Sithanen’s Budget Speech

Picture from L’express

Avi having already written an interesting post on the content of the budget speech, I will focus on the communication/psychological aspects of that grand event that marks the local scene every year.

So, here are my thoughts point-wise:

- Our Minister of finance could not help using the usual tactic of leading people to believe (before the budget speech) that the measures will be very stringent and result in harsher conditions for most Mauritians so that the actual measures taken that are announced appear more acceptable, thus creating an artificial a sense of relief. Most people actually thought that VAT would be raised or that the number of goods under VAT would increase…

- As per local traditions, the pre-speech marathon of the minister was chronicled by all media outlets painting the picture of a terribly tired man who sacrifices his family and works till midnight, so much so that his wife demands Jacques Brel’s ‘Ne me quitte pas…’ to be aired (on Radio One). Yet he finds the time to get interviewed by all the radio stations, newspapers and the national TV station. No wonder he was tired!

- An obsolete tradition: the 2-hour long speech that is against all modern presentation approaches with a heavy veil of secrecy until the D-Day and H-Hour. It is time for our politicians to learn how to make a good presentation… Who can now have the patience to listen to (or worse, watch) a 2-hour long diatribe with no presentation aids whatsoever?

- Obsolete also are the reactions of our local trade unionists and opposition parties who did not fail to criticise the budget as being ‘pro-capitalists’ and ‘pro-private sector’. They could probably learn to videotape their reactions for re-use every year; it would save them time and energy. Trade unionists even decided to boycott the budget speech… and to follow the event on TV in another place (I wonder if they know what ‘boycott’ really means). As for the opposition parties, they were again ever so bland in their reactions… Never able to articulate any strong alternative!

- On gender: I note there’s a slightly innovative approach as Sithanen announced measures to encourage women to take up jobs traditionally occupied by men in the construction sector (e.g. mason, plumber, etc.) but he wasted it all by announcing triumphantly that he is going to improve women’s lives by reducing duty on microwave ovens, grills, kitchen hoods, etc. The kitchen is never very far… Who said that women’s feet are smaller than men’s so that they can stand more comfortably in front of the sink?

PM’s Odyssey in Hull on TV

Every now and then, I try to have a look at the local TV news on MBC just to have a rough idea of what our national emblematic TV station is capable of. This is what I chose to do yesterday evening. So here are my thoughts on our flagship TV news bulletin.

There have been some improvements in terms of the image quality it would seem. Of course, the bulletin was greatly pre-empted by news related to the visit of our PM to Hull in the UK and it would seem that his communication experts have realised that they need to send a cameraman that can hold the camera correctly, provide nice framing and clear image with proper lighting. They have also sent a good journalist. In the past, it always used to be the outright pro-Labour who would benefit from the priviledge of accompanyng the PM on his trips and this has proved disastrous because coincidentally those people were also outright incompetent. I don’t know whether the journalist + cameraman/technician(s) that were sent to Hull this time are pro-Labour but at least they can deliver the goods (technically).

However, of course, propaganda-wise, it still is the same old song: PM is a wonderful person who meets important people in the UK who are all praise for the great guy. Seems that he worked (or completed internship?) for 2 years in a private hospital and he was a great doctor, a wonderful man specially in view of the fact that he was the son of a PM. Lots of people were interviewed from the handyman to the doctors to emphasise his greatness. Of course, mean people will probably say that those interviewed must have felt compelled to say positive things about our PM, that’s the effect of a camera…

But, what made me really smile was how the PM seized the opportunity to sing his own praises. He told a very lengthy story about how he saved a guy’s life and also emphasised how he would have earned 60,000 pounds today if he had stayed at the clinic as a doctor. This great sacrifice is justified by the fact that, as PM, he can transform a whole country. Lucky he didn’t say that he is actually putting Mauritius on the world map…