Voter resolve faultless amidst piercing campaign

The 2010 election campaign provided a piercing exercise in marketing by those trying to win over the voters. The voters were tested for their mettle at times to a slash and burn campaign. Their resolve was absolutely faultless. Ultimately they relied on common sense than partisan punditry to put away those who openly trumpeted fake disclosures, a ploy that strained their credulity.

The battalions itching to get dirty linen washed in public while dispensing with facts did not succeed. We saw supporters cringing, some losing their cool. Only those with true grit came out on top. The voters saw through the rhetoric.

A rule of thumb in communications is to be on message and not talk at length. It has been proved over and over again that addressing audiences in a cavalier manner and for a long period is hazardous to your success.

Voters were quick to see the spin masters at work manipulating what you see by way of news and entertainment. Some tried to delude us into a panic mode by petty diversions, twisting of fact into fiction seeking our attention and energies in ways that make us totally submerged in the dubious game of personal destruction.

Once they let the rumour-mongers run amok there was no one capable of starving the beasts.

Ultimately those who created them got devoured by their own creation. The internet and the-hand-held dispensers of sound bites did not persuade anyone with their tweeting and other gadgetry.

Techniques to captivate voters

The winning techniques were easy to decipher. The off-the chest appeal always had an advantage over those having in-betweeners bent on increasing a candidate’s star wattage.

Those on message never needed such props which only made a candidate look a misfit and self-observed.

Said one analyst, the voters were pampered but they could detect the trite, shallow and (largely uninformed) opinion-based mindlessness forced into their everyday lives by speechifying juggernauts. There were the mobile phones; instant massaging, pamphleteers and the internet, FaceBook and Twitter feeding us with garbage weighing tons.

The voters overcame that explosion of sound bites, extremist talkathons, political spin and large doses of TV footage by sheer determination to weed out the wheat from the chaff.

Those who attempted to present prescient insights packaged to make the voter feel uninformed or gullible before walking to that fortress called the voting booth failed. Voters left them behind the wayside like plastic cutouts standing all alone.

Opinion polls

Campaigns also taught us that communications are vital. That is how the opinion pollsters arrived on the scene. They try to identify the key dynamic of deciphering the winning trend. Voters liked to feel that they are being consulted. Like proteges, they love to opinionated and give advice. The pollsters tell us that those who have the knack of listening to the voters are victorious. So they charmed voters with their questionnaires. They sampled thousands trying to get flashes of predictive insights thrown at us periodically.

The survey by the Keleniya University proved to be smack on target.

It is the experienced politicians who are able to detect vibes from the audience with help from scientific surveys. Some even have the knack for gauging the body language, the mood and the spontaneity of the clapping and respond in a suitable manner.

Communication skills are far from easy for amateur participants. Veterans initiate conversations about “deep” issues, keeping their antennae up to see if your protege is responding in a way to give vital clues as to their actual feelings.

The professionals never lose their cool. They somehow avoid that moment when you feel themselves getting angry or defensive. We saw instances when there were angry outbursts. It was immediately felt among the audience.

Coarsening of political culture

The seasoned candidate had always tread a cautious line when dealing with the hazards associated with politics, exuding optimism at all times. The code of political omerta is almost dead due to a general coarsening of political culture, a lust for attention, the movement of undecided multitude from one campaign to rejecting those dispensing juicy revelations. Those who have conspired to loosen the lips of confidants and to spread the nasty whispers fast and far failed.

Practising dignity and altruism were the best survival kits winners carry with them to thwart leaking tales and sour narratives woven together by some leaning on vaguely attributed sources. Many were trying to settle scores and put forward versions of events that were far from truth. The voters had to swallow the unvarnished truth with a vengeance.

Campaigns also tested the measure of political loyalty. Sri Lankan voters were not gullible to fall for that type of talk. The back stories of the leading candidates, the milestones in play, the amount of money being raised - all of that were intended to incense many as emotions ran especially high leaving a particularly bitter taste.

Massive captive audience a myth

The expansive mass voter block did not lose their breadth and, nor their core values even when the scene became intense and combative. Fortunately loyalty is not yet extinct: people stuck to their hero in thick and thin. No one points fingers or runs for cover in the winner’s circle. The loser has to answer to a thousand causes of failure.

The campaign highlighted the personality and performative abilities of the winner by bringing out winnable qualities to the fore. Passion and partisanship energized many but in the end it was the solid resolve of the voter that prevailed. The era of the captive mass public audience ended.