Chief organiser Duong Xuan Nam and Head of the Government Office’s Cultural and Social Department Chu Tien Duc chaired the brief conference to explain the case of Miss Vietnam 2008 Thuy Dung, about whom it was said she had not graduated high school yet, while the regulations of Miss Vietnam pageant set by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism clearly stipulate that contestants must have at least a high-school diploma.
Nam said Thuy Dung didn’t violate the contest’s rules because the organisers only insisted contestants be studying at high school, not that they had to have graduated from high school.
He added that in her documents submitted for the Miss Vietnam 2008 pageant, Thuy Dung noted that her learning was at the high school level, not high school graduation, so she didn’t cheat the organisers.
The organising board admitted it violated the Ministry of Information, Sports and Tourism’s regulations. Nam called this mistake a “walk move”, implemented in advance of the Ministry’s draft amended regulations on beauty contests, which will be issued soon.
“The draft regulations were compiled in April. We guessed that they would be issued in June so we bravely applied them. The contest rules were widely published on the media and we didn’t receive any word from competent agencies so we thought perhaps the new regulations had been issued or our regulations were reasonable,” Nam explained further.
In a press conference held before the Miss Vietnam 2008 pageant, the organisers announced many new features of the contest, without mentioning the above new point.
How will be the organising board’s violation be handled? The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Chu Tien Duc said the organisers must seriously learn from their mistake.
Though the chief organiser said Thuy Dung didn’t cheat the organising board, she perhaps used a false school report to apply for an overseas course. Nam said the organisers didn’t know about it and competent agencies will check. This job will take several months.
So the question now is, as Miss World 2008 will come in the next 2 months, will Thuy Dung represent Vietnam at this international pageant?
“We will meet to discuss this issue later,” Nam said.
Thuy Dung didn’t attend the press conference because she was attending the rehearsal for a special gala tonight in Hanoi, which will gather all Misses Vietnam over the past 20 years.
(Source: VNE)
