Having already watched ten days of administration, political moves and commentary by the mass media on the new Papandreou government, we can sketch out based on behavior not only what the government wants to get across to the People (communicational policy) but also what it actually wants to do beyond the announcements and the posing for the cameras (actual policy).
Beginning on the communicational policy, in order to analyze it we must see what is being projected in the mass media and how the behavior of the ministers and the decisions/ announcements of the government are being commented on. That which we see taking place is all the actions revolving around the following ideas/ impressions that the Papandreou government wants to establish:
1. “the government is active/ busy”
2. “the government is serious”
3. “the government is for the People”
4. “the government is clean- untouchable”
5. “the government is supported by scientists”
We can easily ascertain as much from the statements of the ministers, their appearances and their announcements: from ministers like Birbilis who is presented as a ‘serious, substantial person’ (because she didn’t appear to be wearing formal clothes) to Batzelis (because she presented herself as a stern and intolerant staff supervisor), all those making up the new government display a profile of freshness and new-found contact with the political environment, that is a kind of Cinderella story, where simple private citizens/ small time politicians they suddenly found themselves at the highest offices of the State (and thus cannot yet be corrupt).
Of course this is quite false, twisting of reality. A simple research of a few minutes on these people reveals that they are all parts of the exact same circuit, families and professional/ political environments as the previous politicians that sacked and robbed the country. That is, in the CVs uploaded alone one can see that those presenting themselves as new and untouched have already been cooperating for years (in legal offices, multinational corporations, banks, international organizations, universities, state organizations/ agencies, etc) not only with PASOK executives but also those of New Democracy, with governments of New Democracy and activities that touch upon or are involved with scandals by New Demoncracy and/or PASOK.
Beyond the professional or familial connections and relationships with the big capital holders of monopoly supremacy in Greece and elsewhere (e.g. Evangelos Venizelos), all the cabinet members have been high in the PASOK chain of command and very active (i.e. battling for the party) from their student years or at the latest their university years (e.g. Mariliza Ksenogiannakopoulou). All without exception have served in the former PASOK administrations as executives or advisors in positions of the public sector, central government and/or propaganda (e.g. Fofi Gennimata). Many of the seemingly ‘young’ politicians come from ISTAME (Institute of Strategic and Developmental Studies Andreas Papandreou) (e.g. Katerina Batzelis) or have served at international positions supporting policies that literally blew out of the water the Greek economy and/or the social structure (e.g. the Euro, OECD, CBE) (e.g. Luka Katseli).
We see therefore that a wholly orchestrated communicational policy of twisting the truth has been unleash ten days now, trying, based on the fact that these surnames are mostly unknown to the Greek People (but not to the governmental/ industrial and cosmopolitan circles), to serve as ‘proof’ that these people are young to the political scene while in all actuality they are just as incorporated and just as compromised as the more well known ones of the group.
Also, a successive activity on an administrative level is being projected, fact which normally would be positive and a guarantee. However, the actions being taken, the decisions that are being made or applied and the steps taken show us that they again try to cheat the people through impressions and not show or base themselves on the truth: the idleness and slowness that K. Karamanlis meticulously cultivated daily, gave People as was expected a thirst for action to the point that (just like the unknown name) there is a chance that just the existence of action alone can be considered proof of positivism/benevolence of the new government. As we will see in the coming article regarding the cooperation between PASOK-N.Democracy-Other Political Parties, it is not just the sector of quick or slow action that K. Karamanlis paved the way for the Papandreou government.
But, the much and successive action alone cannot be a point on which to base any kind of evaluation, good or bad: a machine gun operator that can fell (due to skill) several victims per second is just as successive action as that of a surgeon who can keep alive several people at the same time until help comes (if he/she is skilled and in an emergency situation).
Therefore in order to see whether ‘fast and systematic’ is good, we will need to see what it is that is happening fast and systematically. The fast decision to take loans, invest to reconstruct or refurbish equipment and support already existing, the fast tax imposition/ maintenance of tax-sapping policy or the fast submission to foreign interests or a quick assurance that this will take place cannot be something that will please or calm the Citizens.
Of course, communicationally all the measures through the mass media are taken so that yet one cannot easily discern the discontent or mistrust or rehashing or rage in the People, with commentaries mentioning how ‘happy’ they are with their ‘choice’ (despite that even the mass media mentioned on the day of the elections that the real number of votes for PASOK did not increase), and present irrational policies in a positive manner, such us, for example, the leasing of hybrid cars (i.e. their leasing will be costing monthly at least as much as the gas for the existing cars, and the number and expenses of these cars can easily be geometrically be increased) to replace the existing super-luxury ones along with all the others. Except that the projected ‘small’ number of cars that has already been announced is very flexible, it has not yet been announced what will happen to the luxury limousines and the rest of the public service cars that they will be replacing. Nor has the funding that will be invested in this project been announced or why this is to the interest of the Citizens during such a time of poverty.
