Shal­iza Has­sanali

Sat Ma­haraj feels the mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy of Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment is be­ing run like the tele­vi­sion tal­ent se­ries, Mas­tana Ba­har.Ma­haraj, the gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha (SDMS), was giv­ing his views about the Gov­ern­ment's abil­i­ty to un­der­stand and use the me­dia, which he said need­ed to be re­vamped.

Speak­ing at the 2013 Pri­ma­ry School Chow­tal Sam­me­lan com­pe­ti­tion at the Tu­na­puna Hin­du School yes­ter­day, Ma­haraj said while Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Min­is­ter Ja­mal Mo­hammed "is a good boy, the Gov­ern­ment is not Mas­tana Ba­har. You have to sell the Gov­ern­ment to the peo­ple. He (Mo­hammed) is not do­ing that."Ma­haraj said this Gov­ern­ment be­lieved that be­ing in­vit­ed to cock­tail par­ties and chit-chat­ting was the way to go."That is not it. They don't un­der­stand the me­dia."

In the last 34 months, Ma­haraj said, much had been ac­com­plished by the Gov­ern­ment, yet they were not sell­ing them­selves.He said the dis­cus­sion point of the PP was about what they have not achieved."I think this is where they are floun­der­ing. But they are do­ing a damn good job."Ma­haraj said every day the PNM was at­tack­ing the PP.

"It is the on­ly thing the Op­po­si­tion has to do t desta­bilise the Gov­ern­ment and de­rail them. That is their job. It's the Gov­ern­ment's job to en­sure they are not de­railed, yet they don't have the ca­pac­i­ty to an­swer back."They have not yet cat­e­gorised their achieve­ments. They are be­ing dis­tract­ed. They are an­swer­ing, rather than be as­sertive."Ma­haraj al­so called on Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj to give up his po­lit­i­cal boots and join the SDMS."We would em­brace him with open arms," he said.