KZBlog

As Adam Kesher at Neweurasia[ru] (English translation here points out, Masimov’s blog is the hottest topic in the Kazakhstan blogosphere. I’ve written about this here Karim Massimov: Prime Minister, Blogger and here More Blogs on the Way?.

One big complaint is that Massimov’s blog doesn’t appear to be personal. In fact most entries are videos of him giving speeches and making presentations. A few Kazakhstan bloggers have even complained that they don’t believe that it really is Masimov writing on the blog. Commentators note that blogs are meant to be a form of two-way communication between the writer and the audience, with the blogger showing his/her personality through the blog.

However, one has to ask oneself, do we really expect the Prime Minister of a nation to write a personal blog? It would be fascinating of course to hear the inner-workings of the mind of a person in power, but as I satirically noted in my first post on this subject, such personal notes would either be incredibly boring, “You know what I really like? The color blue. It’s such a pretty color.” Or dangerous to National Security. The PM cannot reveal state secrets and he cannot post personal comments on other members of the government, lest he diminish public confidence in his colleagues or interfere with their own projects and programs. If I was the Minister of Education working on a new scholarship, for example, the last thing I would want to worry about was whether the PM was planning to blog about it before I was ready to announce it. Because the instant it went up on the PM’s blog, the Ministry would get a thousand emails and phone calls and then a thousand complaints if the infrastructure wasn’t already in place to handle those emails and calls.

One revealing example of the effect that blogging can have is the President George H. W. Bush broccoli affair. President Bush responded to a question from the press by saying that he did not like broccoli. The broccoli industry went into a small panic, afraid that the Head of State’s announcement might affect sales and sent the White House 10 tons of the vegetable. While it sounds trivial, statements by important politicians have unintended repercussions. Writing a blog increases the opportunities for similar controversies.

Nor is it useful for citizens of a country to hear everything that goes on in the minds of its leaders. Sometimes leaders’ initial ideas are not good, but a good idea comes after contemplation, consultation with advisors, and trial-and-error. For example, with the current financial crisis I would imagine that the government is drafting all sorts of programs. I would hope that the government has a contingency plan in case all the commerical banks collapse or in case oil prices fall to $1 per barrel. But publishing those plans, or even referring to them could cause widespread panic. Many would think that having a plan in place means that these events are likely or that the PM wants banks to collapse when in fact such emergency plans exist to ensure that chaos does not ensue in the unlikely event of a huge disaster. We cannot expect the PM to be held accountable for every idea that crosses his mind, just as we would not want our every thought to be public.

Also, while politicians blogging is a new field, mainly due to concerns about national security, corporations blogging is a well-established trend. We would expect politicians’ blogs to be more like corporate blogs in so far as both politicians and corporations represent larger entities, both are concerned about publicity and public confidence, and both have to balance secrets with the public’s right to know. We should not be surprised that corporate blogs are primarily marketing tools trying to cash in on a trend of popular, roots-based publicity. So why are we surprised that politicians are trying to do the same thing? The chairman of Coca-cola would not write on his blog, “Wow! The new formula for Coke tastes horrible. Pepsi is so much better!” We cannot therefore expect the PM to write openly about his own failures. It is his own blog. He will use it for his own benefit. This is perfectly normal.

Finally, one hopes that the PM is too busy to be personally blogging or thinking about what he will blog on and when he will blog next. We shouldn’t be surprised if he hands over blog writing and responding to comments to someone else, just as I assume that he doesn’t read every letter written to him, let alone respond to them personally. I am sure Masimov has a staff that reads the comments on the blog and presents a summary of the overall complaints, problems and suggestions for him to consider. Blogging here takes up a few hours of every day, checking news sources, thinking of topics, reading and responding to comments, playing with the template. The PM doesn’t have a few extra hours a day.

Having said that, it would be wonderful if political blogs became tools for measuring the popularity of new ideas, getting feedback on controversial topics, and receiving complaints. At the local level it is very feasible. I see no reason why the mayor of a small town or the akim of a rayon couldn’t keep up-to-date with his/her constituency. And at that level secrets and plans have less significance. Furthermore, some Kazakhstan bloggers have noted that it is a bit silly for the PM of the nation to be worrying about the service at the Astana Public Baths just because he got a comment on his blog. Such complaints are more appropriate for local level politicians to address.

So those are a few of my thoughts, which might be a bit cynical. As Chris Merriman noted in a comment here,

Politicians blogging, even when ghost writers are used, are opening up a whole new (potentially two-way) communication method to improve life for their constituents. However, I feel that in both Britain and Kazakhstan, business and personal profit will always trump such innovations from achieving anything like their maximum potential.

What do you, dear readers, think about politicians blogging?