malaysia’s most beautiful?
oh dear… i know i must study but i just have to see the ending and so i watched the 4 last series in a row just now… reality tv really has evolved even in malaysia… gosh!!! quite shocking actually…
i am soooo not going to be a fan or even attempt to be in one but still, the show has been an amusing one to see… haha… in a possibly weird kind of way - at times just feel like kicking myself for being patient waiting the show to buffer, also likewise when watching even though the show is really not that smooth over the internet connection, and especially so… to even watch a bunch of people who think or feel they are beautiful confessing time and time again… as well as cat fights… yepp… believe me, cat fights on tv… hehe… oh well, we do loads of things to let the mind escape the routine stresses in life so this might just be one of it… keh keh keh… funny thing…
anyway, the interesting side is… it makes you wonder how you define beauty.
what criteria make up for beauty in malaysia? is it determination? potential? confidence? just physical? intelligence? what is the big issue about being beautiful? to whom does it matters? does approval or winning is the ultimate connerstone for one to realise how beautiful they are? or does beauty just justify itself once you realise you are beautiful no matter what? what is the meaning of inner beauty? does it really exists?
there are so much grey areas and in the end, everybody agrees that nobody is perfect… and that is in fact the rule of the nature. we are built with strength as well as weaknesses. and i am quite intrigue by what a contestent said, "beauty is admitting imperfections…" which i felt sum up beauty in a certain way.
unfortunately, on a more serious note, i must say that i felt quite disappointed that none of these contestants actually portray the image of malaysia to be the malaysia’s most beautiful. yes, we are multicultural and the show has managed to bring in contestants from all walks of life, variety of age and racial groups but then again, none actually display the beauty of their own culture. i can easily said they are contestants for xxx’s most beautiful, xxx being some country somewhere. they are somehow bland. there is no x-factor. they are typical.
why are we as malaysian do not seems proud of our own root? are we not comfortable with who we are - that we need to dress up and behave like somebody else? what happen to our kebaya, cheongsam and saree? honestly they can still be a sexy outfit if that is how one define beauty. to be fair maybe this is not the choices of the contestant, especially when they have to wear evening gowns for gala and what not, plus the fact that the designer didn’t make kebaya, cheongsam or saree. but still, where is our malaysian identity in this show? so, maybe it is not just in the outfit but then, what about our culture? do we still have any left after all these years opening our door to the world globally in the quest of becoming a developed country? what about kesopanan dan kesantunan? does it still exists in ourselves? what defines malaysian?
maybe i am a bit conservative. but i honestly ponder on these questions myself. it just shows how insecure we are of our own identity. don’t get me wrong as i am far from admiting i am the last malaysian woman. i am still discovering and learning. but how can malaysia be a nation that we can be proud off when we don’t even have our own identity? do we still have the ‘jati diri’ as anak malaysia? what make us difference from other people?
what can make us proud by saying i am MALAYSIAN?
it just reminds me of a footage from the show when the judges asked one of the contestant, "why do you think you are beautiful?" and she answered something that goes like, " because i am perempuan melayu terakhir…" and when trying to clarify what she meant by being perempuan melayu terakhir, the message that came across to me is that she herself have no idea what perempuan melayu terakhir is all about. maybe she came up with that spontaneously, God knows… but even seeing her on first impression didn’t back up her definition of beauty as perempuan melayu terakhir.
it is amusing because these ladies are admittedly saying they are beautiful when little by little their flaws are out in the open, but i guess the whole programme has helped them to know a bit more about themselves in retrospect. and some credit must be given for their courage to even be in that show. plus it has actually pondered on my definition of beauty and being a malaysian altogether. hmm… it has been an interesting show for me… and definitely kill my boredom and homesick seeing a whole bunch of malaysian with malaysian scenery - even if only over the laptop screen… haha… thanks faza *wink*
so, if you wanna a taste of this show, here’s the link… enjoy!! heh http://www.mostbeautiful.com.my/download.asp
p/s: all of the pics here are from snapshots of karnival malaysia 2004 around london. is this what is left of our culture and identity? i wonder… hehehe
