26 Sunday Sep 2010
Posted in Indonesia
In Indonesia the liberals are splitting their sides over the Tweets by @FPIYeah, which makes the thuggish Islamic Defenders Front look like Keystone Cops in their attempts to intimidate anyone deemed less holy than them.
Now if only Malaysian Tweeps can follow suit with Twitter accounts like @1MalaysiaYeah, @RELAYeah, @IbrahimAliYeah…
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26 Sunday Sep 2010
Posted in communications, Indonesia, Public Relations, Social Media, Twitter
You have to wonder at the quality of political advisors in this country. Sometimes, you wonder if they understand politics at all, in spite of their much vaunted reputations as consummate image makers.
The latest victim of bad political advice is Sandiaga Uno, the clean-cut and sensitive looking candidate for the Kadin chairmanship. As we all now know, Sandiaga did not even go into the second round of voting on Saturday night. He came in a distant third in a field of five candidates. This is a shame as someone with Sandiaga’s image and reputation deserves better and his Indonesia Setara campaign had tapped into a strong undercurrent in society (for a first hand report go here).
Political analysts will point out many reasons why Sandiaga did not win, chief of them because of alleged massive vote buying at the business caucus. It may have been so but that’s not so much Unspun‘s concern, which is more on Sandiaga’s political communications. Here, he bombed out with the online community on Wednesday night last week when he invited a group of bloggers to witness ostensibly the launch of his Indonesia Setara campaign.
The bloggers went there to witness the launch of the campaign and a chance to speak personally to Sandiaga but when they got there they felt duped because the event was actually an announcement of his campaign for the Kadin charimanship. The bloggers also felt doubly duped when they were shoved a press release claiming that “hundreds of technopreneurs and bloggers endorsed his candidacy for Kadin chairmanship”.
And to add insult to injury, the liaison officer later offered envelops of money to the bloggers. Within minutes, the bloggers who were there started Tweeting critically about Sandiaga and Indonesia Setara. When uberblogger Twitterer and blogger Ndoro Kakung joined in the conversation, what could be assured was that hundreds, if not thousands, of Tweeps got to know of these shenanigans.
The result was potential damage to Sandiaga’s heretofore pristine image. Did it affect his chances at the Kadin chairmanship election?
Unlikely if you look at the Kadin voting structure:
At the Kadin caucus, the decision makers are a small group. The power to vote the next chairman resides in each of Kadin’s 33 regional chapters that are entitled to three votes each. Another 30 votes are divided among Indonesia’s 180 business associations, grouped into 12 sectors.
What are the chances of these delegates being influenced by what goes on in the Blogosphere and Twitterland? Theirs is a world where influence is secured, traded and lost in smoke-filled hotel rooms and suites in Hotel Mulia. Practical considerations – some say money – but certainly political favors and alliances are the currency among these guys and gals, not something as ephemeral as reutations shaped in the ether of online communications. It is no accident that Indonesia does not have the equivalent of a Huffington Post or any prominent political bloggers. Continue reading »
25 Saturday Sep 2010
Posted in Indonesia
A rather tenuous connection to pad a thin story?
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24 Friday Sep 2010
Posted in communications, Indonesia, Public Relations
When do you call a press conference? Under what circumstances should you conduct a media briefing instead? When then should the PR practitioner arrange for a 1-on-1 instead, or conduct a story pitch?
The whys and hows of media relations tactics will be discussed in a workshop on October 6 by three experienced PR practitioners so if you’re a PR newbie or someone who wants to have a better understanding of some of the PR tactics used by professionals, sign up for the event. The three previous workshops have been oversubscribed and we’ve had to turn people away so do it soon.
Those interested in the Indonesian PR Practitioners Group can also plug in to the conversations at LinkedIn and Facebook.
23 Thursday Sep 2010
Aksara is throwing a book party tonight for Felicia Nugroho, who recently published her biography of her father, the late colorful and enterprising Sukyatno Nugroho. The title of the book is Prinsip Di Sini Senang Di Sana Senang and recounts the life of Sukyatno from his childhood in Pekalongan to various daunting challenges and failures before he founded Es Teler 77, one of Indonesia’s earliest local fast food franchises that is also one of the largest today.
Tonight Felicia will lead a discussion on her book and the lessons on entrepreneurship her father bequeathed. There will also be entertainment from Adhitia Sofyan. Hope you have time to pop down there.
Disclosure: Why is this a shameless KKN promotion? Well, Unspun hapens to be married to this talented and wonderful woman. That doesn’t make her Mrs Unspun though, rather it makes Unspun Mr Felicia 
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22 Wednesday Sep 2010
Tags
More capers by the loony Bandera guys, not that maid abuse is to be condoned.
