A strange question to ask a Thai

Maria Poonlertlarp, representing Thailand in the Miss Universe pageant, was given quite a question to answer in the contest’s final moments in Las Vegas on Sunday night local time. “What do you think has been the most important social movement of your generation, and why?” host Steve Harvey wanted to know.
“I think the most important social movement so far is that we have an ageing population, but the most important movement in our time is definitely the youth,” she replied. “So the youth is something that we have to invest in, because they’re the ones that are going to look after the earth we’re living on.”
Maria managed to smile 
graciously through her disappointment as the 2017 title went instead to Miss South Africa, Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters. Meanwhile there weren’t a lot of smiles back home in Thailand, where the social networks lit up with criticism over not just the judges’ decision but also Maria’s response to a challenging question.
Plenty of her countrymen said she’d done her best and had after all been one of the five finalists – the first time that had happened at the Miss Universe event in years. Others refused to be forgiving, though. In her reply to the “skill-testing question”, they said, Maria had completely missed the point. The debate continued all day Monday. Reporters decided they’d better ask Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha what he thought. He praised her as the country’s representative, but scholars and social activists kept repeating that Maria had blown the chance to tell the world what social movements were taking root in Thailand.
Both the premier and the critics seem to share a misperception, however, about the Miss Universe contest and the role that beauty queens play. 
First, beauty pageants are there to reap handsome profits for the private companies that run them. Second, can any individual genuinely represent her country or its national identity? Maria was representing the Miss Universe Thailand competition run by Chan25 Co Ltd, which has specific criteria in choosing a winner, but it’s not like citizens get to vote.
Maria, the daughter of a Swedish engineer and a Thai university lecturer, doesn’t “look Thai” and she was educated mainly outside Thailand. Other than in the “national costume” segment, no one could say she embodied “Thainess” on the Miss Universe stage. Whether she won or lost had nothing to do with Thailand as a nation.
Third, her controversial answer was entirely her own. She perhaps failed to distinguish between a social movement and a segment of society (youth). Had she been better prepared, she might have cited the way the poor in Thailand have risen up to challenge the elite, or the ongoing struggle against the Songkhla coal-fired power plant. Fourth, it must be borne in mind that Maria’s perception or misconception about social movements has no bearing on actual situations here or elsewhere. 
Finally, while overreacting to Maria’s televised response, Thais should remember that the Prayut government routinely suppresses social movements. Opponents of the southern power plant got thrown in jail just because they sought to submit a petition. We should thank Steve Harvey for asking his question. Hopefully, Thais will keep talking a while longer about social movements under 
military rule.