Host committee works well behind the scene

By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

JAKARTA (JP): Organizing an event as large and high profile as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings is certainly not easy.

Catering to the needs of hundreds of officials from 18 countries, thousands of journalists and not to mention over a dozen heads of state, some of whom are the most powerful men in the world, is quite an undertaking for anyone to be involved in.

To ensure the smooth operation of this event, the Indonesian government has established a national host committee headed by Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono.

As head of this committee, Moerdiono is responsible for the smooth running of almost all aspects of the meetings.

No detail, it appears, is too small for Moerdiono, known among the most meticulous members of President Soeharto's cabinet

Moerdiono has been seen checking on the details of hotel accommodations, the seating at the economic leaders meeting in Bogor, and even questioning on toilet arrangements for journalists covering that meeting.

Quite a formidable task by any standard but Indonesia is pulling all the stops for the APEC meetings including dishing some Rp 24 billion ($11 million) for preparations both here and in Bogor, where the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting will be held.

To assist him, Moerdiono has assigned A.R. Ramly as the executive chairman of the committee, who in turn has selected a capable staff which include business executives and media professionals to administer the various areas aspects of the APEC meetings.

Ramly is a well known and experienced figure in both the business and political scene in Indonesia.

This retired army Major General has had ample experience in the managerial field being president of the state-owned Tin Mining Company PT Tambang Timah from 1976 to 1984, and president of the state-owned oil company PT Pertamina from 1984 to 1988.

Married with four children, Ramly from 1987 to 1992 held a seat at the House of Representatives and was also Indonesia's Ambassador to the United States.

To those unacquainted to him, Ramly carries a very serious, and sometimes intimidating, image. However many times his offbeat answers take journalists around him quite off guard.

Explaining why the leaders at their meeting in Bogor Presidential Palace would take a group photograph before the meeting began, Ramly quipped, "so they can still look fresh for the meeting."

Media

To help him, Ramly has chosen a competent staff among them Ishadi SK, former director of the state television TVRI, to manage with affairs concerning media facilities and registration of domestic and foreign journalists.

Having to accommodate some 2,500 journalists is certainly a grind and Ishadi can be seen inspecting the press booths in the late hours of the night to make sure all is provided for.

Without doubt the attention focused to the media's needs has been one of the major concerns, not to mention headaches, of the committee.

In this matter an honorable mention should also go to the Directorate of Foreign Information Affairs of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs who, with their limited means, have been involved in the day to day media's thirst for information since the preliminary APEC meetings began last week.

The support staff of the executive committee has been recruited from various departments along with a number of wide ranging private management institutions.

Until just a few weeks prior to the APEC meetings, the executive committee took office at the Hotel Atlet Century Park which is located across the street to the Jakarta Convention Center.

In fact for about three months the executive committee not only took office there but were practically part of the hotel's feature as they rented the whole 17th floor of the building.

Liaison officers

To administer and cater to the various daily needs that might arise during the meetings, the executive committee has hired about 100 liaison officers.

Most of them are university students whose primary qualifications are their language skills.

Though the national host committee is responsible for the overall meetings, it should be noted that much of the work of the committee meetings, the SOM and the ministerial meeting is under the work of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry.

To be more precise much of the preparations of the substance work is conducted by the Directorate General of Foreign Economic Relations.

It is quite obvious to see that they, aided by other personnel from the Foreign Ministry, are the busy people running in and out of the conference rooms and lugging long hours to prepare the next day's meeting.

Unseen by many, they work downstairs occupying several rooms at the lower level of the Jakarta Convention Center staring at computer terminals and working photocopy machines.

Oddly enough despite the hours spent working on these machines, most of them when asked could not remember what type or make the computers or photocopy machines are.

"I don't know the type of the photocopy machine but whatever it is, it's quite sophisticated," said one of them. "Yesterday I made 200 copies and hardly had time to look at my watch before it was done."

According to several of the organizing committee members the APEC executive committee should take over the burden of running the APEC meetings a few days before the leaders meeting in Bogor on Tuesday.