She may still be a teen but Manohara Odelia Pinot is clearly mature beyond her years. Married at the aged of 17, the French Indonesian claimed to have been raped, kidnapped and abused by her 31-year-old royal husband.

manohara odelia pinot jakarta 100609 Having made a dramatic escape last month, Manohara has since shot to fame in Indonesia and was offered the starring role in a soap opera by Jakarta film production house Sinemart.

Last week, she took time out in between shoots at a studio in private television channel RCTI and to talk to Malaysiakini.

The following is the final of a two-part interview.

Malaysiakini: Immediately after that night, when you reached the hotel (in Singapore), you tried to run into an elevator and...

Manohara: No, no, not immediately. We were planning to stay there for five weeks, I think? It was a long time, like more than a month, until the sultan gets better. So I said okay, just calm down, try to wait for mom to come so I’d be brave enough to make a scene. I was contacting her through the phone. I was like, ok, ok...

The next day Tengku was like “we have to leave, now, now, now,” so I was like, “oh, no”. And Datuk Kadar Shah (Sulaiman) found out that Tengku was leaving, so he called my mom and told her to come to Singapore now, “come now”.

So we went, and someone told me - I can’t say who, to protect that person - that “your mom’s at the lobby”, so I was like, okay.

I rushed to the elevator. We were going to go down to the first floor, but then they stopped the elevator on the third floor, and what I found out afterwards was that on the third floor (the hotel) has a special, like, ‘escape exit’ for the royal families, so they have their own car park, their own exit, so they don’t even have to go to the lobby first.

So they pressed the third floor and they tried to call the Raja who said, “Mano, come I want give you jewelry.” I was like, “I’m not going go (out of the lift), I just want to go down to the first floor,” and they were like, “No, come out now,” and the bodyguards wanted to take me by force, and I said, “Go ahead, there’s CCTV,” so then they all stopped but they blocked the (lift) door.

manohara odelia pinot malaysiakini interview 290609 06 They didn’t hurt me, luckily. So then the Raja came in herself cause she was so frustrated that none of the bodyguards would take her commands.

She started pulling me, but she was not that strong. I started pressing the alarm, I started screaming and tried to get as much attention as I could.

I figured that in the worst case, they would bring me back to Kelantan, then at least there was a lot of witnesses that saw what my mom was saying in the media was true, that I was not happy, I was there against my will.

So I kept pressing the (emergency) alarm. Shortly after that, (a) doctor came and I said, “What are you going to do?” He said, “Raja told me to give you a tranquiliser.”

So I started panicking even more, screaming even louder and then the security came up. The security there wasn’t too helpful, they were like, “Mano, you have to go to the (hotel) room, you can’t do this in a public place,” but I was like, “I don’t care, I’m going to continue screaming.”

And then the police came up, and they were really helpful. They helped me. My mom came at the same time, so I ran to my mom.

Where was Tengku during this time?

First, he was in the elevator, he was trying to put me into a guilt trip, like “How can you do this? The sultan is in the hospital having a heart attack, you’re embarrassing me,” and I said, “This has nothing to do with the sultan. It’s just you personally, don’t bring anyone else into this.” But he was just screaming, trying to get me out.

How did you feel after that?

Actually, I was still tense the whole time. We were in the taxi and I was still tense. I had all these scenarios in my head, you know, like “Oh God, what if they bribe the taxi driver to take me to the border of Johor”. There were these ‘what if’ scenarios, I was really scared.

manohara and tengku Once we reached the airport (in Changi), I was still nervous and then when we were finally ready to board the plane - actually the pilot called me, my sister and my mother (into the plane) to take a picture with us, but I didn’t know, so I thought “Oh God, what if they bribed the pilot, and we go in and they fly to Kelantan” so I was still really...

The whole time I was still really, really tense, until we landed and I saw the Indonesian airport, and then I saw the immigration guy who usually picks me up when I go to Jakarta, and then I was like, “Okay, I’m home.” It was like you had been underwater for three months and then you could breathe again - it was a huge weight lifted off, it was great.

Do you have any regrets meeting Fakhry?

No, I don’t regret it. I mean I don’t think I did anything wrong. Maybe I was just not wise enough to see things too clearly, but I don’t regret, and people also ask me if I hate him. I mean if you regret or you hate or you keep a grudge, you just end up tiring yourself.

So he has hurt me for three months, why should I let him still hurt me now, even if he’s not here? It’s stupid, and to me, love and hate is the same thing, it all comes down to caring, it’s how you care for that person - do you care for that person in a loving manner or in a hateful manner. But I just don’t care anymore.

Did Tengku try to reach you (after all this)?

manohara odelia pinot rcti indonesia television interview 040609 No, I was on live television once and then (Mohd) Soberi (Shafii) just came in. That interview was so frustrating cause he was like “I know you love him, it’s just your mom,” and I was like “Look, it’s me here first hand saying I don’t love him.

If I loved him, why would I press the (emergency) alarm? Why would I try to escape? Why wouldn’t I sleep with him?”

It all doesn’t make sense but they have this scenario in their head that they believe in and it’s scary, it’s really frustrating.

They said the matter was a personal problem between you and Fakhry, and he should have let you go but he did not.

I don’t think it’s a personal problem. It’s a personal problem if it was just a case of divorce, but here there were violations of human rights, so I don’t think it’s personal.

