The limitations of political spin

While political marketing has been an acknowledged social science for many years, the intensity of its application in international and local politics over the last few decades has been simply remarkable. The most recent form of political marketing has very appropriately been labelled as political spin‚ which is best defined as depicting unpalatable realities with an aura of respectability and virtue to make it acceptable and even desirable to a passive electorate.

While no single political party or country is unique in the use of political spin, high profile politicians like George W. Bush and Tony Blair are usually acknowledged to have refined this dubious art to an unprecedented level of sophistication. For instance, the messy war in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the more recent conflagration in Lebanon, has been branded by these western leaders as a war on terror.

But the reality is that this is nothing more than a simplistic and untruthful slogan. It is intended to stop ordinary people questioning the logic of sacrificing thousands of innocent lives, and at the end having nothing to show for it, either in the form of improved international relations or the spread of long-lasting democracy and peace in the countries that have been devastated by war.

But even in Malta we have had our fair share of political spin. Let me mention some examples.

In the early 1990s the Nationalist government leased the architectural and historical gem which is Fort Chambray in Gozo to a self promoting international entrepreneur by the name of Roberto Memmo for what was really a pepper corn rent.

Despite strong opposition from the Labour Party and environmentalist groups, the lease agreement was rushed through Parliament. According to the government of the day, the involvement of Mr Memmo in Fort Chambray was the best thing that could happen to Malta because, with his undisputed experience‚ he would attract much-needed investment in Gozo. We all know the result of this folly.

Just after a decade from this memorable debacle, all we have to show is a series of transfers of title from the original lease holder to the present one with presumably handsome margins of profits being earned by speculators every time they passed their rights to new lease holders. And Gozo continues to be starved of its promised investment, while the jewel that was Fort Chambray has been lost for ever by the public who previously owned it.

But what is even more worrying is the spin to which we are being subjected even today by the present administration. The spin doctors nesting in the different ministries are constantly weaving brightly coloured sashes which they insist should be worn by their political masters for particular occasions.

One sash with the title The Modernising Minister With A Vision could be worn by the minister promoting Smart City when announcing the setting up of an IT centre of excellence in Malta that would create thousands of jobs in future. But as the spin starts to slow down, we are now discovering that Smart City could well turn out to be a mega property development project, with a relatively small element of investment to attract IT companies to Malta: a typical case of the tail wagging the dog.

We then have another minister proudly wearing the sash of The Environment-Friendly Minister. On behalf of the government he serves, he offers large areas of agricultural land to property developers with the excuse that this will dampen the constant rise in property prices and correct certain injustices perpetrated by previous development schemes. In the process he ignores completely the vociferous protests of thousands of civic-minded citizens who can no longer stand the rape of our countryside by speculators. To make the spin even more effective, he often adorns our TV screens in photo opportunities where he is seen planting typical Mediterranean olive trees in Ta' Qali.

But political spin has its limitations. If the recent Brand Malta exercise had any benefits, one of them would certainly be that it has proved that ordinary citizens can see through spin much more clearly than some of us politicians believe. Substance is always much more important than form. The substance that our electorate wants from us is that we tell them the unadorned truth about the realities that our country is facing.

Every decision that a government takes has a price, and the challenge that an honest government has to face is to engage the public by informing it what it intends to do. It listens to ordinary people's concerns and takes the long-term view in the decision-making process and avoids short-term political expediency.

This is what a future Labour government will do to reverse the dangerous level of frustration being felt by thousand of caring people who are no longer prepared to tolerate the arrogance of political leaders who believe they always know what is best for our country.

Dr Mangion is deputy leader (parliamentary affairs) of the Malta Labour Party.