army takeover in 2006.
Political opinions of any kind can be highly inflammatory to the other side.
Facebook and Twitter users took aim at Ms Weluree’s physical appearance in a campaign seemingly waged in reaction to her posts about government supporters.
“She’s a walking beer barrel,” according to one comment on a dedicated anti-Weluree Facebook page.
“She is unsuitable for the title because of her figure, face and manners,” said another comment.
Ms Weluree, who is also a prominent actress, announced Monday that the backlash had proved too much.
“The comments that I have received were quite severe,” the pageant queen — better known as Nong Fai — said at a news conference Monday, where she appeared without her tiara or beauty pageant sash.
“I said sorry... I understand that I am a public figure but when I see my mother is unhappy, as a daughter I cannot be happy either. So, today I have decided to step down as Miss Universe Thailand.”
Dismayed organisers did not immediately say who would inherit her title and represent Thailand at Miss Universe later this year.
“In the future we will have to carefully screen the behaviour of contestants as well as check their social media,” said Pranome Thavaravej, from Miss Universe Thailand.
Thailand’s rupture roughly pits the Shinawatra-supporting northern portion of the country against the Bangkok-based establishment and its backers within the military.
The army chief has extolled the need to restore “peace and order” after nearly seven months of protests, which saw 28 people killed and hundreds more wounded in political violence.
* Agence France-Presse
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List
James Mustich, Workman
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Married Malala
Malala Yousafzai is enjoying married life, her father said.
The 24-year-old married Pakistan cricket executive Asser Malik last year in a small ceremony in the UK.
Ziauddin Yousafzai told The National his daughter was ‘very happy’ with her husband.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.