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