Jakarta Globe, Mar 17, 2015
Beauty
queen scandals are often so predictable — purloined tiaras, garden-variety sex
tapes, spectacular Q&A fails — as to be boring. But now a new contestant
for the crown of Miss Ignominy has taken the stage, with all of Indonesia
weighing in on social media to judge: What does it mean when your country’s top
beauty queen takes up arms for another country — and gets a new passport?
Kristania
Virginia Besouw, 29, was crowned Miss Indonesia in 2006. She previously reigned
as 2004′s Miss Manado, her hometown in North Sulawesi. Now, she’s enlisted in
the US Army as a nurse, a career decision that also put her on the fast track
to become a US citizen.
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| Can you guess which of these soldiers once wore the Miss Indonesia crown? (Photo courtesy of Facebook) |
Prior to
joining the US Army, Specialist Kristania had lived in the United States for
eight years on a student visa, during which time she was unable to return to
Indonesia — not even for her father’s funeral in 2011, she said in an interview
last Thursday with Tribun Manado. “I was on a student visa, which meant that I
had to keep going to college, and college here is really expensive.”
“So I
joined the army through the MAVNI [Military Accession Vital to the National
Interest] program. That’s for people who have gone to school here for at least
two years. Graduates become US citizens, so I don’t have to think about going
to college again. Anyway, I wanted to become a citizen quickly so I can go home
to Manado to see my family and friends. I miss them so much.”
In addition
to US citizenship and a professional nursing certification, Kristania’s service
in the US military will make her eligible to attend college for free — should
she decide to return — courtesy of the Army Tuition Assistance program.
On average,
the US military recruits about 5,000 non-citizens each year, nearly all of them
permanent US residents, or so-called “green card” holders. Starting in 2006,
the US military began accepting some foreigners with nonpermanent visas, such
as students or tourists, if they have special skills that are highly valued.
Since 2001, more than 92,000 foreign-born service members have become US
citizens while serving in uniform.
 |
| US Army Specialist Kristania Virginia Besouw, right, enlisted last October after studying nursing in Kansas. (Photo courtesy of Facebook) |
Kristania
said she felt proud to carry on a family tradition by serving in uniform.
“I wanted
to continue my father’s legacy. My father was an Indonesian Navy veteran,” she
said. “And before him, my grandfather was a policeman. So I’m continuing my
family’s legacy. If my father was alive, he would be so proud of me.”
Still, why
not serve in the Indonesian military?
“The
situation is very different,” Kristania explained. “I am here to become a
nurse. And the nurses in America are really appreciated; [nursing] school is
really hard, and then when entering the Army, it’s [even] more rewarding.”
Still,
Kristania says she loves Indonesia and her hometown of Manado in particular.
She frames her commitment to the US Army as an effort to return home, if
perhaps the hard way.
“When I was
trying to pass BCT [Basic Combat Training, or 'boot camp'], which is incredibly
hard, I just remembered that this is all in order to return home. My time in
training, from the end of October through January, was cold. We woke up at 4
a.m. and slept at 5 p.m. every day, with a two-hour night watch in between. It
was winter, and very physically difficult.”
Still,
Kristania says she’s happy: “I got in trouble for smiling too much at BCT,” she
confesses in a Facebook post. “So I have to make constant effort not to smile.”
While many
across the archipelago have expressed joy and pride on the achievements of
their fellow countryman and nation’s former top beauty star, not all
Indonesians will be so pleased at Kristania’s homecoming.
An article
titled “Kristy is Automatically No Longer an Indonesian Citizen,” citing
comments by the Indonesian Military’s (TNI) chief information officer, Maj.
Gen. M. Fuad Basya, appeared in Manado-based newspaper Harian Komentar,
alongside the news of her new job and citizenship.
 |
| Kristania says she feels proud to be carrying on a family tradition of uniformed service. Her father was a Indonesian Navy veteran and her grandfather a policeman. (Photo courtesy of Facebook) |
Kristania’s
new life in the US is not totally without precedent in the annals of beauty
queen scandals. Former Miss St. Petersburg Anastasia Michaeli was elected to
the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, as a member of the Yisrael Beiteinu party,
Haaretz reported. Though second citizenships had historically been an accepted
among Israeli politicians, Michaeli and two other legislators were ordered in
2009 to officially annul their foreign ties.
“If
Indonesia allowed dual citizenship, that would be nice. But for now, yes, I am
citizen of the United States,” Kristania said.
The United
States tolerates dual citizenship; Indonesia does not, at least for nationals
over 18-years-old. However, were Kristania to enjoy the privileges of
Indonesian citizenship, for example by traveling on her old passport, she could
jeopardize of the security clearance that her job as a US Army nurse requires.
The Jakarta
Globe has submitted questions to President Joko Widodo asking whether his
administration would support a change in the law that would allow Indonesians
to enjoy dual citizenship. The president
has yet to reply to this question, or to the Globe’s request for an interview,
which has been outstanding since January.
The United
States Embassy in Jakarta’s Twitter and Facebook feeds, usually quick to herald
and applaud achievements by US citizens of Indonesian origin — as when an
Indonesian-born judge is tapped for the highest court in Massachusetts, or
becomes chief of police for a town in Florida — has so far been silent on the
former Miss Indonesia’s proud news.
Commenting
on a Facebook photo of the newspaper article calling into question her loyalty,
Kristania wrote: “Maj. Gen. Fuad Basya and Tantowi Yahya have commented on my
status. I do not know what’s going on; I just want to say I love my two
countries.”
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