SDL/Textor 2001/2006 Campaign Strategies

Loyal Fijian gives you an exclusive insight into the SDL strategies for the 2001 and 2006 elections.

The legacy of these strategies is a divided and fractured country with enormous distrust between communities.

It is a rare look into the way Marks Textor works. As you read the article, the reader will be left in no doubt that the strategies used by the SDL in 2001 and 2006 are straight from the Mark Textor book of WEDGE POLITICS.

Thats is divide the communities, create fear and prey on those fears.

History shows that it has been successful, not only in Fiji but elsewhere. But the question that needs to be asked: Is it worth dividing the country on racial lines for personal gain?

Textor

Textor tells his clients how far it can go before it alienates its key voters, those in marginal seats and others needed to keep the Government in power. He tells them how tough they can be. Most controversial policy moves are first researched by Textor.

Mark Textor is the notorious Canberra by-election push-pollster, the first known user in Australia of this invasive, anonymous and cowardly technique.

He learned the technique in the USA and perfected its use in the 1994 Northern Territory Election when voters were asked whether they knew that Labor planned to introduce two sets of laws, one for blacks and another for whites. ( Ring a bell, remember the SDL TV ads ?)


Wedge Politics

If this reminds you of the 2001 and 2006 elections , its no coincidence. Mr Textor has left his legacy of divisive, race based politics on our country.

Wedge-politics seeks to divide communities. Wedge strategies help political parties stay in power by seeking to highlight fears against the other.

If you are a wedge strategist, you must first gather enough research from such things as focus groups and polls, to find out which issues will divide a community or raise fears against one particular group, then you find out which voters will be swayed by highlighting those differences, and then you push-poll to ensure the fear and rumours proliferate throughout the community.

It is devastatingly simple and effective.

• This is classic wedge-strategies: you pick up the emotional fears in the electorate, what's known as the voter-driver, and you use it to your advantage.


• The aim is to drive a wedge between groups in the community for electoral gain. The leading pollsters tell you, emotions drive votes, not partisanship.


• The more you can press emotional buttons, the more chance you have of winning. The comments used in these reports came out of focus groups of white Territorian voters, lines that have been picked up and used in election campaigns.

SDL's use of Mark Textor has left a legacy of divisive, race based politics on our country.(Editors comments)

Read the full article here.

INDEPENDENT,IMPARTIAL,FACTUAL