BASHING POLLSTERS WON`T CHANGE PUBLIC OPINION.

Poll opinions, especially in the form of pre-election polling are standard tools for politicians as well as numerous organizations and business firms concerned with mass public opinion. This is how we ought to understand them. Indeed, this is how poll opinions are understood the world over. But the same cannot be said of Kenya. Here, some politicians will almost always challenge the appropriateness as well as the validity of opinion polls, whenever such findings are not boding well with their political desires. They would accuse professional pollsters of having a tendency of the casual mind which, stumbling upon a sample which supports or defines their (pollsters`) prejudices; they would not hesitate to make it a representative of a whole population.

Yet if the same politicians were to be told that they were leading in the court of public opinion they would celebrate and hail it (poll) as a barometer of the 2012 general elections. At no time would they declare that the findings a diversionary tactic nor would they pour cold water on the pollsters.

Politicians must be advised that pollsters only tell the public which way the cat is jumping. It is upon politicians themselves to take care of the cat. Put in a different way, it is the work of politicians to sway public opinion in their own favor. They should therefore start by asking why polls seem unfavorable to them. This should then be followed by clear strategies that would see them try to reclaim the lost ground. Unless, of course, they are not equal to the challenge, and they have therefore resigned to letting public-opinion poll be a substitute for thought.

However, in the event that these politicians have qualms with the poll findings then the prudent thing for them to do is to engage other polling experts to carry out a similar exercise. It is doubtable whether shouting themselves hoarse in the public will help. In my opinion it will only portray them as people who do not espouse the fundamentals of scientific methodology which by and large, is anchored in logical reasoning and empirical objectivity.

I wish to remind them that unlike the Latinos, who can shout “De gustibus non est disputandum” meaning that opinions about matters of taste are not objectively right or wrong, and hence disagreements about matters of taste cannot be objectively resolved, scientific research, in the strictest sense of the phrase, goes beyond men of mere speculation. It has fundamental laws that must be followed to the letter.

TOME FRANCIS,
BUMULA.
http://twitter.com/tomefrancis