In future articles we will fully analyze the issue of the so called green development where the above example and the issue of the economic policy-loan taking is included, as well as the issue of security (in all the social sectors), from which comes the next example of communicational policy compared to essential one:
The deployment of patrols on motorbikes of police in Exarhia (besides units on foot) communicationally shows an enhanced presence of the police. But a strong presence, exactly like the element of fastness / action alone says nothing to the one who wants to make a correct estimation. It is the actions of the strong presence that will colour it for us so that we will be able to procure the estimation.
The police officer is not a soldier or special forces. He/she is a very lightly armed and fully trained in interpersonal relationships with Citizens defender of order, in Democratic regimes, of course. Also, he/she is very careful not to attract attention of Citizens and respond immediately when called to their protection. The policemen of Exarhia are armed to the teeth, the policemen on foot often resemble army occupation forces while their presence is especially strong, almost theatrical and in essence harmless for true enemies of order and not just upset Citizens:
The command that deployed them has perfectly staged the ‘extreme circumstances’ state of affairs via the annihilation of an entire unit of policemen on foot or on motorbike by attackers of the type of ’17 November’ (= a notorious terrorist group) or however else are such provocateurs named (we will analyze the nature of the state of heavy policing in future articles), shooting where there is no bulletproof vest to protect (places where a fatal wound can be caused such as under the arm towards the back, at the base of the skull/ nape of the neck, at the head when no helmet is worn, at the inguinal region, at the base of the spine for those sitting on a bike seat, etc, that is, anywhere where a human with common sense and ten minutes to think can guess an attack will have impact) and especially since they are either completely still or walk/ drive in large groups of very slow speed (slower than a pedestrian, as if in a procession) through narrow streets with minimal to no capacity for maneuvering/ cover (the very high blocks of flats full of windows and balconies on either side of the streets make anyone on the street an easy target). They are ready victims and a source of danger for the Citizens.
Especially in the case of the large groups of policemen (10-15 people on motorbikes, often with each motorbike carrying two) not even an armed attack is necessary with the above parameters: just oil on the street, a smoke grenade, a Molotov bomb or anything that can be ejected with force from the windows/ balconies (e.g. a flower pot or several), etc, is enough to cause a series of victims after an embarrassing reaction of confusion.
The direct/ special reason we mention some of the possible attacks against such vulnerable conglomerations of uniformed men is in an effort to have them pulled before anything grim happens, and instead station those who know how to guard people as they have already served as bodyguards to all the known politicians, pensioner politicians, businessmen and others who demand such handling without reason on the People’s money.
The general reason we discuss the whole subject of ‘policing’ the Exarhia is to show how the communicational policy is fed and how dangerous it can be for all the Citizens, not only on the chance of actual attacks but on the exploitation of such attacks afterwards to communicate justification of further limitation of the freedoms of the Citizen and breaching of Human Rights in the name of security.
In essence, nothing has chanced in the State policy: taxation remains the same, loan-taking remains the same, the prospect of increasing both remains the same ( we will analyze further in depth how this is consoled with the communicational policy of transparency and ‘open governing’), nepotism and client relationships remain the same and the backtracking to traitorous foreign/ internal policy also remains the same.
But it has only been ten days since the election of the government: the worse things, the base of which have been deeply installed already, are coming with increasing speed.
So what are the new ‘active’ ministers pressing for? The answer is easy since the policy being followed is exactly the same as that of the PASOK of 1980s and Simitis (in the administrations of which most current ministers partook, unbeknownst to the People). When Luka Katselis asked me, during the stage of designing methodologies for the study/ research of repatriating Hellenes for the European research “Expatriation-Repatriation” of which she was nationally in charge, to suggest special programs to immediately apply and have them funded by the then Andreas Papandreou government, I explained to her that in order to choose or create a programme that will yield results and help the recipient Greeks, we needed to first study the particular population and document their needs and special parameters. That way we would not act blindly and end up destroying lives, hurting the Nation as well in the process. She forbade this with the following justification: “we need to show the people something now, we cannot wait. It is ok to experiment”.
Then, the report was to be on the education of the children of repatriating Greeks and to stop the wasting of huge funds already being invested in theory without the existence of a substantial application and with the abuse/ contempt of groups of Citizens entitled to these services in order to be properly reabsorbed in the country, while this money went to client relationships.
This is also what is happening now, as everyone has seen (even a little bit) governments from within and has lived through the results of their tactics can understand from the successive announcements which are so identical to the old ones.