Indonesians have been absolutely incensed by an insulting remark made by a director of a lesser-known international beauty pageant.
Andre Sleigh is the creative director of the Miss Supranational pageant, which held its latest annual contest in Poland’s Małopolska Region in late August.
On Sept. 7, Thailand’s Anntonia Porsild streamed a live video on her Instagram with Sleigh nearby but off-camera. At one point in the video, Sleigh can be heard venting about his recent frustrations and saying, “I’m so sick of these fucking Indonesians.”
For context, Sleigh said he had been constantly pestered online by Indonesians over the past couple of weeks after Jihane Almira, Indonesia’s representative at the 2021 Miss Supranational contest, failed to crack the top 5. The harassment appeared to have bothered Sleigh so much that he live streamed a statement on Instagram on Sept. 4, stressing that the decision was made with his and the competition’s integrity intact.
Yet Sleigh obviously lost it and let his true feelings known when he was oblivious to having his voice recorded on film. For that, he has apologized on social media, particularly to the Puteri Indonesia Foundation and Indonesian contestants at Miss Supranational.
“There is nothing I can say to justify my moment of anger as I was reading a comment. It was completely wrong and reminded me how easy it is to make a very damaging mistake,” Sleigh wrote on Miss Supranational’s official Facebook page.
Jihane, who also made headlines recently for her role in a controversial new TV show, offered some pointed advice to Sleigh in a recent Instagram post, saying, “Make sure they grow a thick skin and a steel heart before they go ‘out’ there.. At least for the media 😉”
Meanwhile, Porsild, who did not directly challenge Sleigh when he made the insulting remark, took to Instagram yesterday to say: “I do not agree with what was said. I felt it was best to address it privately to understand what had happened. While I do understand that you expected me to react in defense, I wanted to make sure what I heard was correct because it caught me completely off guard.”
The 2019 Miss Supranational winner added that she loves all Indonesian fans and has respect for the country as a whole.
The Miss Supranational pageant has not released an official statement regarding Sleigh’s remark as of this article’s publication.
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