From catwalk to media spotlight
M. Taufiqurrahman & Karen Stingemore, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
When Nadine Chandrawinata was named Miss Indonesia 2005 by a panel of judges in the country's most celebrated beauty contest, people could not help but think that the 21-year-old Jakarta delegate had won the title simply because of her physical appearance.
Nadine's statuesque figure towered above those of other contestants and her Eurasian face had a complexion that easily won over the jury.
Despite her physical appearance, the unsuspecting public -- who believed the hype that the contest was about brain and beauty in which the former would take precedence over the latter -- would not place their bets on Nadine and was convinced that either TV anchor Valerina Novita Daniel or Javanese beauty Lindi Chistia Prabha would be named the winner.
The chances for Nadine to win the contest looked slim when she gave a stuttering and incorrect answer to a question posed by a panel member about what Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai had done to deserve the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.
The crowd at the Jakarta Convention Center, the venue where the contest was staged, and those who watched the contest in a live telecast, even booed Nadine for her inaccurate answer.
However, Nadine managed to turn the tables in her favor by impressing the panel of judges who sought her opinion on the true meaning of friendship.
"True friends will stand by your side in good times or bad. They are unlike our shadow, which disappears when darkness comes," she told the panel of judges, in a face gleaming with confidence.
The judges were highly enamored by her reply and rushed to give their decision in favor of Nadine.
Panel member Dewi Motik Pramono said that rarely did a young person still believe in such old-fashioned wisdom. "The answer is enough to convince us that Nadine was the one we were looking for," Dewi said the night after the contest wrapped up.
Speaking to The Jakarta Post after the crowning night, Nadine said she was still bewildered by her ability to get her act together so hastily and brilliantly respond to the tricky question.
"You know, I'd never spoken in public before; it was my first time speaking in front of such a big crowd," Nadine recalled.
Small wonder that newly crowned Miss Indonesia had rarely spoken in public before the final as her daytime job did not require such a skill.
Prior to plunging herself into the contest, Nadine was a catwalk model, an occupation that also landed her roles in several TV commercials.
Following the path already traversed by hundreds of models who had come before her, Nadine also appeared in several sinetron (TV soap operas).
In an industry notorious for glorifying the ideal of beauty in women, Nadine's physical attributes helped her to stay a little longer in the game.
Born in Hanover, Germany, on May 8, 1984, to an Indonesian father and German mother, Nadine said that she was an authentic Indonesian and the European country served only as her land of birth.
Her Eurasian background, however, did not prevent her from building a good rapport with her peers.
Nadine took her plunge into the world of modeling in early 2002, after being persuaded to do so by her family and friends.
It was also her friends, some from her childhood, that convinced her to enter the Miss Indonesia 2005 contest.
Nadine agreed and went ahead. "Although I'm a Eurasian, it didn't mean that I couldn't take part in the contest. I'm an Indonesian citizen -- it is printed so on my ID card," she said.
Nadine, who weighs 52 kilograms and stands 174 centimeters tall, entered the contest with no particular expectations. "At first, I wasn't confident of winning because there were so many contestants who seemed so much smarter than I," Nadine said in a self-effacing tone.
Now that she has been declared Miss Indonesia 2005, Nadine said that she was ready to fulfill whatever expectations would be required from the new titleholder, including staving off possible controversies that might arise from her participation in the future Miss Universe contest, which the Miss Indonesia titleholder is entitled to enter.
Earlier this year, Miss Indonesia 2004, Artika Sari Dewi, left for the Miss Universe contest in Bangkok, Thailand, in the throes of mounting controversy that her participation went against the moral and religious mores adhered to by most of the country's population, or at least its conservatives.
Miss Universe controversies may still be far ahead, but there is a more immediate matter that she needs to respond to -- the suggestion that she was elected Miss Indonesia 2005 simply on the basis of her good, Eurasian looks.
"I was elected because I was unique; it was the panel of judges that made the decision: I did nothing to influence it," she said in a carefully crafted statement.
The good-natured and carefree resident of Bintaro, a suburb to the south of Jakarta, seemed to be taking all the doubts in her stride and is now concerned more than ever to improve her public- speaking skills.
"In the Miss Universe contest, I shall be up against people who are smarter than I; therefore, I really need to take a public speaking and English course," she concluded.