Hasan I Basar, one of Thailand's most experienced public-relations consultants, likes to tell prospective clients that it's not one's birthright to be understood when they complain that they are not perceived well by the media or that they are misrepresented, or that the media "has it in for them".

"You'll be surprised how many people do not realise that. I'm usually fairly sceptical.

"More often than not, it's because the persons or organisations in question haven't done a good job of helping the public to understand them or their activities," says Basar, 46, a Turkish citizen who was born, raised and went to school in Bangkok.

"[Ironically] people sometimes ask me how long I've been here since I look like an expat. [More often than not,] I'd jokingly say 'I've been here long before you were born' - if the person in his or her 20s or 30s," says Basar, who speaks fluent Thai, English and Turkish.

Basar was born to Turkish parents in 1959, while his father was working at the United Nations office in Bangkok. He attended the Bangkok Pattana School for several years and then left for further education in the UK. He earned his bachelor's degrees in politics, philosophy and economics from St John's College, Oxford University in 1981.

"Upon graduation, I returned to Thailand and met a friend who invited me to work in the public relations industry. In fact, PR was nothing much here during the 1980s. Most people went into banking etc. At the time, many people did not have high regard for PR and thought it was about fun, games and drinks."

"Yet I took up the invitation as it included a part ownership in the business. Secondly, working in Thailand is fine.

"The environment's not hostile, so it's not tiring to get through the day. I guess it's more tense working in the West," says Basar, who has never looked back since.

In 1995, Basar and a colleague formed their own company, Bangkok Public Relations Co, which today has billings worth over Bt100 million annually.

"Our business model is unique. We tend to have a limited number of clients and a limited number of staff who have a relatively long service in this industry.

"This means our staff can do more and better work for selected clients. Now we have only 16 clients, several of whom are major multinational corporates with triple-A rating," he says.

The role of a competent PR agency, Basar argues, is not to generate column inches or airtime in the mass media, but more about building an understanding among different stakeholders, including members of the mass media, a company, a product, an idea, a politician, etc.

"The coverage is the by-product. Editors and reporters are independent stakeholders. So if you present your case clearly, more often than not you will get a fair hearing. And yes, not all of them will agree with you on everything and every time," he says.

In addition, he notes that "misinformation", as well as "disinformation", have increased as a result of advances in information and communication technologies and the advent of the Internet. Hence, it's necessary to hire professional assistance so that all stakeholders can be timely informed and updated.

"While people know that PR works as few major commercial or political leaders have got to where they are in democratic societies without good PR or effective communications with all their stakeholders, the PR industry still finds it difficult to measure and quantify the efficacy of its work. It's about as hard as trying to quantify why your friends like you or support you.

"Unfortunately, most organisations do not have a structure that will allow resources to flow into areas that cannot show 'quantifiable' results. It's probably the reason why PR tends to flourish only in organisations where there are champions who support the PR function based on managerial judgement and make an executive decision for funding," he says.

Crisis management is also an area of speciality for Basar.

In the wake of Thailand's "Black Monday" in 1992, he was assigned by the Anand Panyarachun government to lead a global team of nearly 1,000 PR consultants to rebuild the Kingdom's international image following the negative publicity from the political crisis.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

nop1122@yahoo.com