KOTA KINABALU: Beauty does not come effortlessly, nor does nature bloom without nurture.
This is a message that two beauty queens – Miss World 2025, Opal Suchata and Miss World Malaysia 2025 Taanusitya Chetty – hope to send throughout their one-week visit to Sabah.
Taanusitya Chetty explained that every beauty in nature, in the sunsets, flowers and the environment, came from the hard work of those who cared for them.
“The sunsets here are one of a kind and it feels like I had a blessing in my eyes to witness such beauty,” she said in a tree-planting ceremony in front of the historical Atkinson’s Tower here, on Tuesday (Feb 10).
However, she said all these would not be possible if the people did not take care of nature, the way it should be taken care of.
“Let us start educating and encouraging children to start from planting trees or flowers, so they learn to nurture and eventually, have these plants attract other beautiful things or creatures, like the butterfly and in my case, the Rajah Brooke, which is my favourite,” she said.
Opal Suchata, who hails from Phuket, Thailand, said both Sabah and Phuket share many similarities, among which are the beautiful nature and weather.
She said caring for heritage and nature have one thing in common - it takes a village.
“Let us be remembered not by how much we take from the world but by how we nurture, how well we preserve it and the legacy that we leave behind for the generations to come,” she said.
Earlier, Mayor Datuk Seri Dr Sabin Samitah said this year’s tree planting is a continuation of last year’s Miss World programme, where they planted trees as a symbol of hope and renewal.
“We continue that commitment by nurturing what was planted. The trees will later grow at the Tun Fuad Stephens Botanical Park, Sabah, reminding us that environmental care is not a single act, but a promise made over time,” he said.
He said this year’s programme carried deeper meaning as it took place at the Atkinson Clock Tower, one of the oldest surviving landmarks in Kota Kinabalu.
He said preserving places such as this honours the past while shaping a future that respects identity, memory, and continuity.
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