Several Unspun readers wrote in to express curiosity and admiration of the timepiece worn by Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri, as seen on his left hand in yesterday’s front page of Koran Tempo.

Unspun thought it was an Officine Panerai. One reader said it was a Richard Mille but another reader checked the watchmaker’s catalogue and found no such watches.

Whatever it is, the watch, which appears a bit out of focus in the photograph, is a handsome piece of horology and no doubt reflect the owner’s exquisite sense of taste.

Unspun wonders if any reader might be able to identify it correctly.

Unspun was lunching with the corporate communications chiefs of one of Indonesia’s largest and most respected companies when the conversation turned to the Polri-KPK fracas. He shook his head and asked how could the Police commit PR suicide so often and constantly over the past few weeks.

“Who’s advising them on the PR?” he asked. “It’s a disaster.” Unspun replied that they probably didn’t have anyone competent advising them, otherwise they would not be in such dire straits.

Today, the straits widened. Splashed on the front pages of newspapers was the photo (like the one below in Seputar Indonesia) of  ”Buaya-Cicak” originator and the man discredited by the recent tapes released by the KPK, Chief of Detectives Susno Duadji heartily doing the “commando shake” with Police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri.

What message does this image send of the Police?

Unspun has no idea what went through the Police and Police Chief’s mind but the message that most people would take away from that photo, especially when accompanied by headlines such as “Susno’s resignation only temporary”, is that the Police have struck a deal with Susno to protect him from the fallout from the KPK tapes.

Susno, in photographs and video, comes across as a thoroughly unlikeable character. His appearance on TV, testifying before Commission III, gives the appearance of  an unctuous and arrogant man so amoral he does not realize that he may have done any wrong. In the testimony he glared at the camera with his eyeballs almost hidden by his upper eyelids, giving him a sinister air.

That, and given his Buaya-Cicak outburst, as well as arrogant statements over the past few weeks should mark him out as someone that the current Police Chief Bambang should avoid being seen with. In PR terms he is poison. Touch him or get near him and your image dies.

Bambang should have been told by his aides and advisers not to be seen together with Susno, much less to shake hands with him. But he did and as such his image and the image of the Police has been tarnished further as the public sees this unsavory character looking contentedly truimphant as he shakes the hand of the Police Chief.

This is a pity because Bambang seems a decent sort of fellow.

In his televised testimony before Commission III last night he came across as reasonable, rationale and, yes, even likeable. Sure, he did not answer many of the questions asked by the Commission members but he is in a difficult position, inheriting other people’s problems and trying to make the best of things to protect the Police’s image. Besides, the Commission members were so happy listening to their own voices that they were giving speeches instead of asking pointed questions and weren’t even paying attention to the answers.

So what would you do if you were Bambang or the Police force?

If Unspun was asked the question then he’d say that they need to use Bambang’s assets to regain the trust of the public. He can pull it off, as a credible spokesperson and public face of the Police force if he receives the proper advice and training.

He should, to begin with, put a distance between himself and anyone implicated in the KPK case. He should also unequivocally pledge full cooperation with Team 8 to get to the bottom of things and promise to clean house in the Police. Yes, Unspun is aware that he’s said similar things at one time or another but this is the importance of delivery.

Delivered well – with authority, clarity and focus – messages get through. Delivered among a plethora of other information and in an unfocussed manner the message is usually lost to the audience. Bambang and the police would do well to get someone professional and competent who could advise them on how to manage their public image well.

Otherwise the already tarnished image of the Police will plummet even further and be at the receiving end of  the wrath of angry citizens.

The prince has won in a court of law in Malaysia but one wonders if this victory will carry any weight in the court of public opinion in Indonesia?

Manohara Loses Defamation Suit Brought by Malaysian Prince

A Malaysian prince won a defamation suit on Thursday against his teenage wife, Manohara Odelia Pinot, who accused him of sexual and physical abuse after she fled back home to Indonesia.

The High Court ruled in favour of Tengku Fakhry Ismail Petra, a prince in Malaysia’s northern Kelantan state, because his wife had no lawyers to represent her at the proceedings, according to the prince’s lawyer, Mohamad Haaziq Pillay.

The prince had sought 105 million Malaysian ringgit ($30.6 million) from Manohara and her mother for making false allegations against him, but the court will decide later how much they must pay, Mohamad Haaziq said.

The prince’s lawyer said they would look into what legal measures could be taken to obtain payment from Manohara. However, he stressed that Tengku Fakhry was more concerned about simply clearing his name.

“My client feels vindicated,” Mohamad Haaziq said.

“ They made him look like a monster, they tarnished his reputation internationally, but it has all been lies. This was their opportunity to come back to prove their case against him, but they failed to do so.”

Manohara’s lawyer in Jakarta could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Malaysian legal team hired by Manohara in the defamation case quit in September, saying she had not cooperated with them, gave them no clear instructions and refused to return to Malaysia for discussions. The High Court then said it would automatically rule in favor of the prince if Manohara failed to appoint new lawyers.

Associated Press

Forget Mafia Wars. This is infinitely more gripping. Besides it’s a real conflict involving the institutions that have the whole nation agog over the past few days and easily accessible through your Facebook account.

See how social media is being used — either in a concerted way by organizations or spontaneously by individuals — in the KPK-Police/Attorney General’s Office confrontation. This is an episode which is made all the more interesting because the Vice President of Indonesia @boediono has Twittered to ask who this Evan is. Go figure! (Why is the VP asking for information on Twitter when the intelligence services should be at his beck and call?)

