HN: Senator Okamura is Facebook age populist

?TK |

23 November 2012

Prague, Nov 22 (CTK) - Tomio Okamura, fresh senator and candidate for Czech president, is a populist of the new Facebook age, willing to fall as deep as needed and still seemingly be a successful businessman who can understand ordinary people, Jindrich Sidlo writes in Hospodarske noviny (HN) daily Thursday.

Okamura, a 40-year-old tourism businessman, joined the presidential contest after being elected an unaffiliated senator in October.

It has been clear for a long time that somebody like Okamura will appear on the Czech political scene, Sidlo says.

Far-right populist leader Miroslav Sladek and his Republican Party disappeared from politics nearly 15 years ago and his successors from the Workers' Party did not even succeed in becoming members of the regional council in the radical northern Bohemia with their primitive aggressive rhetorics, he adds.

"The attractive position is still vacant," Sidlo points out.

Okamura may even seriously influence the direct presidential election - either its outcome when he may win over voters of leftist candidates Milos Zeman (Party of Citizens' Rights, SPOZ) and Jiri Dienstbier (Social Democrats, CSSD), or by filing a complaint if it turns out that the more than 50,000 signatures supporting his candidacy were not only gathered very quickly but also in special magical ways, Sidlo writes.

In connection with a text praising the idea of communism that Okamura posted on his blog on Tuesday, Sidlo says Okamura may have problems with spelling, keeping to the point and being consistent in his opinions, yet he has perfectly mastered one fundamental part of politics - marketing.

Okamura is happy when somebody starts arguing with him, for example CSSD leader Bohuslav Sobotka, but there is no sense in trying to argue because it is like arguing with an eight-year-old kid, Sidlo writes.

Okamura is very grateful if people curse him because this only helps him on his way to become the king of the Czech political populism, Sidlo indicates.

This time Okamura wrote about communism, next time he will write about something else, whatever it may be, for example about Romanies who should be moved to their own state, Sidlo says, referring to previous controversial statements by Okamura.

If anybody labels Okamura a racist in relation to his views on Romanies, he will object that he himself is of Japanese origin, Sidlo writes.

"Political populists freely moving from the right to the left extreme bear no responsibility for their words: they talk nonsense and wait who gets caught," Sidlo says.

He adds that the populist business is based on permanently raising attention, which Okamura seems to be good at.

Jana Bobosikova must be jealous of him, Sidlo writes, referring to another presidential candidate and chairwoman of Sovereignty, a small populist party.

He says defence against Okamurism is not easy and there actually seems to be no effective defence against it.

It is clear, however, that Okamura himself has been in full control of his career so far, Sidlo notes.

It is Okamura who chooses the topics and he decides due to which he may be ridiculed. If people believe that they may unmask Okamura in a battle where Okamura himself chooses the weapons, they are mistaken, Sidlo writes.

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Source: http://praguemonitor.com/2012/11/23/hn-senator-okamura-facebook-age-populist

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