There is an established perception in Turkish politics today:
In politics, you can't get anywhere, you can't achieve anything without having someone to lean on. As the folk song goes, “If you don't have an uncle in Ankara...” the rest is obvious.
In the past, there was a generation that took part in intense and militant struggles, some consciously, some as sympathizers. The heavy prices paid in the ranks of the struggle for labor and independence for a better world, for which they were tortured, spent years in prisons, and entered at a young age... And the lives lost...
Everyone has an experience of that period.
After that oppressive process, some of those who had stayed away from politics and felt that they had been left without a voice withdrew completely from the political arena. After September 12, 1980, political parties reopened in line with their own worldviews. This development led people with a leftist and social democratic worldview and those who had paid the price of the past to these parties.
The consciousness of “comradeship” and “communal life” experienced during that period was handled in line with historical values and the policies of the political parties were shaped with this consciousness. Starting from the local level, the management cadres and the policies produced yielded results one by one; a leftist and social democratic understanding of governance emerged. Populist municipalities became a household word.
Those who were members of that political party embraced and defended all the work done with a pure and clean feeling. Especially if their children were employed, it was a joy...
However, over time, the greed for seats, the political power that comes with office, the reputation and money, and the past was suddenly forgotten (though not for everyone). Enrichment entered the heart of politics. In order to stay in those seats for another term, those who were comrades yesterday began to fall out with each other. They parted ways for their own self-interest.
While this was happening at the bottom, at the top, the management cadres of the parties kept pace with this change. Each politics created its own contractors, its own supporters. Even going further, friendships were formed from different political views and parties. According to the tender methods, they added to their earnings to the extent they could.
Then, coordinated politics emerged.
This developing reality has become so entrenched in politics that they have come to direct, intervene and determine who will be on the boards to be formed. So much so that even the elections of the district chairman, board of directors, district delegates and neighborhood representatives were determined by looking at the eyes of those who hold “that” power.
The purpose of this was clear: to make sure that no “stones” are left in the way of the mayor and councilor elections and that the road is cleared in advance.
Especially if a mayor has won a second term; calculating that he can play an active role in the party's upper boards (provincial presidency and headquarters), he started to use all the methods adapted by them politically. Quotas and appointment powers were put into effect.
Preliminary elections, which are included in the Law on Political Parties, party bylaws and regulations, have become areas where those who try to preserve the values of the past and the party compete against each other. Even though the primary elections were held before a judge, lists of council members were formed from names close to themselves through list impositions.
So, how “political” and how “on behalf of the people” can a municipal council composed of elected and appointed officials be?
While elected officials, coming from politics, had to follow all the work carefully, meticulously and without prejudice to the beytülülm, in time they came under the domination of appointed officials. In the name of “working in harmony” within the command and control mechanism, they were stripped of all their values.
Since the administration and management in the municipalities are made up of appointees, the elected people have become subservient to their imposed demands and requests on almost every issue. This is because it has now become clear that the path to some political gains lies through the two lips and the tip of the pen of the appointees.
“The ”three for me and one for you" mentality has opened up areas of action.
On every issue, elected officials waited for hours at the doors of appointed officials to convey the demands and requests of their constituents. They could barely reach them with appointments.
Over time, the elected ones, in order not to contradict the current appointees and to be able to solve all kinds of affairs, have fallen into the calculation of becoming a councillor again in order to save the next term. Ignoring the values they defended yesterday and the prices paid in the past:
“They started saying, ”Our elders know best.".
So to speak, the elected have become the millstone for the appointed.
And the result?
If they were to use their political power and the places they come from by doing justice to the power they have received from the segments of society they address, and if they were to honestly and honorably exercise the powers given to them by the laws and regulations, that domination would crumble to the ground.
The people's chosen ones sit in the seats where the appointed ones sit. Honest governance will prevail. Every service procurement, every tender, every work is in accordance with laws and regulations.
There will be no suspicion,
What a suspicion,
Nor the crazy questions in people's minds...
As long as:
Remember where you came from,
Don't forget the halal votes,
And don't forget that politics has a memory...
Guest Author: Murat Adigüzel