The cesspit of Turkish politics
What makes the whole political circus in Turkey appear totally immoral is the manner in which party allegiances can be switched over night by self serving politicians, whose sole purpose is to get into Parliament by any means in order to reap the benefits that comes from being a deputy.
Foreigners who follow political developments in this country are intrigued, astounded, confused and flabbergasted over what they see. They are perfectly justified to do so. We Turks feel much the same, with the added sense of disgust since this is our country?
Just take a look at the lists of candidates for Parliament that was announced a few days ago by the parties that are to run in the general elections. The thing to note first is that these candidates have been selected in a manner that has nothing to do with democracy. Instead the process has everything to do with petty interests, settling of accounts, currying favor over this or that issue, and a host of other ignoble reasons. Not that it has been different in the past. This is the way the system works in Turkey. Put another way, it is the unquestionable prerogative of the party leader and his executives to determine who will be in and who will be out.
This clearly has nothing to do with a system where candidates are either vetted on the basis of merit, or elected in order to reflect the desires of the people they are to represent. It is not our intention here to name a particular party or politician, but to point to a general malaise.
Anomalies
When looked at from this perspective, the first anomaly that strikes one is that the same individuals who are heatedly arguing for the people to elect the president are not prepared to let them elect their candidates for Parliament.
The only choice people have is to vote for, or not vote for, a candidate that was selected by the party leadership on the basis of subjective criteria. What adds to the anomaly this time is that at no time before has there been such a radical change in the lists of candidates.
Put another way, half the deputies that are in the current Parliament will not be in the next one. This inevitably leads to an inter-party group of disgruntled deputies who are aware that they will be out of the next Parliament. So they do not refrain from stooping so low as to forget party allegiances, political propriety and such things and immediately try to prevent the elections that will usher them out.
Some are making a similar attempt again, but it is destined to fail as always. Given this, one wonders why these deputies do it at all. The simple reason is they do it out of vengeful motives, because they know they will be loosing many of the benefits that come from being a deputy.
In the same manner the deputies who were close to the party’s leadership whilst in Parliament – but who are absent from the new list of candidates – immediately start bad-mouthing their leaders and party’s that left them out in the cold.
Shifting allegiances
But what makes the whole political circus in Turkey appear totally immoral is the manner in which party allegiances can be switched over night by self-serving politicians, whose sole purpose is to get into Parliament by any means in order to reap the benefits that come from being a deputy.
Thus a previously avid leftist can easily turn to a right-wing party. Similarly a supposedly determined secularist can be seen on the list of a party that is accused of being fundamentalist. One need not have much imagination to try and understand the crass bargaining that goes behind the scenes in order for a person to get on a leader’s list of candidates in this manner.
Neither does it take much imagination to understand that once a candidate is on the leader’s list, he or she will not represent the will of the people but will merely act as a lackey for the party leadership in order to serve his or her own interests.
“Why do decent people whose only interest is to serve the public not prefer politics in Turkey?” Given the overall picture, the answer to this often asked question comes naturally.