“Open the gates, let's go to the top” with the will expressed in the word “rise up” points to the same goal: coming to power. To rise up means to stop standing still, to abandon passivity and to put forward a real claim to govern the country. Today, it must be clearly stated that if the Republican People's Party wants to rise to power, it must first face itself.
The Republican People's Party is the product of a democratic and revolutionary tradition. However, it looks like a party that is moving further away from this tradition with each passing day. If the CHP wants to be in power, it must first return to its factory settings; it must abandon the understandings that are detached from its essence, the top-down management style and narrow cadre politics. Democracy does not come through rhetoric, but through bylaws and practice. The democratic charter should be implemented in life, not on paper.
Primary elections are not a favor, but the minimum requirement of democracy. Unless the CHP takes primary elections as a basis everywhere and under all circumstances, it cannot get rid of the understanding that ignores the members and disables the organization. A party that fears the will of the members can never establish the power of the people. One cannot come to power with candidates determined by appointment politics, desk-based lists and narrow cliques.
The Republican People's Party has to make peace and fuse with all segments of the public. An understanding that turns a deaf ear to the voices of trade unions, labor organizations and non-governmental organizations and remembers the square only from election to election cannot be a social democrat. A party that does not hear the real problems of laborers, peasants, unemployed, pensioners, youth and women cannot be the hope of the people.
If the Republican People's Party wants to keep the Republic alive forever, it must unite all citizens of the Republic of Turkey under the same roof on the basis of equal citizenship without discriminating between religion, language, race or sect. Against those who play politics on the basis of identities, a line that unites the people, not divides them, must be resolutely defended. The Republic is the common value of 85 million people, not of a few.
If the Republican People's Party wants to come to power, it must cease to be the party of a handful of elected officials, a few deputies and a narrow cadre of administrators. CHP is also the party of its members, its volunteers, those who voted for it and those who have never voted for it. A CHP disconnected from the people cannot stand strong against the palace.
Politics should be on the side of the people, not on the side of capital. Neither social justice nor power can be achieved with an understanding that does not take a clear stance against the rent system and protects the interests of a handful of capital groups. This country cannot be governed by rulers who do not stand side by side with the poor, who do not know the plight of pensioners who go to the market, who do not look at the tables of those who live on the minimum wage.
The CHP must walk the path not with rent-seekers, but with those who live off the sweat of their brow, those who struggle against poverty, and young people whose hope has been eroded. The management cadres should be made up of people who come from the struggle, not showcase names detached from the people.
In short, unless the democratic, populist and revolutionary transformation expressed here is realized, dreams will remain dreams. The CHP will either really take off or it will be doomed to stand still.
History writes about the brave, not the procrastinators.
Mazlum Kutlu