Media and voter response
By Andleeb Abbas
In my May 17 op-ed, ‘Marketing development,’ I had argued that the official media hype about free education and provision of textbooks was just a political exercise and won’t make any difference to the appalling state of education in the country. But I had thought this truth would emerge in the next couple of years or so. I was wrong!
A few days ago a section of the press carried pictures of students in Sindh holding placards that said the free provision of books was a sham. The students said they had not received any free books for the past two months and any claim by the Sindh government that it was distributing free books was a lie. Interestingly, newspaper advertisements on which the government, presumably, is spending huge funds continue to spread the false claim of its ongoing literacy campaign. Such is the state of our politicians’ credibility.
However, on the plus side the media is helping create awareness among the people, which allows them to formulate their responses to such developments. This underpins accountability.
This is what has happened in India in the recently concluded elections. The BJP government was so full of themselves and so sure of their victory that they rarely paid heed to the voter reaction to their advertising slogan of “India Shining”. Their attempt to present a developing and prospering India angered the voter on the periphery. With very little development for the masses, the poor who comprise almost 300 million Indians, decided to vote with their feet and punish the BJP for its hubris.
Two other leaders under severe scrutiny are President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair came to power on the promise of focusing on improvement of the delivery and quality of public services. He has failed to do that. The NHS (National Health Services) has now become a joke for the sick in the UK where the system is so slow and inadequate that people have actually passed away as they wait for the operation date to arrive. Similarly, the public transport system has come under severe criticism due to its safety and capacity issues. With failure both at home and abroad, his only hope to win the election is the complete absence of any decent opposition from the Tory party.
Bush is in deep waters as well. With high unemployment, a soaring budget deficit and the misadventure in Iraq, like Blair, his only hope to win is by making Kerry look even more ineffectual than himself. The Spanish voters have already thrown out the country’s conservative primeminister Jose Maria Aznar for not delivering on his campaign promises and siding with the US in a war that remains highly unpopular in that country.
The power of the media is truly amazing. It opens up the public and private lives of the politicians and brings the information to the living room of every household. This is perhaps what politicians all over the world and especially in Pakistan have failed to realize. In their obsession to get media coverage they recklessly indulge in slogan mongering. But in a competitive market the consumer-awareness level increases, making them capable of ascertaining the value of each claim.
Globalization has steadily worked towards a convergence of consumer needs and wants. The global media has done much the same with voter behaviour; it has helped the voter to formulate standardized responses and reactions to political offerings. Helped by the media and the bitter experience of the past, the voter’s maturity process is the biggest threat to political complacency. That is a welcome development.
Andleeb Abbas is a development consultant and an analyst.
Source: Daily Times
Date:5/30/2004
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