One tough cookie_Eunice Olsen

Life! - Life People
One tough cookie
Frankie Chee, monday interview

3 July 2006, Straits Times

From busting myths about beauty queens to those about beauty queens in politics, Eunice Olsen shows that underneath her pretty exterior lies a core of steel

A SK a beauty queen what her greatest wish for the world is, and before she can get the answer out, sniggering pageant watchers all over the world say as one: 'World peace.'

The caring, sharing, do-gooder reply - so family-friendly and chipper - comes not long after the beauty-title wannabe has paraded as a hot babe in a swimsuit. So her wholesome mission statement of wanting everyone to be happy seems a tad conflicted.

But shattering the idea of beauty queens as an easy target for ridicule is Eunice Olsen, a former Miss Singapore Universe whose life since winning the title in 2000 has been quite a display of commitment to, if not world peace, at least making the world within her orbit a better place.

Not many beauty queens go on to enter their country's Parliament, in Olsen's case as Singapore's youngest Nominated Member of Parliament, at the age of 27, in 2004. She was also the first Eurasian NMP since 1997. No empty-headed bimbo, she was not afraid to ask hard questions during parliamentary debates, speaking up for Singapore's needy.

She has also used her celebrity status to work tirelessly as a volunteer, helping troubled teens, for example. Yesterday, she was one of six outstanding individuals to receive this year's Singapore Youth Award for contributions to society, 'recognising excellence with a heart', as one of the panellists for the award puts it.

All this at a time when many a beauty queen has retired her tiara and sash for lucrative modelling contracts as a prelude to a new role as a rich man's wife.

Caring, sharing do-gooder, and at 29, still looking for a Mr Right soulmate. It still sounds too goody-two-shoes for words. How much of this is the real Eunice Olsen?

Is she simply a personable, morally idealistic high-achiever? Or is she a savvy seasoned politician with a steel core beneath that beauty-queen sash?

Those were some of the questions running through my head as I sit at the lobby of The Hyatt waiting for her arrival for this interview. I have plenty of time to ponder - she is fashionably late as is expected of beauty queens, I suppose.

Life outside Parliament

HER actual arrival, 15 minutes late, is a bit of an anti-climax. Although I have no idea what I am expecting - pretty she may be, but even at her pageant-winning peak, her looks weren't exactly to my liking - she doesn't bowl me over.

For someone whose looks have (initially) unlocked a lot of doors, she is daringly, totally without make-up, at least to my untutored male eyes. It takes a brave face - and tonnes of confidence - to go that bare, I reckon.

And her clothes are quite low-key; she is clad in a pink T-shirt and jeans.

This casual approach - one that she is known for among her young heartland fans - actually serves to put me at ease.

We nestle comfortably on a sofa. Perhaps now that all the glitter has been removed, I think to myself, I will get a glimpse of her true self, without the 'aura' that usually surrounds Beautiful People and ex-politicians.

After uttering our hellos, she treats me like an old friend, laughing and chatting away. I try not to relax too much, though, as these are all the hallmarks of someone who has dealt with the media many times before.

Then again, I wonder if this relaxed persona is to do with her no longer having to deal with the pressures of being an NMP. With the recent General Election, and dissolving of Parliament, the nine NMPs found themselves without a post.

On whether she will be applying to renew her term come nomination time in November, she says: 'Yeah, of course. I am not done yet, but it's really up to the committee to decide.'

She lets on that she has enjoyed her time as NMP. 'I always make sure that I say what I believe in and feel, and that it is constructive.'

But whether she gets another shot at speaking in Parliament or not, she is certainly making the most of her time now. She is picking up golf, and is learning it with her father, Mr Francis Oscar Olsen, 53, a marina manager.

Then, there's that continual volunteer work for various children or youth organisations. The multi-talented Olsen, an accomplished pianist and singer who once released her own album, also uses her musical skills in charity concert performances.

Spicing things up a bit, she hit headlines recently, posing in a provocative outfit to promote her new TV role hosting an arts programme on Arts Central with Kumar and Debbie Wong.

It seems some people want to see more of her. During the interview, I overhear her turning down a Maxim magazine spread to her producer. The men's magazine features women in scintillating outfits and sexy poses.

'There are certain limits to what I will do, and I stand very strongly on not doing topless or half-nude shots,' she says. After all, she did don a one-piece swimsuit during the Miss Singapore Universe pageant.

Her TV show hosting appears to be her only paid work for the moment. She is, however, in the process of setting up a company providing leadership skills, grooming and deportment with another partner. Her friendly demeanour and beauty-queen experience is bound to come in handy in a business like that.

On the relationship front, she reveals that she is currently single - her latest relationship ended earlier this year, but she declines to give his identity.

She adds: 'I would love to have a family but I'm comfortable at the moment. It's more important to find the right person than to say that I have to get married by a certain age.'

She says all her activities leave her little time for leisure, though she does sometimes go for drinks with friends at nightclubs such as Attica and Ministry of Sound.

Seeing that she had been up till 5.30 that morning preparing her slides for a rehearsal of a charity concert that weekend, I offered to reschedule the interview. But she delined the offer, saying she hated to say yes to something and then not do it.

Now, where have we heard that before?

