PR as strategy for global understanding<\/p>\n
Irawan Abidin, Advisor, Association of Public Relation
\nPractitioners (Perhumas), Jakarta<\/p>\n
There is today a crying need for greater mutual understanding
\nbetween nations -- not only between governments but also between
\npeople of these nations.<\/p>\n
For instance, despite a fairly large number of Muslims who are
\nexemplary citizens of the United States of America, the
\nimpression among Indonesians is that most Americans believe that
\nall that Islam encourages is terrorism. And there are just too
\nmany in Indonesia who believe that all Americans are cultural,
\neconomic and political imperialists.<\/p>\n
There are many other examples. A great many international
\ninvestors for instance, believe that all of Southeast Asia is
\nstill in the throes of the Asian economic crisis, when a closer
\nlook would reveal that these countries need foreigners to invest
\nhere as it is the only way to help these economies.<\/p>\n
Diplomats may feel that they are called upon to provide the
\nsolution, but they cannot do much. Hence the solution to the
\nproblem of a lack of mutual understanding between nations is not
\ndiplomacy, but public relations with a diplomatic content and
\nintent.<\/p>\n
A good working definition of public relations is \"the planned
\nand sustained effort to harmonize an entity or group with its
\npublic through messages and media that effectively reach that
\npublic.\"<\/p>\n
Thus the effort cannot be sporadic attempt. The word \"public\"
\nmeans a group of people whose opinions, attitudes and beliefs
\naffect the life of the entity or the group for which the PR
\neffort is being carried out.<\/p>\n
The messages must be we well chosen, designed and packaged and
\nchanneled through a media mix that will reach the target public.
\nThis is the part of public relations that requires the services
\nof professionals -- the expensive part of public relations.<\/p>\n
Thus it is possible to design and wage a campaign aimed at the
\ngeneral public in the United States, for instance, to persuade
\nthem to think that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in
\nSoutheast Asia are moderate and they represent Islam. The idea is
\nthat when the target public loses its stereotype image (assuming
\nthere is a stereotype) of Islam, the benefits from the subsequent
\ngrowth of goodwill could be considerable.<\/p>\n
It seems then that the mass media should undertake this kind
\nof task themselves. The media that has the capability to carry
\nthe messages of such a PR campaign is the American media, which
\ncould if it were a priority. But given that the media tend to
\nlook for interesting, which is often the negative side of things,
\na public relations effort is needed. The main challenge of
\ndesigning a public relations message is to make it so interesting
\nthat the mass media cannot refuse it.<\/p>\n
Only governments and groups of governments can possibly have
\nthe resources to wage, on behalf of their people, such a public
\nrelations campaign.<\/p>\n
Governments used to wage limited public awareness campaigns by
\nsimply hiring some international public relations firm. But while
\ninternational PR firms have access to editors and know how to
\npackage a message once they know what the message should be, they
\ndo not have an instinctive feel of what that message should be.<\/p>\n
Further, most governments do not have PR professionals who can
\nwork with the international PR agencies and extract the most
\neffective services from these agencies. Many governments have
\ncarried out sustained lobbying efforts but that is an entirely
\ndifferent activity.<\/p>\n
To ensure a sustained effort to promote mutual understanding
\nbetween nations, governments can acquire or train its own public
\nrelations professionals and give them this task and the resources
\nnecessary to carry it out.<\/p>\n
Public relations professionals would mean professional
\ncommunicators who can design a long term public relations program
\nand adjust it from year to year on the basis of feedback and
\ncredibly propose policy adjustments to the government, on the
\nbasis of the same feedback. That means they should be
\nprofessional communicators who are also ranking officials.<\/p>\n
Ideally, they should work with the Ministry of Foreign
\nAffairs, as their target public is located abroad. That will take
\nsome doing, some time and some expense. But it is obviously
\ncheaper and much more effective than hiring an international PR
\nfirm, and over the years will bring a great deal of benefits,
\nincluding the growth of mutual understanding between and among
\nnations.<\/p>\n
The above is based on the writer's address to a recent seminar
\nduring the 30th celebration of Perhumas.<\/p>",
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