Like me, love me
Like me, love me
Ong Hock Chuan
Jakarta
There is something terribly wrong with President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono's image advisors if the latest brouhaha over
the president giving out his mobile number is any indication.
Saturday's exercise, where the president gives out his mobile
number and asks anyone who had been maltreated by officials to
call or sms him takes the cake. Any one who knows anything about
public relations (PR) would not have advised him to make such a
move. Many other chief executive officers (CEOs) have made the
same offer to their peril.
Corporate history is replete with examples of well meaning CEO
who, in a desperate effort to show that they are accessible and
that they care, give out their direct line numbers or mobile
phone numbers so that dissatisfied customers or staff can
directly communicate with them. The inevitable result: the phone
lines are jammed as thousands of callers, some genuine, but
mostly cranks, take advantage of the rare offer.
The CEOs are then left red-faced as they see their best
intentions turn sour as recriminations surface when calls fail to
get through. There is more embarrassment when some bright sparks
start to ask the question: "If the CEO ends up answering
complains all day, who's left to captain the ship?"
That's exactly what happened to SBY-- the President's nick
name-- which now begs the question; "Why did he do it?"
Saturday's fracas could be written off as a momentary lapse of
good judgment if it was an isolated case of bad public relations
decision-making. Unfortunately, however, the incident seems to be
the latest in a string of hokey public relations moves that
suggests that the President is receiving some seriously misguided
public relations advice.
If you look at the publicity surrounding the President over
the past few months you can almost picture a set of advisors
telling SBY that the most important thing for him to achieve as
President is to be liked by the people.
Hence we see the results of contrived photo opportunities --
such as President sits down in grass to chat with boys when he
happened to be strolling at a Cibubur park and President plays
ping pong with junior civil servants -- being carefully placed in
newspaper. How human! What humility! So down to earth!
There is nothing wrong with being liked and to work at being
liked. But when this is done at the expense of other presidential
duties -- like being decisive, getting tough and taking the right
but not necessarily popular actions -- something is terribly
amiss.
Take, for instance, the President's lament about how certain
businessmen and the bureaucrats were resisting the nation's
anticorruption drive. We all know that there are not only some
businessmen and bureaucrats who are resisting the anticorruption
drive: they are actually taking a very active part in corruption
themselves. And so are officials throughout the ranks in the
enforcement services.
Or the lament about mayors and local leader not keeping their
cities clean. The presidential solution? Residents should
complain about them. People Power is admirable but if it was a
solution Indonesia would be replete of model pristine cities by
now.
There is no reason in both situations that the president
cannot himself pressure the businessmen, bureaucrats and petty
local chieftains to bend to his will. Afterall, he is the
President with an unprecedented electoral mandate from the people
to clean house. If SBY so wishes he can use the enormous prestige
and influence of his office to persuade or cajole almost anyone
toward a certain course of action.
Yet this does not happen. Why?
It is as if the President was being advised by a Spin Doctor
that his strength lies in having the Common Touch. That he has an
ability to connect with the people. Therefore he should go all
out to do this as it will ensure his continued popularity.
If this is the case then the president is getting pretty bad
PR advice. Good PR lies not in what you say but what you do. And
whatever you do has to be in synch with what the public wants if
you want to make any headway.
What the public wants today is for Indonesia to get going. It
can only get going if there is a spring cleaning of the
bureaucracy and the institutions of power in Indonesia. They want
corruption to stop and the government to provide a level playing
field. Unless they get these SBY can be the most likeable and
cuddly president ever but sooner or later they would turn on him.
So if the president is smart he should shift the emphasis of his
PR efforts into projecting himself as "effective" rather than
"likeable".
In the meantime though, I shall keep on trying his mobile
number to bitch about this rogue tax official...but I cant get
through.
The writer is a partner at Maverick, a public relations
consultancy that specializes in crisis and issues management.