If this is the way it has to be for Tengku as an individual to get punished in the proper manner by the law, then I don’t mind, you know?

But what I keep clarifying in the media here (in Indonesia) is that Tengku does not represent Malaysia, nor does he represent Kelantan even.

So just because he has done this, I mean, he’s 31 years old for God’s sakes, he’s a grown up, he knows his actions, he’s not stupid.

So I don’t think it’s fair that just because of his stupidity and his inhumanity that the whole of Malaysia gets judged by his actions, which is what I see a lot here now, and I try to stop it cause I don’t want the same thing to happen (to others).

Like in ’98 if I’m not mistaken, in Indonesia they had a problem with the Chinese. I really don’t want that to happen with the Malaysians because, I mean most of the people who helped me were Malaysians anyway. So it has nothing to do with countries or anything.

Imagine there are no countries, and everyone is just an individual, just judge that one individual or the several individuals who were involved in my kidnaping, themselves, not their country.

There were allegations that some cash was offered. How far is it true?

I can’t prove that. I don’t want to continue it cause I can’t prove it. But they offered quite a large sum of money to make me just drop the case and be quiet. I said no, I’m not gonna drop the case. This is not about money.

manohara odelia pinot meet malaysiakini interview 300609 01 Even at the end if I lose the case because honestly I don’t think I would win - there are some parts that I would win, and some parts where he would win - but if at the end I do lose everything, I don’t mind, cause my point here is that at least I am fighting for my rights.

At least I am fighting for what is right, and that hopefully people who are in the same situation as me can maybe get inspired by me, maybe who were still in the conditions that I was, still getting beaten up, too scared to do anything, just fight for your rights as a human being.

I escaped from a royalty mess, this huge security, and I’m no one special. And if I can do it, I’m sure everyone else can. So I hope people can see that, and I can help them be brave enough to get their lives back.

Do you think the issue has been over publicised?

I didn’t know it was going to be this big. Of course, it’s embarrassing for the whole world to know you’ve been raped, even abused, when your personal problems get shown to the media, but if that’s what I have to sacrifice to be an inspiration to other women in my condition, then I don’t mind.

So you don’t really mind going through that?

That’s not how everyone else would live their lives, but if I have to go through that and sacrifice that in order to help others, to be an inspiration for other women in my position, then I really don’t mind. I think it’s great. Yeah, I don’t mind.

You’re now acting in a ‘sinetron’ (soap opera) based on your name, on a storyline which is similar to what you have gone through... By gaining popularity, do you think this has been a publicity stunt?

manohara odelia pinot meet malaysiakini interview 300609 02 If it were a publicity stunt, then I would have to plan it with Tengku as well. I had to call him up and be like, “Tengku can you please kidnap me, then inject me, and then can you rape me and then put razor marks on my chest, don’t let me go and then let me escape.”

I don’t think that’s possible for it to be a publicity stunt. But I’m only 17, I still have my whole life ahead of me, I’m not going to sit in the house.

I have to continue with my life, and I know how precious life is. I’ve been beaten up everyday for three months. And he has taken away my past, I’m not going to let him take away my present and future. It doesn’t make sense to me.

So while I have offers to do the ‘sinetron’, while I have offers to do video clips, why not, you know? In future, I also want to do things in business. I also want to be an activist for basic human rights.

My thinking is whatever you want to do in business, whether it’s opening a company or letting people know about a brand, or (being) an activist, whether you want to get awareness out, it’s a lot easier and more effective if you already have a name.

Would you ever get back to him?

Of course not. Ask any woman, if that happened to them, would you take them back. No, of course not.

Not even if he repents and...?

There’s nothing in the world he can do to make me... well, forgive him. As I said before, I don’t care anymore, I just put it behind me and I don’t want to go back to that point in my life.

What’s next? What do you plan to do?

As I said, I want to continue my college (education), cause I actually finished high school early, so I want to go to college to do business management and if I have more time, maybe I want to get a second major in law, and I also want to be a human rights activist, women’s rights as well.

And I have a lot of opportunities now in the entertainment industry, and I figured why not? It’s also to build my name, so if I want to get an awareness out there or start a business, it will be a lot easier for me with my name already there.

And also right now, if you’re like “Do you know Manohara?” it’s like “Oh yeah, the girl who got beaten up for two months.” I want to change that, “Oh Manohara, the business woman, oh Manohara, the actress,” or something like that. It’s not my past anymore.

Given the choice, would you change anything?

No.

Even the rape?

That may sound stupid and completely obscene to everyone, but no. I mean, I’ve learnt a lot, like more than you could imagine. I’ve learnt so many lessons from the experience that I’ve had. It has made me stronger, it has made me wiser, knowing the decisions that I’ve made, it matured me a lot.

It has been a rough time, but I believe that God will never give you trials in life that you can’t face, you know? So everything is fair and Alhamdullilah, I’ve been able to face them. I’ve been able to learn from them, so all the negativity that I’ve had, instead of accumulating it in me and breaking me up, I just turn that negativity into something positive and walk straight (ahead).

Will you come back to KL?

Why not? Now that the public knows what’s really wrong with me, now that I’m not hiding in Tengku’s shadow, people thinking that I was happy... Before Tengku, I had no other problem... I like Malaysia, its culture, its diversity. I’ve been living around the world since I was little, I enjoy Malaysia, so I don’t see why not.

VIDEO l 15 mins

Yesterday:

Manohara: No, I don’t love the prince

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