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View all search resultsSocial media brings ministers closer to public
Newly inaugurated Manpower Minister Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri was surprised to learn that his personal Twitter account, @hanifdhakiri, had received a lot of mentions from his followers, blasting him for a statement he made to an online news portal that ran a story about his pessimism on the prospect of solving problems affecting Indonesian migrant workers
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ewly inaugurated Manpower Minister Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri was surprised to learn that his personal Twitter account, @hanifdhakiri, had received a lot of mentions from his followers, blasting him for a statement he made to an online news portal that ran a story about his pessimism on the prospect of solving problems affecting Indonesian migrant workers.
Realizing that he was misquoted, Hanif, one of the youngest members in the President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo Cabinet, quickly grabbed his smartphone and composed a tweet to set the record straight to his 10,000 Twitter followers.
'Many people criticized me on Twitter because the article did not explain that some of the statements were based on findings from research conducted by a friend who researched the [migrant worker] issue,' the 42-year-old minister told The Jakarta Post recently.
Despite his now hectic schedule, Hanif, a former National Awakening Party (PKB) secretary-general and lawmaker, said he regularly checked his Twitter account, mainly to catch up with the latest trends on social media and particularly on what the public had to say about his work.
If Hanif prefers to use Twitter, National Development Planning Minister and National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) chief Andrinof Chaniago has turned his personal Facebook account into a medium where he can share updates about his work with users of the popular social networking site.
Since his inauguration as Cabinet member last month, Andrinof, who made his name as a public policy analyst and University of Indonesia (UI) political science lecturer, has regularly used his Facebook wall to inform netizens about what he has been doing, also explaining some government policies, including the plan to increase the fuel price.
'Thank you for your wishes and positive feedback. Reading comments and posting two sentences [on Facebook] will not be time-consuming for me. I still can spare some time to write two or three sentences on my Facebook wall once a day,' Andrinof said in a statement posted last week.
- More ministers are active on social media
- Experts warn they should phrase their communications carefully
Aside from Hanif and Andrinof, other ministers, like Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Minister Marwan Jafar, Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi and Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Yuddy Chrisnandi, have also regularly shared their ideas and activities through social media in the same way some ministers in the Cabinet of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono used the tool to reach out to members of the public.
In fact, then communications and information minister Tifatul Sembiring came under heavy criticism for being very active on Twitter.
Padang-based Imam Bonjol State Academy of Islamic Studies (IAIN) lecturer Shofwan Karim, who regularly leaves comments on Andrinof's Facebook postings, applauded such a communication strategy.
'This strategy has encouraged people to share their ideas to develop the country,' Shofwan said.
Although the presence of high-profile figures in social media could easily make them targets of cyber bullying, UI communication expert Meily Badriati said it was important for high-ranking public officials, including ministers, to master the social media communication skill.
'While mainstream media, like TV and newspapers, help to disseminate government policies to older citizens, social media could help reach a younger audience that is no longer interested in watching TV or reading newspapers,' Meily said.
Meily however strongly cautioned the social media-savvy ministers to use their social media wisely to avoid bullying.
'President Yudhoyono was once bullied on Twitter after posting a greeting to [Korean-style girl band] 7 Icons. Learning from the experience, ministers should choose their words carefully on social media and respond to netizens' criticism in an assertive manner,' she said.