So what’s the Malaysian Government and Malaysian companies operating here planning to do about occurrences, not as a knee-jerk reaction but for the long term good of cross straits relations?
“Agence France-Presse
September 22, 2010
Indonesians Vent Anger Over Maid Abuse in Malaysia
About 500 angry Indonesians staged a motorbike protest outside
the Malaysian ambassador’s residence in Jakarta on Wednesday to
condemn the abuse of Indonesian maids by Malaysian employers.
Incensed by the latest case of rape and torture of an Indonesian
domestic worker in Malaysia, protesters besieged Ambassador Syed
Munshe Afdzaruddin’s house and demanded he leave Indonesia
within two days.
They also threatened to roam through a nearby shopping mall and order any Malaysian they find to go back to their country.
“We want the Malaysian ambassador to leave Indonesia in two days. If he doesn’t, we’ll remove all the things in his house,”
said Mustar Bonaventura, of nationalist youth group Bendera, which organized the rally.”
22 Wednesday Sep 2010
Posted in communications, Indonesia, Malaysia
The government can huff and puff but when you come down to it, its pretty difficult to stop mal-adjusted Malaysians from abusing their maids.
Instead of reacting each time an Indonesian maid is abused the Malaysian Government and perhaps Malaysian companies operating in Indonesia should be more proactive to implement preventive measures against abuse of Indonesian workers.
Here’s an idea that the Malaysian companies operating here in a high-profile manner, such as CIMB for instance, may want to fulfil their corporate social responsibility:
Form a help bureau in Malaysia that provides 1. Legal aid and advice to Indonesian workers who may need help, 2. mediate between Malaysian employers and Indonesian employees in the event of a dispute and 3. provide Malaysian employers training on how to manage others (many of the employers, after all, have had no experience managing people, let alone people of a different culture and mother tongue).
If the companies can do this they would insulate themselves against the periodic emotional backlash against Malaysians whenever incidents like these occur. They would also alleviate a lot of unnecessary suffering and do both countries a service by lessening the friction that periodically arises.
So why isn’t any one doing it?
Malaysia Condemns Maid Attack
Sept 22 (AFP) — Malaysia has condemned the abuse of Indonesian maids
after a 26-year-old woman was raped and scalded, in an attempt to
quell rising anger over the issue.In June last year Indonesia barred domestic workers going to Malaysia
after a series of incidents of shocking mistreatment.In the latest case last week Malaysian police arrested a couple for
attacking their Indonesian maid with a hot iron and scalding water.
The husband is also accused of repeatedly raping the woman.Advertisement: Story continues belowThe maid, from East Java, was
rescued by a passerby after her employers, a 41-year-old building
contractor and his wife, abandoned her at the roadside.“The government of Malaysia strongly condemns all forms of abuse
against any worker, regardless of nationality or sector of
employment,” Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said in a statement.“It is regretful this incident took place, despite repeated advice to
Malaysian employers of domestic workers,” he said, in a rare move that
signals the issue’s potential to further damage ties between the
neighbours.
20 Monday Sep 2010
Posted in Malaysia
Tags
Time was when parents would have a tough time preventing youths from humping each other when their biological clocks release a torrent of hormones into their systems.
This apparently does not happen in Najib’s 1Malaysia though, as this excerpt from a news item in yesterday’s The Star makes clear:
Can you believe the drivel the papers serve up to their poor readers there?
20 Monday Sep 2010
Posted in journalists, Media
The venerable Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club is stuffed by bright young and not-so-young journalists, many of whom would not hesitate to deplore the standard of English in this country.
Surprising it was then when Unspun chanced on this email from the JFCC that was a blurb on it’s coming luncheon talk with Mayor Fauzi Bowo.
“Dear members and friends,
He is the lighting rod for all of Jakarta’s problems: traffic, pollution, flooding, unchecked development. But how much is Governor Fauzi Bowo to blame for what ails our fair capital? And what about his accomplishments since taking office in 2007? Then again, there’s his own controversial record, including a decision to push ahead with a land reclamation project despite a Supreme Court ruling against it, and allegedly cow-towing to the Islamic Defenders Front.”
What is this new sport of cow-towing and does it involve any cruelty on the bovine residents in the city?
09 Thursday Sep 2010
Posted in blogging
Or Selamat Hari Raya if you’re Malaysian.
Here’s a greeting for the season and the times we are in from Maverick, where I work. Click on the image to see the full message, especially if you’re in the habit of Twittering, sms-ing or emailing your greetings 
