APEC meet will offer risks and rewards

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.