The former Miss Planet Cambodia 2024, Det Sreyneat. - Photo: Khmer Times
PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times): The former Miss Planet Cambodia 2024, Det Sreyneat, has explained further the reasons behind her shock withdrawal from the final of Miss Planet International 2024, on the eve of the final.
Det suddenly announced she would not be representing Cambodia, in a now deleted social media post of the 27th of November – the day before the final, which was held in Phnom Penh.
Organisers quickly replaced her with runner-up Khon Sovansonita, who stated that she ‘will commit to represent Cambodia on the international stage in the next few hours.’
Miss Det had previously stated reasons in a 5-minute video released previously, – saying that ‘I am very hurt by what happened in Siem Reap on the day of the national representative shoot, there were national and international guests, relatives, grandparents and children as witnesses. I am really hurt that they do not value Khmer, they despise our Khmer and despise my people.”
However, she has recently added to here dissatisfaction with the contest, saying that the biggest reason for her decision to withdraw from the competition is that she saw the program as being pre-planned, with two candidates already selected to receive the crown, and that she and the other candidates were just competing to beautify the stage.
Speaking to media, she added that she had never seen a beauty pageant organized like this, which made her wonder what she was competing for or if it was just a stage competition to look good, which was the main reason why she had to decide to withdraw.
She added that, during her national representative photo shoot in the Angkor area of Siem Reap Province, she was severely criticised by the programme organisers, who she says, accused her of being the host but arriving late even though she did everything according to the programme organisers.
She continued that the organisers pointed at her and taught her to say that she should say no when someone asked to take a photo, which made her think that as a Miss Cambodia representative and standing on her own land, they did not value her own people who came to ask her to take a photo, when she herself could not say such words to her own nation.
She added that for this programme, the organisers did not seem to be transparent with her.
In all the programs during the competition, she felt that she was under a lot of pressure even though she was the host.
She was always criticised in front of everyone, while the other contestants did nothing, and they still got more attention.
Det concluded by saying that she would like to apologize to the audience, especially the fans she disappointed when she decided to withdraw from the semi-final, and she hopes that through the above reasons, the public will understand the problems she faced.
Miss Cambodia placed 27th in the final, with Mahra Lutfri from United Arab Emirates winning the coveted Miss Planet crown. - Khmer Times
