Deborah Priya Henry is Miss Universe Malaysia 2011
Local model and TV host Deborah Priya Henry was crowned Miss Universe Malaysia 2011 on Thursday.
“I am honoured and privileged to be representing Malaysia on the world stage,” said Deborah, who is of Indian-Irish descent.
“I’m in it to win it. If I never take part in this, I will never know how far I will go for the rest of my life,” added the 25-year-old, who currently runs the Save the Kids Education Fund (SKEF), an education centre for Somali refugee children.
Deborah, who won the Miss Malaysia World title in 2007, was selected by popular vote via the pageant’s official Facebook page combined with the views of a panel of judges.
The panel comprises Andrea Fonseka, who is the national director of the Miss Universe Malaysia Pageant (MUMO), local actor Hans Isaac and Russian beauty expert Julia Dolmatova. Fonseka, who took home the Miss Universe Malaysia title in 2004 said they chose a contestant with experience as they do not have the time and resource to groom a greenhorn.
“There are no rules that say a former winner of other beauty pageants can’t join the Miss Universe pageant,” Fonseka explained.
She added that Trincy Low, who won the Miss World title in 1995, also went on to win the Miss Universe title in 1997.
Other finalists who made the list for Miss Universe Malaysia 2011 include Gail James, Cassandra Patrick, Jennifer Pedersen, Kelly Jagan, Mourhna Reddy, Patricia Sue-Lin Kundsen, Stefanie Chua and Thanuja Ananthan.
Deborah will represent Malaysia at the Miss Universe pageant in Sao Paulo, Brazil in September.
Miss Universe Malaysia 2012 will also be crowned in September this year as part of the pageant’s new format that aims to provide more training for future contestants.
“Latin American nations typically have up to 12 months to train their contenders while we’ve had to compress this process into just three months,” said Fonseka.
“We believe that future contestants will have a better shot at winning the Miss Universe title now that we have a longer period to train them,” she added.
Miss Universe Malaysia is part of the international Miss Universe franchise owned and managed by the Trump Organisation in joint venture with NBC Universal.
Deborah Henry, who stands 1.75 m tall, was a Top 15 finalist at the Miss World 2007 pageant, along with Ada de la Cruz (Miss Dominican Republic and 1st runner-up in Miss Universe 2009) and Yendi Phillips (Miss Jamaica and 1st runner-up in Miss Universe 2010).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJavJfinS90
