Born in Angoulême, France, Claude Arpi's real quest began 36 years ago with a journey to the Himalayas. Since then he has been an enthusiastic student of the history of Tibet, China and the subcontinent. He is the author of numerous English and French books including. His forthcoming book, ‘Tibet: the lost Frontier’ (Lancers Publishers) will be released soon.
We are living in a strange world. It is called the ‘modern world.’ Everything turns around one word, ‘Communication’ or ‘Com’ for the initiated ones.
Last week, I watched an eye-opening program on French TV. It narrated the story of President Sarkozy’s first year in office and his mastery of ‘Com’. The reporters analysed the way the President and his collaborators ‘made’ Sarkozy’s image.
While previous Presidents ran ‘behind’ their image, Sarkozy’s team is always in advance; managing to dictate to the media his dynamic image in his public and private life (with hardly any separation between the two).
It is not easy job, but it is done extremely professionally; perhaps more meticulously than the script-writers climbing the steps of Cannes. A daily script is prepared in the minutest detail. The example of Col Khadafi’s visit to Paris was given. It was a disaster on the level of human rights (but excellent for business).
To erase the negative aspects from the collective consciousness (“Did he come to wipe his bloody feet on the doormats of France?” Rama Yade, the pretty Minister of State for Human Rights had asked, to mitigate the sale of nuclear plants to the tyrant), a diversion was organised.
The President would visit Euro Disney with his new girl friend (now First Lady). The information on the staged outing was selectively leaked to friendly photographers who were requested to take some cool pictures. In the process, ‘human rights’ in Libya were forgotten; the media had turned a new page.
Each day is thus planned to ‘create a story’ and catch the public in a grasping serial. Of course, the Art of Story Telling, as the Americans call it, is not limited to France or Europe. It was in fact a brain child US ‘Com’ specialists. Totalitarian regimes such China have also shown that they have mastered the game, though it is easier for them than in the supposedly ‘free’ world.
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Only the Indian Prime Minister seems to be clueless about the latest ‘Com’ techniques. An explication could be that in any case if he keeps the image of a dull and self-effaced leader, it benefits many. It avoids ruffling larger feathers.
Interestingly, something that the Com wizards had not taken into consideration was the Internet. When Sarkozy insulted someone who refused to shake hands with him, “Casse toi, pauvre con” (poorly translated as “Get lost, you stupid jerk”), months of work by his communicators went down the drain. One hour after the incident, the video was on the net for everyone to watch.
A similar misadventure happened to the leadership in Beijing who had not thought of confiscating the mobile phones of thousands of Tibetans who demonstrating against the Han domination over Tibet. When riots occurred in 1989, the media only got a hazy picture and that too many months later.
This ‘Com’ culture also came to mind while witnessing the fate of the Burmese people and the poor coverage by the Indian media of their terrible present tragedy.
The tyranny of the ‘Com’ has far more serious consequences here. In September last, the military junta clamped a curfew in the main cities of Burma; hundreds of deaths by bullets were reported.
By the same author: As Dalai Lama gains, Tibetans lose | Read all Claude Arpi columns
The world stood by Aung San Suu Kyi and her people. Fellow Nobel Peace Prize Archbishop Desmund Tutu declared: “We admire our brave sisters and brothers in Myanmar and want them to know that we support their peaceful protests to end a vicious rule of oppression and injustice,” while the Dalai Lama addressed the junta: “As a Buddhist monk, I am appealing to the members of the military regime who believe in Buddhism to act in accordance with the sacred dharma in the spirit of compassion and non-violence”.
Of course, in terms of ‘Com’, Burma (or Myanmar as the dictators have decided to call the battered nation) continued to be in the news for a few weeks. It was not bad! Millions felt sorry for the courageous lady but slowly the news coming from one the worst military dictatorships stopped pouring in. And then, silence! Aung San Suu Kyi and her people were forgotten.
This is the usual fate of news; if news remains the same, it can not be called ‘news’ anymore. Does the system not constantly require ‘breaking news’?
As Beijing was not ready to put its foot down and tell the generals that the time has come to sit at a negotiating table and discuss the future of the nation with the representatives of all the Burmese, nobody could stop Burma from disappearing from the media radar.
The Tibetans did better; they managed to break news for nearly two months, generating thousands of articles, analyses, TV programs, etc. A few months before the Olympics, it was the greatest possible disaster for Beijing’s image. The ‘Com’ experts could also say that it was not professionally done from the Tibetan side, as there was no chance to sustain the momentum till the Games. But they managed quite well compared to the CCP’s mammoth propaganda machine.
Except for a few dictators here and there, the people of the planet were on their side. So much so that several Head of States had to hurriedly revise the ‘Com’ strategy vis-Ã -vis China. Sarkozy was one of the first who did so: he thundered, threatened and later kowtowed to Beijing when the latter ‘got really angry’.
During all this time, everyone had forgotten Burma.
A great natural calamity in Sichuan has helped the Chinese ‘Com’ masters to mitigate the Tibetan disaster and polish their image which had taken a beating with the unrest of March/April. Suddenly all the TVs of the planet left the Tibetans to left to their fate.
Little will now be known of the aftermath of their rebellion and the bloody repression unleashed by Beijing. Images of a compassionate Chinese Premier consoling survivors of the terrible earthquake in Sichuan Province replaced the Tibetan flags on our screen. As the Washington Post put it: “The popular hero of China's earthquake rescue effort isn't a strapping firefighter or a seasoned cop - it's the country's bespectacled premier who's been clambering over piles of rubble to rally victims in the hardest-hit areas.”
Suddenly millions rightly felt close to the people of Chinese in its hour of agony. The world felt sad for China. It brought out an important aspect of the Olympic Year h which had been overlooked: the quadrennial Olympic Truce; in antiquity, it marked the beginning of the Human Spring.
While the Tibetans managed to put some pressure on China through the ‘Com’ campaign, while Beijing succeeded to control the damage in the aftermath of the earthquake, Burma has remained in the background. For Aung San Suu Kyi and her countrymen there was no truce. Cyclone Nargis battered the coast of Burma (with a tally probably crossing two lakhs dead). Though an entire region is totally devastated, the Indian media preferred to forget the inconvenient truth.
The Junta might not be India’s best friends, but we are ‘engaging’ them (like Hitler was ‘engaged’ in the 40’s!). As a consequence, the crimes committed by Burma's military junta remain under wraps. General Than Shwe, the self-styled boss of the Junta knew three days in advance that the cyclone was coming; he did nothing. True, his life was not endangered; he was holed up in his new insulated capital. He must have believed that it was his good karma to have moved from the former capital Rangoon to the far-away Naypyidaw last year. The superstitious general had not left his destiny to his luck; this important move had been decided after consulting the stars. The 75-old General is said to be obsessed with astrologers who divine his future.
But what about his people? He probably had more important issues to think about. Ailing from kidney complications, diabetes and colon cancer, Shwe has become increasingly worried about his health.
But how to explain the Indian media’s quasi silence?
The Sichuan earth quake was probably more exciting. Further, the cricket league had to be covered!
Though we are living in a world where ‘Com’ is sovereign, I wonder if a tragedy such as Cambodia in the 70’s when Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge massacred more than 2 million of their countrymen were to reoccur, would the media leave their market defined parameters to try to put a halt to the carnage?
It will probably depend on the ratings.
The views expressed in the article are the author’s and not of Sify.com
