JP/7/MALAYSIA

Ong Hock Chuan Technical Advisor Maverick Strategic PR Counsel Jakarta

Vice-President Hamzah Haz had a point when he said that more effective communication between Indonesia and Malaysia would help mend the rift that has opened up between the two neighbors because of the illegal Indonesian workers issue.

Hamzah would also have been correct if he had pointed out that ineffective communication had caused Indonesia and Malaysia to be on opposing sides of the issue when they should be working together to solve the problem.

This is because both governments, and more importantly the people of both countries, have much to gain from a constructive solution to the recurring problem of illegal Indonesian workers.

If fingers are to be pointed, one would surely point to the Indonesian media for blowing up the issue. This would not be fair to the media which is, after all, a medium for the governments to communicate to the wider audience of the citizens in Indonesia and Malaysia. Though the media has many faults the communicator must also shoulder some of the responsibility. In this instance the communicators have shown a lack of skill in communicating effectively.

Malaysia, for instance, could have been more skillful and focused in conveying and stressing the message that Malaysia actually welcomes Indonesian workers if they are legal. It could also have stressed the importance and benefits of working legally to Indonesians. Legal workers are protected under Malaysian law against abuse and exploitation by employers; they are paid at least the minimal wage and they have the freedom to access medical and other social amenities.

Illegal workers, on the other hand have no means of legal redress because they can never go to the police without exposing their illegal status. This makes them vulnerable to exploitation, blackmail and abuse.

Another downside of allowing illegal immigrants to go and stay in Malaysia is also that it works against the interests of Indonesians in general and legal Indonesian workers in Malaysia in particular.

The presence of illegal Indonesian workers deprives honest Indonesians who want to enter Malaysia legally of potential jobs. That Malaysia needs Indonesian workers to help drive its economy is obvious. If there were not that many illegal Indonesian workers, the country would have to relax the rules to let in more Indonesian workers legally because it needs them to drive its economy.

The issue of caning is an emotive one and difficult to explain, but even here Malaysia had very good reasons for this plan. They had announced six months ago the deadline for illegal Indonesian workers to give themselves up and be sent home. Yet not only did these workers not give themselves up, many of those caught and sent home quickly found their way back to Malaysia again as illegal workers. Malaysia could have stressed that although caning is a harsh treatment it had been fair in providing a reasonable warning period.

On the Indonesian side, communications were also ineffective because there was no coordinated response. Each minister spoke reactively rather than from an agreed position among Cabinet members. The result was a series of mixed messages that caused confusion.

Effective communication, however, is not only confined to what is said but extends to what is being done or not done as well. Here, the Indonesian government could have helped boost its own image and cooled tempers somewhat if it had, for instance, extended more help to returning illegal Indonesian workers. This would not have been interpreted as condoning them, but that the government actually acknowledges the difficult circumstances the wong cilik (the common people) face in Indonesia.

In the past few months both governments had major opportunities to put the issue in perspective through effectively communicating with each other and the public. Yet this was not done and one of the main reasons for this must surely be the fact that both governments lack savvy when dealing with an audience that is not compliant, in particular the Indonesian media which has played no small part in blowing up the illegal Indonesian workers issue to its present proportions.

Malaysian officials are so used to a compliant media in Indonesia that they are actually at a loss when confronted with the Indonesian media which is spirited and independent but which can also be sensational and cavalier with facts.

Indonesian officials, though they face the Indonesian media every day, have similarly been so wrapped up in their own agendas and political intrigues that they do not realize that the nature of the media has actually changed before their very noses.

In both cases the result is a lack of awareness among government officials of the importance of managing perceptions. The illegal Indonesian workers issue is a classic case of unmanaged perceptions leading to emotional outbursts and diplomatic one-upmanship. Part of the problem is that most officials or politicians in Asia assume that they are effective communicators when in truth they are not. Many of them lack the training, techniques and skills to communicate clearly and credibly to the media.

Basic concepts of effective political communications such as messaging, keeping message discipline and arguing for the wider public interest are alien to them. As a result their communications tend to do more damage to themselves and the public rather than be a tool for rallying the right responses.

Until officials on both sides acquire the skills to communicate their messages we can, unfortunately expect more instances of brinkmanship when some effective communications would have done the trick. The problem is that the next time it may have gone too far for either side to pull back.