The government needs to improve its public relation strategy by adopting best practices implemented in companies so as to improve transparency and gain public trust, an audience heard at a Tuesday seminar held by the International Public Relations Association (IPRA).

Muslim Baya, chairman of the Indonesian Public Relations Association (Perhumas), said public relation in Indonesia had yet to play an important role in shaping the country’s image and to help improve its global competitiveness.

“Public relations at government level is busy protecting the image of leaders instead of that of the country… No wonder, there are many negative perceptions,” Muslim said.

Muslim said a positive public image was the direct product of positive performance coupled by appropriate diffusion of information through the utilization of a strong public relation machine.

“Companies, especially listed ones, are forced to be transparent to the public as some of their shares belonged to the people, that is why the company needs public relations  to take care of the company’s image,” Muslim said.

“We can see that if the company does something wrong and its image is tainted, it’s share value will fall. Public relations will help the company to control the fallout.”

Due to the crucial nature of the public image in the corporate world, he argued, the responsibility to manage public relations was placed at top management level,  for example at the corporate secretary level.

A similar perspective can be adopted in developing and improving the government’s image in the eyes of the general public, he said. Placing public relations management at a more strategic level and hiring professional public relations consultant were among the good ideas that should be considered by the government, he added.

Ahmad Fuad, chairman of the Indonesian chapter of IPRA, said Indonesia was lacking in having much influence in determining the global image of the country, which could have a detrimental  impact on inward foreign investment.

“Like the IPRA conference for example. There are some members that rejected Indonesia as the location for the conference due to bad news and poor images on riots and mass protests,” he said.

The two-day IPRA conference, themed Global Reach — Regional Leadership, brought in top-notch public relations practitioners from around the world including from Indonesia.

The conference is looking into how public relations can help restore trust in institutions and its strategic importance in helping governments and the private sector to overcome the negative impacts of  the global economic crisis.

Like many of its counterparts in Asia, Indonesia is facing threats to economic stability, posed by global and domestic conditions, and weakening trust in many established institutions, IPRA says.

“The emerging social media are having a major impact politically, economically and socially,” IPRA chairman Elizabeth Goenawan Ananto said.

“This calls for a change of paradigm for public relations practitioners,” said Elizabeth, who took over the presidency on Tuesday from Maria Gergova of Bulgaria.

Elizabeth said public relations in the corporate world are no longer seen simply in terms of an additional business cost but as a long-term investment.

Following the Jakarta conference, the next IPRA congress, will be held in Lima, Peru,  on June 1-3, 2010.

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