Public Relations and Efforts to Eradicate Terrorism

Looking at the development of domestic political and security situation post "Thamrin bombing and Polresta Surakarta suicide bombing", both basically imply that the threat of terrorism at the national level will never be extinguished.

Despite speculation that the perpetrators of terrorist acts are the groups affiliated to IS / ISIS, there is a possibility that the terrorist issue is part of the phenomenon of "widening" or "displacement" of conflict, between the world of Islam versus the West.

It is predicted that in 2030 Indonesia will enter the period of "window of opportunity", that is when almost all nations in the world will do "transformation" that have been designed through a variety of global policy and direction as well as global orientation of each countries until 2030.

In this period, Islam is predicted to still be a threat, especially regarding "peace process" in Middle East that still will dominate the constellation of international conflicts. But in terms of the strength of Indonesia, which is considered to have a promising future due to the "demographic bonus", Indonesia is increasingly likely to become a country that is "considerable" as well as "feared".

Indonesia is still categorized by the superpowers (mainstream) as a "fragile" country that is attractive to be the arena for political ideologies contestation and for foreign economies. There is a potential that the world power will turn Indonesia into a country that is considered a barbaric state, or even a "failed state".

Such hypothesis departed from reality that Indonesia has so far not been able to "manage" its own policy direction and strength of state institutions substantively, especially in "preventing" the efforts of re-balancing of power driven by foreign powers, including in reducing the potential threat of IS / ISIS.

Among Indonesians, there are some indications of worriness due to the return of terrorist actions and other "barbarian" activities by the rise of IS and the involvement of some Indonesians in it.

This phenomenon is reflected in the appearance of various "reactions" from society when addressing the development of the issues as well as the news published by mass media concerning IS / ISIS and how to deal with potential attacks from IS / ISIS to Indonesia and "the maneuver" of IS / ISIS in creating terror ( fear) and recruiting sympathizers.

This dynamic requires harder work of the public relations desk of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo). They must be more adaptive to the global, regional, and national development. Such profession is an open job that can be accessed by anyone with required competencies.

Thus, to prepare a professional public relations officers of the government is an urgent measure. Government public relation division faces quite a challenge in developing information system and public communication that have good quality and are proportional.

The new era of Indonesia is a digital democracy era that faces many threats coming from re-balancing power efforts made by foreign power. Thus, the public relations officers must be able to manage the information and publish the ones needed by public that are accurate and interesting. By doing so, it is hoped that public will be satisfied to prevent chaos.

Good communication management is expected to build public spaces that provide channels for balanced communication and interaction between government and the public and vice versa. Nevertheless, reality shows that most of the government public relations officers are not performing their duties and functions well.

There are still many obstacles, such as limited human resource competencies, hardship in terms of coordination, limited program or activities, institutional barriers, and limited infrastructure.

Basically, building public trust through communication can be done through two things, those are to show the results of real work and to create effective communication strategy including to shape the attitudes and behaviors of people who are trusted. Government PR should be able to meet both of the above by playing creative role and strategic thinking.

An effective communication from the government is also considered effective to grant access to information and to educate the public. Public Relations officials must be able to create information management systems required by public, that are accurate and interesting. Public satisfaction must be achieved so that the image and credibility of government institutions in particular and Indonesia in general become more credible in the eyes of public.

It is hoped, the government public relations officers are able to recognize themselves as producers of information by developing content that is for public, particularly regarding the performance of the institution.

At the same time, they must filter any particular information especially those related to terrorism. In principle, the government must run its public function in a productive, effective and efficient manner. The government PR must also create synergy and coordinate with others to maintain the image of the government as a whole.

Still limited

So far, the efforts made by the stakeholders in public relations sphere in Kominfo cycle both in national and regional level regarding counter propaganda towards the radical groups are still minimum. In fact, the propaganda spread by the radical groups contains dangerous material that might threaten nationalism and pluralism in Indonesia. Moreover, the radical groups have the opportunity to collaborate each other to hit their mutual target by using agreed strategies.

Some measures that can be taken to counter the radical propaganda are such as: first, making opinion building in mass media including social media.

The public relations officials or Kominfo can create a website or social media account in Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and so on to counter the radical thoughts and to spread the value of nationalism.

Second, they can influence media community especially the editor chiefs so that they do not publish any articles that threaten nationalism.
    
*) The author is mass communication and social communication observer. Residing at Jakarta.