The raison d'être of the state is to provide welfare and security for its people and to ensure that they lead a safe and healthy life.
Apart from that, all the sanctities and excessive meanings attributed to the state are merely an attempt to conceal the obvious flaws of states that are unable to fulfill even these basic and simple duties.
So, if you ask me what such a state should have, I will codify it as ‘nobility’.
There will be some of you who will say it's not JUSTICE. It is not, it includes that too.
No, of course it's not a feudal nobility we're talking about, it's an acronym.
You can also call it a coding based on the acrostic technique, which I didn't even try when I was trying to scribble poetry in my youth.
‘Let's define 'nobility' as follows:
Adalet
SAging
ASayish
Liyakat
EEducation
Teftiş
What a state that does not burden the people, but takes the burden off the backs of the people - in other words, a state that fulfills its raison d'être - should provide is actually that simple.
Justice First.
First and foremost, the state is obliged to ensure justice. Because where there is no justice, first the state decays, then society. Justice is the salt of the state. It is justice that will prevent stinking and the worms that eat the system from within.
And not just justice in court. It is justice in income, justice in education, justice in opportunity.
Then Health.
There cannot be a state that is incapable of providing the right to a healthy life to its people.
If the basis of all rights is the right to life, living that life in a healthy way, a state where access to health services is not a problem, a state that emphasizes not only curative health but also preventive health, a state that fully fulfills these conditions, which are actually its constitutional duties, from food safety to living in a healthy environment.
It's a no-go, Asayish.
In a society where public order cannot be established, none of the other conditions can be met. In an order where the streets are surrendered to gangs and people's security of life and property cannot be ensured, it means that the primary duty of the state is not being fulfilled.
If people seek help not from the state but from powerful and well-remembered ‘big brothers’ when it comes to their safety, if they look for solutions not in the state but in Sedat Peker, there is a weakened state.
Merit is a necessity, not a choice.
It is not a preference but an obligation for those who govern the state to take merit as a basis in the selection of staff. If those who hold the trust of the people get bogged down in the swamp of ‘favoritism’ and ‘nepotism’, if ‘loyalty’ is taken as the basis instead of ‘merit’ in the state, both the sense of justice will be damaged and a state structure that produces problems rather than solutions even in the simplest jobs will be faced with.
Many of the problems we face today are not due to a lack of resources or legislation, but to the lack of merit of the staff who use these resources and implement the legislation.
Education is essential.
This phrase was once used as the slogan of a commercial. ‘Education is essential’
In this country, the system that makes a shepherd the president, a worker's child the prime minister, and a peasant's child the undersecretary has one pillar of the republic and the other pillar is education, which provides equal opportunity to the whole society.
The construction of a conscious society with a free mind, a free conscience and the ability to comprehend what is happening, not what is told to them, is only possible through education.
Any state that fails to envision education not as a privilege but as a fundamental right accessible to all is doomed to collapse one day, like a tree rotting from within, when it seems strongest and most imposing.
And of course Inspection. I mean audit.
Even the most perfect systems start to produce problems after a while, unless there is effective supervision. In a country where the State Supervisory Board, the Court of Accounts, and the chief inspectors of the Civil Administration are not used effectively, and where the Court of Accounts is even instructed not to look for loopholes, misconduct and negligence cannot be prevented.
Legislation remains on paper, and when accountability is required, no ‘responsible’ person is found. To aspire to govern the state is not only to exercise authority but also to assume responsibility and to be held accountable when necessary.
Without control, accountability and transparency, there is not a state that provides prosperity to its people, but a state that hides the truth from its people. In a system where the obvious truths are not known, no one can hold those responsible to account.
Where there is no oversight, the state turns into a structure where the ruling elite plunders with the logic of ‘those who do not eat the wealth are suckers’.
In fact, it is not at all difficult to establish this system, which we have listed under 6 key headings. As long as there is a sincere will to do so.
Building a state that the nation trusts because it fulfills its fundamental duties, instead of politics producing daily hamas that sanctify the state, is the highest priority for the country.