The Color of Politics

One of the challenges here is getting TVM reporters to understand that the election is not just about the candidates: it's about the voters. The political reporter covered the Thursday night meeting of the DRP, the ruling party led by President Gayoom. He did an excellent job of grabbing the finance minister for an on-camera comment about his resignation. However, there was no attempt to talk to the real people in the rank and file of the party. What are their hopes for the country's first multi-party election? What issues will they emphasize? Why do they think the DRP will prevail? We don't know because reporters don't ask. And a standup? Not happening. You'd never know TVM had a reporter on the scene. This has to change.

Here's another story that is just made for television. Supporters of the MDP, the largest opposition party, are painting their houses yellow. I'm told that the MDP even supplies free paint! Will the DRP respond by getting supporters to paint their houses blue? How about red for the IDP... and so on. I've suggested this story to a couple of reporters and we'll try to get someone to do it this week.

Note: The DRP meeting was covered live on TVM, pre-empting regular programming in the early evening. I'm told that any party that requests coverage and is willing to pay for it will get the same exposure. It can also be argued that TVM devoted lots of airtime to the recent MDP primary election, including a candidate debate, so they needed to give some time to DRP. However, this meeting was mostly for electing party officials and other "inside baseball" and was chiefly newsworthy for the fact that the President was sitting next to his ex-finance minister who had resigned only hours earlier. The interesting question of who will be the president's running mate was put off for another time.

Update: the DRP congress concluded Saturday night with a rousing speech by Gayoom, appearing before his supporters for the first time as a candidate in a multi-party election. Another exciting and historic moment for Maldives. However, our story missed its slot because we had to wait for the live crew to deliver the tape to the newsroom and because there was a blackout while we were on deadline, wiping out the reporter's script.