A few days ago, ex PM Saad Hariri delighted some of his supporters by directly engaging with them in an informal Q&A session on Twitter. Starstruck supporters began asking him questions about everything from politics to Batman & Harley Davidson motorbikes.
It was a novelty in Lebanon, and it got people talking.
But the party didn’t last long for Mr. Hariri because PM Najib Mikati has a strange habit of raining on his parades. The current Prime Minister was to have his own Twitter breakthrough: A public debate with the UK ambassador in Lebanon ahead of his meeting the British prime minister David Cameron. It was fascinating, useful and revealing discussion where the PM mixed policy with personal niceties..
Mr. Mikati’s Twitter excursion was so successful it won plaudits from normal Lebanese twitter users and the British Foreign Minister himself:
There’s a lot that can be said and deduced from how the former and current Prime Ministers use Twitter, so off the top of my head, here are some quick notes:
- Mr. Hariri was apparently tweeting on his own, and might regret some of the things he wrote (the FPM’s online forum is already making fun of his batman comment..)
- It was obvious that Mr. Mikati was supported by a sleek PR operation (only those tweets signed N.M. are his personal tweets. The rest was by his staff)
- The comparison between the two was inevitable
- Considering how out of the Lebanese mainstream Twitter is, it is odd that the PMs didn’t chose another medium like Facebook, which has a very high penetration among the Lebanese population
- All the tweets were in English (naturally), peppered with a tiny bit of Arabic
- Mr. Hariri did not take part of the Mikati-Fletcher discussion
In any case, this was all a breath of fresh air, at least for those of us who use Twitter. The real question is: What do these politicians (who have wide access to local and international media) achieve by interacting with us online. Is this a publicity gambit, or do they really want our feedback?
Twitter
Facebook
RSS
I would say rallying their suppporters and counting their votes. But that’s also from the top of my head, so here could be other motives.
I for one could not believe my eyes when Hariri made a written promise (even if just on twitter and to a random fan) not to Vote for Berry in the next elections!
Oh well maybe third election will be a charm after all.
Good, you reminded me to take a screenshot of that. It’s now on my own server and I encourage all of you to download it and keep a copy of it..
Not voting for Berri again is a good enough reason for me to vote M14 and forgive them about all their mistakes.I cant help imagining M14 electing Okab Sakr or Ghazi Youssef as speaker while Berri is attending. That’s gonna be awesome!!
But hey, that is IFFFFF they win.
M8 will make sure to draft an election law that will give them a majority.
Sorry Wael, but M8 by itself can never have a majority. The current majority is an alliance between M8-Aoun-Mikati-Jumblatt-Suleiman. Mikati, Jumblatt and Suleiman (who i remind you is our president until 2015) can hardly be said to be part of M8. they are now in a tactical alliance with M8 and Aoun until things become clearer in Syria (call it a mut’a marriage
). M14 = LF, Kataeb and Saad Hariri, there is no such thing called M14 anymore. No one can predict what things will look like in 2013 now, so many things can happen in one year (e.g. 2011) let alone in two. everything can and will change. what is constant is that each of the above are now powerful forces and the Hariri bloc’s monopoly on sunni representation has been broken (which is good for democracy if you ask me). any future government will be a combination of at least three of those above standalone forces (sunni, christian, shiite plus jumblatt who will always be in government i dare say). so, assuming all politicians in lebanon have no principles and can ally themselves with any side (hariri i remind you was hezbollah’s ally in 2005 elections), there are limited permutations and they are as follows:
Aoun-Hezb/Amal-Mikati-Jumblatt-Suleiman
Aoun-Hez/Amal-Hariri-Jumblatt-Suleiman
Aoun-Hez/Amal-Hariri/Mikati-Jumblatt-Suleiman
Aoun-Kataeb/LF-Amal/Hezb-Hariri/Mikati-Jumblatt-Suleiman( pre STL government)
Kataeb/LF-no true shiite rep-Hariri-Jumblatt-Suleiman (50+1 formula)
Kataeb/LF-Amal-Hariri-Jumblatt-Suleiman (this involves berri selling hezb)
Kataeb/LF-Aoun-Amal/Hezb-Mikati-Jumblatt-Suleiman (this involves Kataeb selling hariri)
assuming al-taef will not be modified by 2013, the current majority may make some gains (aoun will increase his share), jumblatt will probably consolidate druze representation without defectors like hamadeh and the other dude, and no arslan or wahhab, hariri will lose seats in the north and probably in other provinces, while LF/Kataeb will probably maintain the same numbers. jumblatt is more powerful as kingmaker than as taking sides and this is the lesson he perhaps has learned so he will go with the highest bidder.
