Like me, love me, please!

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.