POLITICAL EXECUTIVE’S COMMUNICATION

Daily Post 1370

POLITICAL EXECUTIVE’S COMMUNICATION

Who wields power on behalf of the political party when it comes to power? It is the political executive. They direct and dictate the permanent bureaucracy the world over. Political party creates a dream. The electorate likes it. The dissemination / communication medium being mass publicity, media blitzkrieg of every type, slanging, hype, political debate, bottomless oratory and many others. All these communication modes are not the standard professional / official / technical or even personal channels of communication. The top elected component of the political party transforms into the political executive.

Does the communication mindset change? There needs to be a purpose in communication with content – sombre, poise and utilitarian. Contradiction should be conspicuous by its absence. The structure and method through has to pre defined. Has a successful communication transformation happened in any democracy? Presumably not. The political executive and the permanent bureaucracy should functionally merge as one executive block and communicate to the world as one entity. Theoretically, it is possible, but given the mindset, communication capabilities, not able to come out of the political mould and general lack in clarity in communication, this does not seen to happen at least in our generation. The irony of the situation is that it is not even been realised, so where is no question of doing anything about it.

Electronic media has brought this into sharp focus on a regular basis. The multimedia / social media age has brought this disjointed communication to the democratic mainstream, making the political – official – citizen connect even more nebulous. Today, very few would believe that there is a mandated communication in governance, might not be as exquisite as a legal statute. The ultimate manifestation of what we can call as The Communication Chasm is the Twitter handle of the incumbent US President. The official merges with the personal to the adversarial to a tool of outright offence. The intra-official, intra-bureaucratic and pent up feelings against the intelligence agencies also played out on this medium.

This dissonance is the cannon fodder for our electronic media channels and the social media. The variegated official communication juxtaposed with political and personal public domain expositions, create a vicious cocktail on which democracies live and thrive. Political leaders in top executive positions unfortunately talk through the media. If they belong to different political parties, it can become a monumental challenge. How can quality governance be delivered then? Factions in ruling parities and in cabinets too add to the rot. Talk shows also become a communication tool. Proving ”whatever” to the world is more important than running governance with peace and equanimity. A focused, knowledgeable and uncluttered mind is the first requisite of good governance.

NO WORTHWHILE COMMUNICATION IS THE RESULT, SERVING NO PUBLIC PURPOSE YOU CAN IMAGINE OF.

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