The East Java Branch Management of the Public Relations Association (Iprahumas) was officially inaugurated by Presidential Staff Ariani Djalal at the 2016 Government Public Relations Convention in Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) BSD, Tangerang, Thursday (21/4).
East Java Province is the first branch administrator at the provincial government level that has been inaugurated. In the inauguration, Ariani Djalal put on a pin and handed over the East Java Iprahumas flag to the Head of East Java Iprahumas Eko Setiawan.
Eko Setiawan, who is also the First Expert Public Relations Officer of the East Java Provincial Communication and Informatics Service, oversees various fields including organizational and membership, research and development of literacy culture, professional advocacy, media and public communication, cooperation and relations between institutions, young Iprahumas. Malang City contributes one public relations officer to the East Java Iprahumas Branch Management.
After the inauguration, the Chairman of Iprahumas East Java, Eko Setiawan, said that with the formation of the East Java Iprahumas Branch Management, it is hoped that the existence of functional public relations officers will be increasingly visible in the future.
"So far, the contribution of functional public relations officials has been below the surface, even though in terms of function, public relations officials can play a very strategic role in the era of openness of public information and advances in information technology like today," he stressed.
Eko also mentioned that Iprahumas East Java can be a joint forum to further dissect the weaknesses that have been faced by government public relations, such as the overlapping authority for managing public communications in regional governments between the Communication and Information Service and the Public Relations Bureau or the fact that public relations has not been positioned more strategically in the government structure.
"In this case, we are still a little behind compared to our police colleagues who have a public relations structure up to the Polsek level. In local government, the public relations structure stops at the public relations bureau or section, not up to the SKPD level," he said.
Meanwhile, the General Chairperson of Iprahumas Indonesia Endah Kartikawati conveyed congratulations on their duties and carrying out their mandate to all the Iprahumas branch administrators who have been confirmed. "Congratulations on the successful gathering of the East Java branch administrators, as the province with the most public relations institutions in Indonesia," she said.
Endah advised, Iprahumas is a professional organization whose performance is non-structural and non-APBD so that high creativity is needed. "As we do (central Iprahumas), the basis of our work is voluntary. Voluntarily what is done becomes lighter," said the Public Relations Officer from the Ministry of Agriculture.
"Provide input on ministerial regulations through their respective fields and immediately create a work program," he continued.
In addition to East Java Province, other Iprahumas Branch Managers that have been confirmed are the State Administration Institute and the Ministry of Communication and Informatics. (say/may)
