APEC meet will offer risks and rewards
By Larry Pintak
JAKARTA (JP): The countdown to the invasion has begun. In early November, the troops will arrive. The weapons they wield are more powerful than any guns. The impact they will have could make or break the Indonesian investment climate for years to come.
They are the international media. Some 3,000 strong, they will descend on Jakarta for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) heads of state summit. But they will be there to cover far more than a few leaders shaking hands.
In their vanguard will be the American press corps: Aggressive, cynical, looking to uncover the dirt.
For a few short weeks, Indonesia will be in the world spotlight -- and under the media microscope.
It is not hard to anticipate what foreign reporters will focus on: Human rights, labor rights, the environment, corruption and of course East Timor.
Golden Key will become a household name overseas. The Dili incident will be endlessly recounted.
The challenge for Indonesia's business community will be to tell the real story of Indonesia: The investment potential, the economic progress, the trade opportunities.
Anyone who opened the newspaper or turned on a TV during last year's Seattle APEC Summit saw the potential. Along with stories about the meetings themselves, there were countless features on the Seattle business community, on Pacific trade links, on the city's tourism potential, even on the sidewalk coffee vendors.
It was no accident. The business community made it happen. Led by Boeing, corporations large and small banded together to develop brochures, briefing books and videos, daily media tours were arranged to factories, financial centers and tourist sights, leading businessmen threw open their office doors to any reporter with a pencil or microphone.
In short, Seattle's business community saw the opportunity and acted. It cost those companies a small fortune in money and time, but they are seeing the dividends today in increased trade, investment and tourist arrivals.
Seattle, as a Pacific business center, is firmly on the map. "A few years ago, it would have been unheard of for a local politician to be traveling to the other side of the world on official business," a Seattle city council member explained on a recent trade mission to Jakarta. "Since the APEC summit, it's just part of the job."
If the Indonesian business community does not likewise take the lead, if the country's story is left to "tell itself," Indonesia's greatest public relations opportunity could be transformed into its biggest image disaster.
The portrait of Indonesia painted abroad will be largely negative, and the fallout for trade, investment, even tourism, will be huge.
Just as huge is the potential for turning APEC into a showcase for Indonesia as the new business center of East Asia. The rise of Jakarta Stock Exchange. The opportunities for manufacturers. the potential inherent in a market of 180 million people. All these stories are there to be told.
But a positive picture of Indonesia is not something that can be created overnight or piecemeal. It takes groundwork, teamwork and just plain work. To say nothing of money.
An organized effort must be given widespread support. Fact sheets and briefing book must be developed, spokesmen for the business community identified and prepared.
You cannot spoon feed the Western press. You cannot -- for long -- mislead them. You cannot expect to dictate what they will say, who they will talk with, or where they will go.
What can and should be done is to provide them with the tools that will allow them to go beyond the cliches; the information -- packed in a succinct and usable form -- which will help them see, and hopefully tell, Indonesia's side of the story.
No matter what Indonesia does, there will be negative stories. There will be criticism (Few people beyond Mother Teresa get only positive coverage these days). But an organized effort, led by the business community, to work with the media can help balance the negative with the positive.
Most reporters want to be balanced, they want to tell both sides. But if one side fails to provide them with information--or worse, if doors are closed in their face-- what do you think they will do?
Failure to act will almost guarantee the coverage will all be bad. And complaining about biased Western reporters later may feel satisfying, but it won't bring back those potential trade and investment partners who see the negative coverage and decide to take their business somewhere else.
Larry Pintak, a former CBS News foreign correspondent and past- Chairman of the Public Relations Society of America International Section, is International Managing Director of TriComm Strategic Communications, a public relations and video production firm with offices in Jakarta and Washington, D.C.
Window: If Jakarta's APEC summit is left under biased coverage by Western reporters, Indonesia's greatest public relations oportunity could be transformed into its biggest image disaster.