The date is 1977... The place, a hotel room in Istanbul. Its name was ‘Güneş’, but the shadow it cast over Turkish politics has still not passed. When 11 MPs switched sides overnight and took ministerial seats, the elegant concept of political ethics was dealt its first heavy blow. That day “Güneş Motel” was the name of a scandal; today that scandal has become the “corporate identity” of politics.
Can't you find a name for today's mayoral changes and party hopping? I'll tell you: “Bankruptcy of Morality, Specialization of Interests!”
Yesterday, those who sat at the table for a ministerial seat have been replaced by those looking for “armor” to cover up their “money laundering”, to patch holes in the municipal budget and to get rid of political pressure below the belt. Today's “Sun Motels” are no longer hidden; they are marketed in big halls, accompanied by applause, and called “the love of service”. The will of the voters is scrapped along with the signboard of a municipality building.
And do you know the most painful part of this theater?
The bill for all these dirty bargains, these unprincipled swings, and the corruption that makes us say “the one who comes is better than the one who goes” is being billed to a name that has devoted his life to the struggle for honesty and human dignity: Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
In this wolves“ table of politics, a man who pounded his hand on the table and said ”kul hakkı“ and tried to unite the fault lines of the society by saying ”halalleşme“, has now been declared a ”ready criminal". Everyone, including CHP voters, is carrying wood for this smear campaign as it suits them. The bill for a possible election loss is already sealed and the address is clear: Mr. Kemal!
Why? Because defaming honesty is the quickest way to whitewash one's own pollution. Discrediting Kılıçdaroğlu and his companions opens space for the “bargaining” politics of today. Those who do not bother to convince nationalist-conservative voters, those who protect their seats with “backdoor diplomacy” instead of gaining the trust of the public, smear that clean stance to cover their own incompetence.
Is this a rematch of the Sun Motel? No, this is not a rematch; this is the poisonous seed that was sown that day and today it has enveloped politics like a giant plane tree. Yesterday 11 deputies changed hands, today honor is changing hands.
Those who label honesty as “failure” in this darkness of politics should know that one day, when that “Sun” rises again, they will not even find a hotel room to hide under.
Because history remembers those who pay the price for their honor, not those who bend for a seat!