Prime Minister displays common touch for ‘reality’ TV feature

Get ready to see the prime ministerial elbow grease in action. Once Lawrence Gonzi is freed of the House's debates on his embattled home affairs minister and Richard Cachia Caruana, the prime minister will be entertaining one lucky contestant to a day shadowing him as he leads the nation.

With its total immersion into the world of social media, the Nationalist Party is making its mark in the digital arena with the largest 'crowdsourcing' effort seen so far in Maltese politics.

Critics of the politically gimmicky will find the PN's 'Prime Minister for a day' to be just another Americanisation of politics: think reality shows like The Apprentice (where aspirant capitalists worship at the altar of Sir Alan Sugar) or American Candidate.

But in this talent show, the protagonist is Lawrence Gonzi, and while the competition winner will enjoy seeing the prime minister in action, it is Gonzi who is being given the human touch with a Net TV television feature portraying the prime minister as he grapples with his daily business and other political minutiae.

As part of its social media outreach, pmforaday.com will allow the PN to "take politics out of the mainframe" - as secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier put it on Tuesday's press launch - and take it into the digital arena.

Applicants must propose an innovative idea to the prime minister. The judges - Chris Peregin from The Times, di-ve.com editor Chris Sultana, and Xarabank's Norman Vella - will shortlist the top three and select a winner.

In this outreach campaign the PN is gaining an insight into the minds of a wired demographic: young digital natives and internet-savvy inhabitants who find politics boring and who consume the news from Facebook.

It is yet to be seen which idea captures the minds of the judges' panel. Paul Borg Olivier says the idea itself will not necessarily be committed to. "It must be doable," Borg Olivier said, which raises a modicum of doubt of how 'implementable' a policy idea shared on the internet can be. "If somebody suggests reducing utility rates, they must understand the consequences of sustainability of such a decision." (Read: you won't meet Gonzi with this dumb idea.)

So is it really the lucky contestant the heart of this 'political reality', or the Prime Minister?

"We're telling people that politics is about 'you'. Our web conference with the Prime Minister attracted around 1,000 participants, with a maximum of 650 at one given moment... we want the participants to be the protagonists in politics," Borg Olivier said.

There is a serious case for proper documentary film that focuses on the Prime Minister's daily chores. But it's a fine line between reality and entertainment. Should we be seeing Lawrence Gonzi in action - for real - away from the manipulative television bulletins... or seeing him entertain a 'contestant' who mediates this experience for us?

This Net TV spectacular is scheduled for the 19 June, while the contestant will be live-tweeting his experience (from the iPad 3 that is up for grabs by winning) with Lawrence Gonzi on 15 June. Hopefully by then, much of the prime minister's parliamentary headaches will be over.