Oh yes, that infamous headline-hitting incident last year when she missed the swearing-in ceremony for NMPs because of a prior commitment to a concert in Korea. At that time, she stressed it was more important to her that she keep her word.

That principle of not letting others down, of keeping her word, crops up constantly during the interview.

Of the swearing-in furore, she tells me that she had already agreed to the Korean concert in November, whereas she knew about her swearing-in only in January. She adds that no fees were involved - contrary to some nasty comments going around at that time.

'It was quite hurtful. I knew I was going to get a lot of flak for it, but I had to honour my promise, because you should always mean what you say.'

Spin the wheel

THAT idea of commitment is echoed in why she entered the sometimes bruising world of politics in the first place. NMPs are supposed to be established people with a credible record behind them academically or in their field of expertise. Many questioned her eligibility and suitability to be an NMP.

Beauty queen and show host - she turned the wheel of letters on the popular TV game show Wheel Of Fortune in 2002 - may sound glamorous, but it hardly warrants someone having a say in arguing matters that affect the nation.

Olsen replies: 'I expected it and I know many people were asking, 'Who is this girl? Who does she think she is?' It was hard, but for me, I wanted to help, clear and simple.'

She says, in shades of beauty-queen speak: 'I asked myself, 'Does it help somebody?' I've always talked about why it's good to do volunteer work and this gave me a platform to reach out to people and raise issues with the people who can make decisions.'

But she adds disarmingly: 'I am not saying I am the most experienced or the most suitable person, but I was put there and it was about making the best of what I have.

'My parents have taught me not to expect respect from others but to go out there and earn it instead.'

Not surprising, seeing that her father was a former army Warrant Officer.

Her mother, Madam Alice Yap, 52, a real estate agent, is a Teochew, and Olsen is their only child. She still stays with them in a three-room flat in Ang Mo Kio. But she was never lonely as she grew up with 30 cousins.

Olsen owes her European roots to her paternal great grandfather, who was Swedish, and his Portuguese wife.

She doesn't see herself as having been a token Eurasian face in Parliament either: 'Whoever speaks up in Parliament does so in the interest of Singaporeans, not just a certain race, although they also take an active role in the community and heritage they come from.'

The timing was particularly poignant though, for this intensely family-oriented woman. She received the invitation to be an NMP during the wake of her 76-year-old grandfather, Oscar Peter Olsen. And shortly after she was announced to be an NMP, her grandmother, Phyllis Rodrigues, had just died, also at the age of 76.

Want to buy a vowel?

CONTRARY to what some imagine, squeaky-clean Olsen was not from a Convent school, and she was not a top student. She says her school performance was average and that she got into a lot of fights with her cousins.

She went on to St Margaret's Secondary, Anglo-Chinese Junior College and finally graduated with a bachelor's degree from the National University of Singapore, majoring in philosophy and political science.

She started learning the piano when she was three years old, and by the age of 16, was giving piano lessons.

To her, the turning point in her life was the Miss Singapore Universe pageant. She says she returned from the contest with a burning desire to help others. Her first stop? The Toa Payoh Girls' Home, where she spoke to the residents and provided counselling.

Her father was then the driver for United States Ambassador Steven Green, and it was through him that she managed to secure the opportunity to speak at the Home.

She says: 'The good problem about volunteer work is that it is very addictive. The moment you do it, you feel you want to do it even more.'

Once, she got a card from one of the girls at the Home, thanking her for letting her into her life and listening to her. She says she cried when she read it.

But amid all that earnestness, it emerges that she likes to laugh, even if it is at her own expense. She gets teased a lot by people who come up to her asking to buy a vowel, harking back to her spell on Wheel Of Fortune, and she plays along by asking which one they want.

One of her cousins, Jeanette Alexander, 28, a youth worker with the Salvation Army, describes her as 'full of energy, outgoing, intelligent, ambitious and never a bore to have around'.

And 19-year-old student Bernice Lim, who worked with Olsen in a recent charity concert, says she 'was taken aback by how friendly she is'.

'She is so different from what I expected after seeing her in the media. She is very easy-going, not at all like a diva, very decent and has completely no airs.'

On the other hand, Olsen's overly friendly gestures might seem fake to some. And her ambitious endeavours might put some people off, not to mention the constant appearance of her name in the media.

But you cannot deny that this girl believes in what she does and that she is just who she is.

As the the hour-long interview ends, she stands up, and I get a good view of the text print on her T-shirt. It reads: 'One tough cookie.'

As the ever-focused, multi-tasking Olsen bustles off to her new life - now with ex-NMP (or perhaps NMP-to-be again) on her resume - I can't help but think that this statement suits her well now, just as the tiara that sat on her head six years ago once did.

frankiec@sph.com.sg

SHE SAYS

'If you talk about feeling something for your country and identifying with your nation, it really is through volunteerism, because you have a stake in someone else's life and a commitment to them' On how volunteerism tied in with her role as NMP

'He told me: 'You must look down on the floor and tell her you're very sorry about not concentrating and talking too much in class' ' On a time during Primary 2 when her father made her apologise to her mathematics teacher

'I look at these kids and I think that by a strange twist of fate, I could have been them' On her trip to help underprivileged children in Cambodia