WITH Latvian TV shows currently dominated by mind-bendingly banal …With the Stars shows (as well as Singing With the Stars and Dancing With the Stars there is the uniquely Latvian Rallying With the Stars), the political debate-cum-chat-show What’s Happening In Latvia? stands out as an almost unique example of TV performing a real public service.Chaired skilfully by journalist’s journalist Janis Domburs, it’s good because it’s simple, old-fashioned interviewing - sitting politicians down and asking them unprepared questions, then challenging them to commit to policy positions instead of just speaking in generalisations. Domburs is never rude per se, but he has no problem with letting his guests - and the audience - know when they aren’t being candid or are just being plain daft. The show is a Wednesday evening institution for the intelligentsia and politicos and if any single media outlet can be said to have a direct influence on policy, this is it.

Without question, this TV show performs a much better role in holding politicians accountable for their actions than any state institution. Ministers resign after performing badly on What’s Happening In Latvia?

There have been several classic shows recently. You could almost see then-Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks’ soul shrivelling as he tried to defend the attempted sacking of KNAB boss Aleksejs Loskutovs. It was clear that Pabriks was wrestling with his conscience but that he had been sent onto the show by the government in an attempt to tie him closer to the ruling coalition. To his credit, Pabriks quit the day after he appeared on What’s Happening In Latvia? The tragedy is that he didn’t resign before he made his half-hearted attempt to defend the indefensible.

Then there was Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis’ one-man-stand. At the height of the clamour for him to quit, Kalvitis decided to play for high stakes and was the sole guest (usually there are numerous participants in the studio) for a two-hour grilling by Domburs. It could have finished him off, but Kalvitis did not wilt under the pressure and put up a decent defence.

It was enough to buy him valuable extra time to allow him to leave “at a time of his own choosing” to use Georgy Bush’s favourite phrase.

Last night’s edition wasn’t quite such a classic, but it made compelling viewing nonetheless. Representatives of all parties were present and most managed to look pretty ordinary. Well, actually they looked completely inept, in particular the totally discredited but still popular Greens and Lembergs’ Farmer’s Union.

The one exception was Nils Usakovs of the Harmony Centre. The name of his mainly ethnically Russian party may sound like a sub-Hare Krishna sect, but he is young, presentable and… well, normal. He spoke reasonably and without bluster. He was articulate and didn’t try to score points off the other participants. The dismissive, patronising attitude of the others to him made him seem somewhat dignified. Clearly, he is not to be trusted. There is something very suspicious about someone so normal.
Being normal is all it takes in the wacky world of Latvian politics to stand out from the crowd. But the best moment of all came when Domburs posed a question that surely the government participants should have seen coming. “What can you do to win back public trust?” Domburs asked. Silence… silence… still silence. Some awkward coughing. Only then did the pat answers arrive, by which time the damage had already been done.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Latvia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.