In today’s world, is there still a place for mass meetings that whip up mass hysteria for one’s political party of choice?
I ask myself this whenever I watch a televised mass meeting (because that is the closest I’ve ever been to one). The party flags, the bouncing, squealing, screaming girls astride the shoulders of their obliging boyfriends, the supporters of a certain age who camp out right at the very front of the barriers to get as close as possible to their beloved politicians.
I’ve often said this, and I’ll say it again – these gatherings disturb me because any organised event which smacks of manipulation and brainwashing, and which treats people like mindless sheep disturbs me. However, setting aside my own issues, let us just examine for a minute what purpose mass meetings serve. Clearly, there is a section of the population which still looks forward to these meetings because it allows them to join forces with those who cherish the same political views – they feel comfortable and safe in screaming their lungs out for Gonzi (or Muscat for that matter) in a controlled environment where everyone thinks like they do, and in between (or during) the speeches they can queue for a hotdog or two to sustain them for the long night of revelry.
By roping in the services of well-known DJs to get things going (the words “warm up by Ronnie and Matt” actually came up on the screen on Net TV) and a background of pumping music to get everyone hyped up, mass meetings over the last few years have been specifically targeted at the very important youth vote. For, let’s face it, if the young no longer attend these meetings, they will obviously die a natural death.
And yet it always strikes me that the music being used, which is more suitable for a wild summer beach party with David Guetta, is completely incongruous with the portly middle-aged men in shirt sleeves and the sensibly dressed women up on stage. On Tuesday they all looked understandably embarrassed, trying to laugh off the absurd situation as the DJs continued to sweat blood to ensure the excitement levels of the crowd reached fever pitch in time for the Prime Minister’s grand entrance. (Sorry, was he the Prime Minister on Tuesday or the leader of the Nationalist Party? I must I admit I was confused).
Anyway, out Dr Gonzi strolled beaming his trademark smile, and yes, like last year, he pointed his fingers at the crowd like a rock star. The crowd went wild, the cameras zoomed in on the more attractive youngsters, who were singing the chorus of the party anthem with wild abandon: “ejjew Nazzjonalisti, ejjew bl-eluf minn taghkom, ejjew bil-bnadar maghkom, f’dis-siegha’ tat-taqbid”. Loose translation: come on Nationalists in your thousands waving your flags in this hour of battle.
Of course, the problem was that there were hardly any “thousands” on Tuesday – in fact the cameras were v-e-r-y careful to keep their shots low and focused on clusters of people without resorting to any revealing wide angle shots.
Sharp-eyed observers immediately pointed this out the next day online.
As for ‘the hour of battle’ – come on, we are hardly in the middle of Tripoli fighting in the revolution to overthrow Gaddafi. Although the way the Nationalist Party is acting you would think our next general election is going to be a matter of life or death.
The reality is that the PN is clearly in panic mode as it sees interest in the party slipping away every day while it notches up one PR disaster after another. Tuesday’s mass meeting was therefore crucial for the strategy group, which the PN always sets up whenever an election looms, to take stock.
Forget surveys and polls, it is the mass meetings which have always been the true tangible measure of the extent of a party’s support at any given time. As the politicians on stage crane their necks to see just how far the crowds extend to, you can quickly see whether they are ecstatically happy because the turnout is good (kemm kellna nies!) or if they are trying to force a smile because it is apparent that interest is waning.
Even more interesting was the reaction of the man-in-the-street to the very partisan speeches made by Paul Borg Olivier and Lawrence Gonzi. In case the PN has not noticed, many people are sick to their back teeth of this kind of divisive talk by their leaders. Screaming into the microphone that Alex Sciberras Trigona has to resign, and that Muscat has no proposals for the country might have sounded like a brilliant idea when they were brainstorming about what they should say on the podium. However, when those words were uttered on Tuesday it was like someone had dropped a stink bomb in the middle of a party. Let’s just say it did not go down well.
What was supposed to be a celebration of Malta’s independence had been turned into an excuse to rally PN supporters for the ‘battle’ against Mile End. Never, ever do I remember the Nationalist Party being so clueless as to the mood of the country. It’s usually the Labour Party which gets it wrong, and charges ahead regardless of the signs and flashing neon lights telling them “Hey, you’re going the wrong way!”
There are other telltale indications that what is usually a very well-oiled, perfectly synchronized PR machine is coming apart at the seams.
For a few months there was a group on Facebook called DNA Nazzjonalist biss u sal-mewt (Nationalist DNA until death), which had over 1000 members and which was attempting to re-instil that passionate fervour in PN supporters that is sorely needed if they are to win in 2013. The problem was that the raison d’être of the group quickly degenerated and soon members were giving vent to a stream of very racist comments as well as hate speech against anyone who does not agree with the PN, including liberal Nationalists. The irony is too rich, I know.
I pointed out the racist comments on Facebook myself when I spotted them after the Safi riots in August, but it was only when l-orizzont picked up the story recently that action was taken. The Facebook group has now been removed, but my point is that it took too long for someone in the PN hierarchy to notice just how much damage had already been caused. In fact, certain prominent people had been added to the group without their knowledge (a flaw which Facebook really needs to fix) and they only found out when it was made public.
An attempt at damage control was made when the man who made the worst comment (that someone should pour petrol over the immigrants and strike a match) sent a letter of apology to l-orizzont, saying that when he posted his comment he was “emotionally weak” and did not have a “clear perspective” of what had taken place.
A very careful, and might I add, a very eloquent choice of words, unlike the way he wrote on Facebook, but never mind that.
What is interesting is that all these attempts to make Nationalist voters madly passionate about their party once again is only working on a certain type of supporter. The kind of supporter who would go to a mass meeting anyway; the kind of supporter who would join a group called DNA Nazzjonalist biss u sal-mewt without realising the implications of such a phrase, and the kind of supporter who will be there on election day with vote in hand as soon as the polls open.
As Gonzi et al know too well, however, that is not where their votes are haemorrhaging from and that is not where their PR machine needs to shift its focus. The real bone of contention is the floating voters who abhor this kind of narrow-minded ‘us and them’ talk. They are the hardest nut to crack because they will simply not be manipulated or cajoled or browbeaten into voting PN “because there’s no alternative ey?”
And the number of floating voters is increasing every week.
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