Words don't come easy : A professional shares his view on how public relations can help shore up the sagging image of the government after the bombings.
WORANUJ MANEERUNGSEE and PITSINEE JITPLEECHEEP
'More coup rumours rattle Bangkok.'' ''Thai junta, PM meet on security after fresh coup rumours.'' The recent headlines after nine bombs rocked Bangkok on New Year's Eve, killing three and hurting 42 people, make uncomfortable reading. The blasts also blew away the reputation and credibility of the three-month-old government, which now has no choice but to resort to some quick damage control and yet more heavy-handed measures that threaten to backfire.
''You are in trouble when statements about what is not being done or what others are doing get more attention in the media than what you are doing for the country,'' says Hasan Basar, a veteran public-relations professional, who led the Anand Panyarachun government's international PR team after the 1992 Black May incident.
Within six months, the National Economic and Social Development Board reported Thailand's full recovery from the crisis, citing effective international public relations as one of the three major factors.
''Thinking that PR work can correct a negative situation after it has occurred is a typical error in PR practice. The best corrective work must be done even before it is needed,'' says Mr Basar, a co-founder of Bangkok Public Relations Ltd.
The Thai-born 45-year-old of Turkish descent said it was a pity that the Surayud Chulanont government, which had such high public support after the Sept 19 coup, appeared to have lost that support. It appeared to have failed to communicate effectively with the public and lack an effective PR strategy.
''PR is about simple and effective communications that resonate with the public. It is not about ad-hoc publicity stunts or nice speeches or visiting orphans, although they may be a part of your programme,'' he explains.
Unlike in the 1990s, the ''promise and delivery'' cycle time has become a lot shorter in both political and business life. If people choose a product or a political party based on certain expectations, they'll want them fulfilled much sooner.
As a result, politicians can no longer afford to drag their feet after getting into office. Neither can they count on people believing that ''good people do good jobs''.
''If people cannot see you doing your job well, you might as well not do it at all. And you have a very small window of opportunity to prove this _ within months, or perhaps weeks of coming into office. If you miss this opportunity, you will always be on the defensive,'' he says, referring to what happened to the military-appointed government and its crusade against the so-called undercurrents and violence.
Asked if he can provide any advice to the government, Mr Basar quickly says ''no''. Advice, he says, can only be given if one has an insight into the many different constraints under which political leaders operate.
He says that if the bombs had been the first adverse report about Thailand in the international media, some PR work could have done a lot to reverse the impact. But that was not the case. They came at a time when Thailand had been in the headlines too many times already for unfavourable reasons. They ranged from the coup itself, an alcohol ad ban, and the forcing of a drug company to give up its intellectual property, to foreign capital controls and new curbs on foreign shareholdings.
''While there may be good reasons why all of these have been done, their collective result has given an unfavourable impression among international observers that lowers their tolerance for bad news,'' he says.
''A string of good, business-friendly, tourism-friendly announcements in the first three months after the coup would have been the best antidote to the bomb news among the business and travel communities.''
This government began its term saying how important the international perception of Thailand was for the economic stability of the country. It needs to show far greater mastery of the art of communication if it wishes to succeed in this area, says Mr Basar.
In 1992, Mr Basar, a political-science graduate of Oxford University, was invited by Mr Anand to revive the country's image and restore confidence after the army used guns to stop unarmed protestors.
After the violence was broadcast worldwide on the likes of CNN and the BBC, his strategy was to get back into the same media to show ''Thailand in a normal situation''.
Unfortunately, normalcy is not very newsworthy. Mr Basar says a prominent member of the tourism industry offered the idea of free accommodation for one day for any tourist arriving in Thailand on Aug 12, which is Her Majesty the Queen's Birthday.
''We didn't care how many tourists arrived on that day. What we wanted was to generate an opportunity for Thailand to get back onto CNN and BBC, to have them show pictures of Thai people celebrating on the streets during the festive occasion as a way of showing that the violence was over and Thailand was back to normal. CNN and BBC aired the story as headline news more than 10 times, helping to push the pictures of conflict into history,'' he recalls.
Contrary to popular thought, he suggests politicians or leaders stop asking the media for help. ''There is no point in asking the media to help or be constructive in their reporting. It is not the role of the media to help or hinder any government. What the media sets out to do is simply to keep the public informed of matters that interest the public or affect the public and the nation and to act as a check-and-balance mechanism on people in positions of power.
''Politicians should not ask the media to adjust what they do to compensate for their own lack of communications expertise. Instead, they need to adjust themselves.
''If the government wants the support of the media, it needs to be able to express itself in a way that the media will want to report and the public will want to read. Form can overshadow substance if you do not actively work to keep substance in front of the public. That is why hard-working, honest politicians often wonder why their good work is not recognised, or why the media seem to be dwelling on their failings.''
The bottom line, he says, is that good PR counselling is not about setting up superficial, attention-grabbing displays, but about sitting down with policy leaders, understanding the fundamentals of what they want to achieve and then, together, developing ways to best represent those ideas and their fulfilment in a way that the public will notice, understand and believe.
Bangkok Post
Friday January 12, 2007
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