I see a bright future for Mikati, and no so bright future for Saad for alienating everyone in the other camp.
What do these politicians (who have wide access to local and international media) achieve by interacting with us online. Is this a publicity gambit, or do they really want our feedback?
Just a wild guess here, but I’m thinking they are concerned with their image rather than getting any tangible results from social media. An hour or two invested and they get to not only seem like they are completely up to date when it comes to online political activism, but they can create the perception that they are regularly online themselves lurking around and paying attention to what all the computer nerds… eh… digital activists… are saying.
Of course, I’ve been working in the computer industry over 20 years now so I’m very cynical about the depths people will sink to when trying to overstate their cyber credentials. Could be they are all on twitter every day and have numerous pseudonyms so that they can track trends anonymously and all that, rather than just reading a weekly report on social media happenings that was prepared by their staff
Guys, the entire Twitter developments among Lebanese PMs is overrated and shows great flaws. Here they are:
1) Twitter.com has been there ever since 2006-2007. Hariri just found about it now. 4-5 years later. He did not use it when he was first elected, or when he was appointed as a PM, or during Lebanon’s most unstable political situations (when such communication was much needed). No. He chose to use it now, 5 years later, and when he was ousted as a PM and even left the country. Pretty too late huh?
2) The majority of the Lebanese online users are ignorant of twitter itself. If you notice the new followers of Saad Hariri, no exaggeration, 90% of them are new twitter accounts (having no display pic and almost no activity at all). this shows you that sadly, the heard about twitter only now, when the Hariri debate took place and was discussed in the media.
I recently heard a Lebanese conversation going like this: “shu 2al el hariri 7ekeh 3al twater?” “shu howweh haydaa?? twaiter? khallina njarrbo”
The same applies to the Lebanese television stations. LBC, NewTV and MTV only had their twitter accounts this year.
3) The funniest thing is Berri’s response : he actually referred to twitter and called it “Hariri’s new hobby”
Note: I once visited Berri with a delegation of youth. He wasted 30 minutes explaining to us how his son tried helplessly to teach him how to use a computer and never succeeded, eventually he gave up on him lol.
4) All that being said, and we all remember how social media was utilized by American politicians in the 2008 elections, and Obama was remembered for being the most tech-savvy and online engaged president ever.
And here in Lebanon, only after an ex-PM spoke on twitter (and it was his first time), did the mainstream realize that there is a online platform that is worth being used
Tech-ignorant politicians and a majorly tech-ignorant society…you can’t expect them to deliver much tangible results
Nader – completely agree.
This is a PR stunt by both men, probably aimed to impress elites and foreigners. The new UK ambassador probably put Mikati up for it, probably as part of a new shtick by the FCO that will eventually fail and hit a dead end. the UK policy in Lebanon is hot air and essentially focuses on counter terrorism, money laundering, and some rubbish meaningless initiatives with the civil society probably designed to make money for some people without achieving anything except some publicity. Nothing about development or investment, you see. In other words, to appear as if doing something, they go online and use a free tool to gain free publicity that would have cost millions otherwise.
As for Hariri, i gave up on the man a long time ago. He had his dry run, and boy it was wet.