The screen grab below is from the posting of a contact in Facebook. Apparently Evan is a Brimob member who had a posting in his Facebook page saying “Polri does not need society but society needs Polri…forward with the Indonesian Police, bury alive the small geckos…”

The response from one other Facebooker (below) was  a posting with screen grabs of Evan’s Facebook with lots of contacts “tagged” with the following comment: “This is Evan Brimob who is arrogant and opposes the citizenry, degrading healthy thinking and contemptuous of the defense of the truth. Spread this photo and search Evan Brimob and send him a message that his arrogance will unleash the people’s antipathy toward the police who have already exposed their rottenness”.

How will this play out? Log into your Facebook account and find out…

Spotted in Melbourne recently. Some people like to plan ahead for the inevitable things in life, or in death. Unspun thinks its actually quite neat and such planning won’t saddle the relatives with huge bills.

Is it morbid or a considerate forethought?

Unspun readers who liked the previous posting on the pecularities of the Malaysian language (at least in hospitals) may find this fascinating – an Indonesian-Malaysian dictionary produced by the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to help promote understanding between both countries.

Can’t wait to see what the definition of words like “batik” is like. The Embassy is printing 10,000 copies. If anyone has a spare copy please forward it to Unspun.

This from the Indonesian Foreign Ministry’s website:

Sebanyak 10.000 eksemplar Kamus Saku Indonesia-Malaysia dengan tebal 25 halaman diterbitkan oleh KBRI Kuala Lumpur pada 2 November 2009. Indonesia dan Malaysia adalah dua negara yang memiliki hubungan yang telah terjalin sejak lama. Kedua negara dikenal sebagai negara serumpun karena memiliki berbagai kesamaan akar budaya, sejarah kerajaan, agama bahkan keturunan yang sama. Kesamaan tersebut menyebabkan warga Indonesia merasa tidak asing lagi berada di Malaysia. Namun demikian, ditengah kesamaan tersebut terdapat berbagai perbedaan pula. Salah satunya adalah bahasa.

Walaupun memiliki akar bahasa yang sama yaitu Melayu, bahasa Indonesia dan bahasa Malaysia memiliki perbedaan. Sebuah kata dalam bahasa Indonesia bisa memiliki arti yang sangat berbeda dalam bahasa Malaysia, dan apabila tidak dimengerti, dapat menimbulkan perbedaan pemahaman ataupun miskomunikasi. Sebagai contoh kata ‘jemput’ dalam bahasa Indonesia, tidak memiliki arti yang sama dalam bahasa Malaysia. ‘Jemput’ dalam bahasa Malaysia berarti ‘undang’. Contoh-contoh lainnya adalah kata ‘kereta’ dalam bahasa Malaysia berarti ‘mobil’ dan ‘belanja’ dalam bahasa Malaysia berarti ‘mentraktir’.

Unspun had the occasion to spend some time at Universiti Malaya Hospital because mum was having an angioplasty (she’s now up and about after a scary 6 hour angioplasty). Bored waiting for her to come out of the cardiac surgery Unspun began to notice the weird signs of the hospital.

This posting is dedicated to Unspun’s Indonesian readers who will immediately see the humor on how Bahasa Melayu is abused by its northern neighbor Malaysia. They may have to take a stab at the meaning though. Warning: Malaysians may not see the joke in all this.

And Unspun’s favorite. It’s a bit fuzzy though:

Here we go again. Open mouth. Put foot in.

Would be very funny if not for the fact that the Terengganu government in Malaysia is probably dead serious about trying to bring romance into the bedroom for couples with flagging libidos.

The new Information and Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring is an interesting politician if nothing else. He was officially appointed to his post two days before Pesta Blogger on 24 October.

When the Pesta Blogger committee met we discussed whether to invite him and many of us thought that he would be too busy to attend a non-mainstream event such as Pesta Blogger.

But we decided to give it a go anyway and through Shinta, she with all the connections, we sent word to Tifatul that we would be delighted if he would attend. Surprisingly, he said he would. More surprisingly, he showed up (instead of delegating it to a director general as many monisters are won’t to do). Most surprisingly, he showed up on time (as many ministers don’t).

While in the VIP room waiting for Pesta Blogger to begin he was good natured and accessible, accepting interviews even from BBC radio in English. Apart from the fact that because of religious reasons he does not shake hands with women, he was all charm and when he addressed the bloggers, he adhered the crowd to him by saying that he was a blogger and a Twitterer who became a minister.

One for the album: Menkominfo Tifatul Sembiring (middle) poses with some of the Pesta Blogger Committee members just before the event

These days he still tweets regularly  and he was quoted in one of the newspapers today that his Facebook page now had so many friends thathe cannot accept anymore – yet there were 10,000 pending friend requests.

Is Tifatul the new breed of politicians — media and tchno-savvy, at least bilingual and  populist — that we will be seeing from now on?

Is Tifatul someone that Malaysian ministers could benefit to learn from?

This from The Jakarta Post today:

Tifatul Sembiring is the minister who tweets

The Jakarta Post |  Mon, 11/02/2009 10:05 AM  |  People

JP/R.Berto Wedhatama

JAKARTA: How can a top government official get comments and ideas directly from the people?

By tweeting, of course. At least, for new Information and Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring, twitter is the feedback medium of choice.

After his inauguration last month, Tifatul introduced himself to fellow twitterers with the nickname @tifsembiring. He immediately gathered a large following.

While many politicians might prefer to maintain a serious demeanor, Tifatul likes to tweet humorous poems.

He is also seeking input from members of the public by asking what they want in the telecommunications sector, using hashtag #tifsembiringasking.

Asked whether it is actually he who tweets, Tifatul said, “Sometimes I do. Tweets are short so I can still write them.”

Tweets at @boediono — for Vice President Boediono — are not written by the VP, but members of his staff.

Tifatul added jokingly, “That’s why I said to fellow bloggers at the blogger party [last month], you’re lucky that a blogger became minister.” — JP