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Bikini-Wearing Goodwill Ambassador Calls Indonesia Paradise
Ismira Lutfia | June 06, 2010

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Miss Lebanon, Martine Andraos, said on Sunday that unlike in Indonesia, her countrymen had no problem with her participation in international pageants requiring her to wear a bikini.

The 19-year-old Andraos said that she had participated in both Miss World and Miss Universe pageants and there had been no complaints about her wearing revealing swim suits.

“It’s a liberal country and we have no problem wearing bikinis,” she said.

Andraos was in Jakarta on Sunday, after traveling to Padang to witness the groundbreaking ceremony to rebuild an elementary school in Lubuk Bagalau damaged by September’s earthquake.

The rebuilding was funded by $50,000 money raised at a charity event hosted by the Indonesian Embassy in Lebanon, which Andraos had attended.

She said that Lebanon had also endured humanitarian disasters, and the she knew “how the earthquakes survivors feel.”

The image of Indonesia portrayed by the media in her country was a country full of natural disasters but instead she found herself to be in “paradise” on her visit here, Andraos said.

“This visit has convinced me that earthquakes did not destroy Indonesia,” Andraos said, adding that she plans to promote the nation as a peaceful country once she returns home, without mentioning any specific promotional plans.

“Our media has a lot to report on Indonesia in a positive way,” she said.

Bagas Hapsoro, the former Indonesian ambassador to Lebanon, said that Andraos’s visit is “an extension of the sympathy shared by the people of Lebanon for the victims of the Padang earthquake.”

“This is something that is not to be underestimated,” Bagas said. He is now Asean’s deputy secretary general for community and corporate affairs.

Bagas said that Andraos’s visit to Indonesia was also a way to promote the positive bilateral relationship between the two countries.

“I strongly believe that in spite of our differences, we are in fact the same in nature when we’re talking about humanitarian issues,” he said.

Andraos will visit Bandung and Bali before leaving Indonesia and returning to Beirut.