Beauty queen takes leaf out of mother’s book in Miss Universe bid

Singapore: In 2004, Bali-based Melbourne woman Janet DeNeefe founded the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival as a healing initiative in the aftermath of the 2002 terrorist bombings.

It’s been going strong ever since, becoming one of the largest in South-East Asia and rebounding from the pandemic to draw more than 12,000 attendees in its return in physical form in October.

Miss Universe Indonesia Laksmi DeNeefe Suardana, pictured with her mother Janet DeNeefe, is farewelled from Jakarta airport before the pageant in the US.Credit: Instagram

Now, almost two decades after she launched the literary festival, DeNeefe’s daughter is taking Bali to the world, motivated by aiding a recovery of a different kind.

Laksmi DeNeefe Suardana, 26, is representing Indonesia at the Miss Universe pageant, which concludes on Saturday in New Orleans, US. She entered and won the domestic contest last year after being prompted by the suffering she saw wrought by COVID-19 on Bali.

“It’s a bit like the writers’ festival … it’s a festival with a cause. It grew from the tragedy of the Bali bombings,” said DeNeefe, a renowned restaurant owner and author of a Balinese cookbook, who has lived on the island since meeting her husband Ketut Suardana there in the mid-1980s.

“It’s the same thing with [Laksmi]. This came about because of the devastation of Bali with a lack of tourism.

“She came back from Italy, after completing her studies in fashion, and she was deeply saddened to see this absolute ghost town of Ubud, knowing everybody was struggling.”

In a nod to her Australian mother, Laksmi, who attended Melbourne’s RMIT University before graduating from the illustrious Polimoda fashion institute in Florence, has made books a centrepiece of her Miss Universe bid.

Her campaign slogan is “Laksmi for Literacy” and her chosen field of advocacy – which participants nominate in addition to strutting the catwalk – is improving reading and writing among under-privileged children.

DeNeefe described her daughter’s selection of the passion project as “the greatest compliment”.

JKN Global Group chief Jakapong “Anne” Jakrajutatip arrives on stage during an event in Bangkok in November to mark her company’s acquisition of the Miss Universe Organisation.Credit: AFP

“It was her choice,” she said. “She’s grown up in the writers’ festival … she’s more recently helped moderate [sessions] and she’s been a volunteer. But she’s also a big reader.”

The pageant is being held three months after the Miss Universe Organisation was bought for $US20 million ($30 million) by transgender Thai media magnate Jakaphong “Anne” Jakrajutatip.

It had been co-owned by Donald Trump from 1996 until 2015, when he sold out in the early stages of an ultimately successful presidential run.

While Miss Universe retains a swimsuit competition despite some other such contests having dumped them, Jakrajutatip, the chief executive of Thai conglomerate JKN Global Group, told Bloomberg last year she wanted to shift the focus of Miss Universe to recognise “transformational leadership”.

Former Miss Universe owner Donald Trump with pageant winner Jennifer Hawkins in 2004.Credit: AP

She also intends to concentrate efforts on rebuilding the brand, long associated with Trump, in South-East Asia, seizing on the popularity of pageants in the region with a line of products including cosmetics, underwear and vitamin water.

Beauty contests are all the rage in the Philippines and well-supported in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, but they have also been on the rise in Muslim-majority Indonesia.

Indonesian women were largely forbidden from entering international pageants during the 32-year rule of former president Suharto, who regarded them as anti-religious and in contravention of the country’s cultural standards. It is only since 2005 that Indonesia has regularly fielded contestants in major events. When Indonesia hosted the Miss World event in 2013, Islamic groups took to the streets to protest and the bikini-wearing round was abandoned.

There is greater acceptance now and President Joko Widodo’s two sons are married to former beauty queens.

In the US, Laksmi hopes to not only become the first Indonesian to win Miss Universe, or at least the first to progress beyond the top 10.

Leaving for New Orleans, she said her life purpose was “to serve others and be a force for good”.

Australia is being represented at this year’s Miss Universe by Monique Riley, 27, from Queensland.

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