'MTV's' VJ Sarah Sechan tells it how it is
By Chris Brummit
JAKARTA (JP): For someone who is seen in more than 19 million households throughout the region, Sarah Sechan, one of the Indonesian presenters (VJs) on MTV Southeast Asia, is refreshingly free from the affectations and hang-ups that such exposure might cause to arise. She is hip though, as only someone who works at Asia's high temple of youth culture can be.
In Jakarta for a two-day visit, she arrived at the agreed venue holding a mobile phone and a copy of Kompas open to the classified pages. She pointed at her paper and explained she was house hunting somewhere in South Jakarta.
Now 25, her independence -- financial and otherwise -- was apparent in the interview that followed.
The daughter of an international banker, she spent nine of her school years abroad in the United States and England. After which she returned to Jakarta and started an accounting degree at Trisakti University. She was two years into it before modeling, radio disc jockeying and acting commitments took over. Toward the end of 1997 MTV offered her a contract, she consulted her mom and moved to Singapore where MTV Southeast Asia is based.
As might be expected for someone who talks for a living, once she got going she proved difficult to stop. Neither was it the auto-speak which celebrities are prone to lapse in to; there were no sudden defenses raised or obviously premeditated answers. She appeared to be, if no longer the girl next door, still very much on the same street as the rest of us.
She talked about her childhood, Indonesian pop music and sinetron (TV serials), and gave the lowdown on life at MTV, all the time switching between Indonesian and English in the style familiar to those who watch her at work.
Question: How was it moving around from country to country when you were young?
Answer: I didn't like it. Compared to my brothers, I was always the shy one, walking around the streets with my head down. My mom would say, "What are you doing, looking for coins?" Then as soon as I made a few friends, it was time to move on again. I said I had to go back to Indonesia, and they would ask, "do you live in houses?" I'd reply like "no, we live in caves." "What do you wear?" And I'm, like, "nothing. We're nudists." "What do you speak?" And I say, "oh, agabunga language, you know."
Q: Your current job as a VJ. It looks like a dream job. Is it?
A: I wouldn't say a dream exactly. Before I got it, I had always lived with my family and the job was based in Singapore. So besides the job, I had always wanted to live alone. I wanted to see whether I could do it or not. Singapore is safe and mom said ok, you can go.
Monday to Friday I'm in the studio, so I rarely get to meet people. Then there are the parties; you have to meet lots of people and sometimes you don't know what to say to them. So these days I just go out with the production team. They are all young, fun creative people.
Q: Does it feel like hard work?
A: It's not hard work actually. Maybe at the beginning, you're thinking about all the people watching you. Now I just treat the camera as a friend. The only bad thing is that if you're having any problems, you still have to wake up and go and perform before the camera, so you have to hide everything. I haven't got problems. I'm young, it's not like I have two husbands who are both leaving me and taking the kids or anything. But you know you can be heartbroken and stuff.
Q: How often do you make it back to Jakarta?
A: When I first moved, I used to go back every two weeks or so. But not to Jakarta, mostly to Bandung to visit my relatives. And then I checked my account, and I thought this is getting crazy, all my money is running out. Nowadays, not so often, really only if I've got some work to do, which works out to about once every two months.
Q: Is there anything you always do when you arrive?
A: The minute I arrive I have to go to Dapur Sunda (a Sundanese restaurant) in Cipete, and there I eat my baked fish, chicken, lalap salad and rice; only then do I go home.
Q: Having acted in some sinetrons, do you think they are any good?
A: You can really see the actors are acting. Why don't they just use everyday language? (She then does a fine impersonation of a wooden sinetron actor.) When they are sad, they put their face like this, when they are angry, like this. The script is like that from the beginning, and it seems they stick to it. There are some good ones, the ones I haven't seen maybe. I mean, I don't want the actors to come along and kill me or anything. I have just seen my first one, and now I am talking exactly like that.
Q: Do you think, in general, MTV is a good or bad influence?
A: Most people who watch MTV are young people. They all see the western influence and they think it's really cool, but sometimes they don't filter it. They must filter it. They take all of it in. I mean, a few years ago, all the young kids were shaving their heads and wearing swastikas. I have even heard some young kids, 14 and 15 year olds, watch alternative stuff and the singer looks a little high and is all skinny, and they then think junkies are really cool.
However, these days, with MTV, people are a little bit more familiar with Indonesian music, and also Asian music. People like Anggun (a female singer signed to Sony) who are brave enough to leave Indonesia and make it outside. Plus, music videos are booming in Indonesia. And MTV has also opened up channels for traditional music, like dangdut.
Q: What do you think about Coco Lee? (A Taiwanese R&B singer who is much hyped at present, particularly on MTV)
A: Maybe because she was raised in the States, but she's, like, too western. Look at Anggun, her "Indonesianess" still shows. She hasn't dyed her hair, or had cosmetic surgery or suddenly started wearing sexy clothes. Whereas Coco Lee, for me, she is just another Mariah Carey wanna-be. She's got an Asian face; but her "Asianness" is not real. A lot of my Asian friends look at her and they are really annoyed because she doesn't represent Asia, she is more of a marketing phenomenon.
Q: Sometimes you appear a little bit cynical about boy bands?
A: No, we love them. (Laughter). They do their bit and they work hard. We invite them to the studio, and sometimes we ask them to sing. And they say, Oh no! We can't do that. We've met them all, and they are mostly nice. They can dance, but some of them just can't sing, they are like dolls.
Q: Any plans for the future?
A: I'm not really obsessed about being this or being that. My most pressing thing to do is find a house. I would like to get into production and script writing, that kind of thing. I wanted to save money and go to film school, but then, having paid the bills, there is never enough left over. I'm going to have to learn directly on the field, as an assistant or something. I have got this friend and he started out as the guy who made the tea and bought the lunch. He kept his eyes and ears open, and now he is a producer who makes independent films in England. Just recently I have been writing my own scripts for MTV. Of course it has always been heavily improvised and that, but I've really enjoyed it.
Q: No desire to be a pop star?
A: I just sing in the bathroom, and even then I have to check if there is someone outside and put some towels under the door. Actually, I was offered the chance once. Three girls, but it was going to end up a boy band kind of thing, so I turned it down.
Q: What's your perfect day off?
A: Some secluded beach in Lombok. Or on a normal day, just to have a nice lunch with my mom or sister somewhere quiet. See a movie, preferably something stupid that you don't have to think about after. Usually in Singapore, I just stay at home and clean the house. Get rid of all the dust, because I just can't stand dust. Then I read a good book.