PR professionals' advice to Megawati

PR professionals' advice to Megawati

In your Jan. 10 edition you quoted Teddy Kharsadi and myself
advising the government to improve on its PR performance.

I would like to clarify some points in your otherwise well
written article to avoid misperceptions due to incomplete
information or communication.

First, Teddy Kharsadi, who was chairman of the Public
Relations Association (Perhumas) from 1990 till 2000 and is
currently an advisor to this organization as stated, expressed
his personal view as a seasoned PR practitioner. However, this
does not reflect the official opinion of the executive board.

Second, my comments should also be seen in the same
perspective, i.e., first and foremost as a PR practitioner and
not representing Perhumas's point of view. Having set that
straight, I would like to reiterate the difference between
Teddy's proposal that the government establish a crisis
management team to restore credibility and regain public trust,
and my emphasis on the government's need to improve its
communication with the people.

A crisis management team's basic orientation is, as the name
implies, concerned with anticipating, handling and avoiding
crises; while my proposal concerns an integrated approach of the
government's communication and reputation management platforms
into a well prepared and solid plan in socializing its basic aims
and policies to the people, especially in a pre-election year
where any issue can be over-politicized and twisted or be
deliberately misrepresented by the President's opponents.

I strongly believe, as do most of my fellow PR practitioners
in Indonesia, that this government should improve its image PR-
wise and utilize professional PR counsel to achieve this.

MAGDALENA WENAS, CEO M-PR Consultant, Chairperson Centre for
Strategic Communication and Reputation Management, Jakarta