As a Malaysian living and working in Jakarta, I have been dismayed by the unfolding events pertaining to Tourism Malaysia (TM) and Nila Tanzil. Dismayed and depressed, as it seems to me, that the actions of various persons in TM have managed to turn a minor public relations coup into an on-going crisis.

Having read both sides of the issues, I believe the facts are as follows: In January, TM brought 17 journalists from 10 Indonesian media organisations to cover the Flora Fest 2007 as a vehicle to promote Visit Malaysia Year 2007 (VMY). Their six-day itinerary included visits to Putrajaya, Genting Highlands, KL Tower, Petaling Street and various shopping malls.

SCTV, the third most popular TV station in Indonesia (according to the latest Nielsen Media Review), decided to send the 'Melancong Yuk!' production team comprising its host/presenter Nila Tanzil, the producer and a cameraman. 'Melancong Yuk!' which can be roughly translated as 'Let's go sightseeing!', is a popular half-hour travel programme broadcast by SCTV on Saturdays and Sundays.

Nila and her crew went to Malaysia and upon their return to Jakarta they produced two episodes on Malaysia, which were broadcast on Feb 3 and 4. The shows featured various sights and activities in Malaysia in a very positive, cheery and breezy style.

However, Nila also blogged about her experiences in Malaysia. In her own blogspot, 'Life is beautiful', written in light, chatty language, she had generally very nice things to say about Malaysia. The post, accompanied by photographs, included Batu Caves, where she wrote, 'It's highly recommended to go there' and Merdeka Square, '[It] is very beautiful at night. The lights create a romantic kinda feeling. I love it'.

Her criticisms of the handling of her trip by Tourism Malaysia were actually posted in another site, 'theunspun.com'. Here, she mentioned a number of shortcomings. For example, upon her arrival in Malaysia she asked for a simple letter stating that SCTV had been invited by TM to promote the country for Visit Malaysia Year 2007. The tourism officer replied it would take two weeks to write the letter.

She also mentioned that the crew was taken on a five-hour shopping tour to two malls and Ikea, where they were forbidden to shoot anything. As Nila stated in her post, '...what's the point of going there if we couldn't record anything? We came to Malaysia to work, not for holidays. We are not tourists'.

On another day, they were taken to KL Tower for lunch but they could not shoot there either, as the restaurant manager had not been informed that a TV crew would be there. Nila also wrote that they were taken to Petaling Street but were not allowed to film there either, and that they managed to arrange a side trip to Batu Caves though it was not on the original itinerary.

At the point when these posts were written, early February, TM could have taken one of two actions. First, it could have ignored the posts and basked in the satisfaction of a job well done. After all, it had managed to get a full hour of free airtime on a prestigious Indonesian TV station to promote VMY 2007. Several hundred people would have read Nila's blogs and the matter would have died away in a matter of days.

Second, it could have recognised the weaknesses in the trip endured by the SCTV crew and invited them to Malaysia again to cover other aspects of VMY 2007. With a little hard work, it would have cost Tourism Malaysia almost nothing as I am sure one of the Malaysian airlines and some Malaysian hotels would have been pleased to provide free tickets and accommodation in exchange for coverage on SCTV's travel programme.

Instead, for reasons best known to TM, a complaint was lodged with SCTV. A letter of apology was extracted and Nila has been suspended from 'Melancong Yuk!'. Someone, probably a thin-skinned, low-level official in TM, had been offended by his or her deficiencies being pointed out and he or she decided to retaliate by getting Nila fired.

However, even the ensuing tempest would have died down if not for the now infamous retort by our minister of tourism. In answer to a question about this matter, he was reported by Sin Chew Daily to have said, 'Bloggers are liars. They use all sort of ways to cheat others. From what I know, out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women'.

The director-General of Tourism Malaysia has now made an official statement on the case. I find the letter self-serving and facile. In the first place, it addresses only one of the items raised about her trip the request to shoot at the shopping malls. What was erroneously described as 'two shopping breaks at two shopping malls ... to do their personal shopping before returning home' was actually one five-hour tour of the malls.

I fail to understand why SCTV was prevented from shooting shopping scenes while TM is spending millions of ringgit promoting Malaysia as a shopping destination throughout the world.

The director-general also conveniently failed to address Nila's request for a letter and the incidents in KL Tower and Petaling Street. It also implies that SCTV was invited only to cover the Flora Fest 2007 parade. If that is the case, why did TM accept the production crew for 'Melancong Yuk!'?

It should have known from the onset that this crew had a different assignment from what TM had in mind. The board should have told SCTV that this was an inappropriate crew as what TM wanted was coverage of Flora Fest 2007 only and nothing extra.

Finally, anyone reading Nila's blogspot would have realised that she is not a simple 'freelance TV presenter' as the director-general's letter stated. She is actually a public relations consultant with one of the leading PR agencies in Jakarta. In addition to being a TV presenter, she also writes for a travel magazine. In short, she is exactly the kind of person that could be a valuable ally to TM in its efforts to promote Malaysia.

This matter has now evolved into a full-blown crisis. The public relations coup by Tourism Malaysia has turned into a crisis which has spiralled out of control. I urge TM to take the appropriate steps to turn this crisis back into a coup.

With a little humble pie and with an eye towards the ultimate goal of promoting Malaysia in this crucial year for our tourism industry, that should not be too difficult.