Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Jan 3 2010
Time has come for AKP to deliver
Sunday, January 3, 2010
JOOST LAGENDÄ°JK
2009 was a year that strongly underlined one of Turkey’s most obvious
qualities: there is never a dull moment! One moment of inattention and
the unthinkable has happened: one of the military’s top-secret
document archives is being searched by a civilian judge and
prosecutor. The next moment, the most influential Turkish chief editor
steps down, followed by the head of the biggest media group.
My guess is that 2010 will not be fundamentally different. The biggest
change might be that this year we will see less soul searching and
more solutions.
Having been a politician myself for many years, I am still puzzled by
the way sensitive issues are being tackled by Turkish ministers.
Cabinet members announce that the government is going to solve a
particular problem and then, after months of trial and error, have to
admit that they are not able to deliver. Why is there such a big gap
in Turkish politics between promises and results? One explanation
could be that governments are simply not good in making proper
assessments. The problems in implementing a desirable solution or the
opposition against the government’s proposals are underestimated. Or
the timing is wrong. Whatever the reasons behind this failure to stick
to promises made, the result in 2009 has been the creation of a
mountain of expectations that have to be met, in one way or the other,
in 2010. I know there is a long Turkish political tradition of broken
promises without electoral consequences. But there is a limit to what
modern, self-confident citizens are willing to accept from their
elected representatives. Once promised repeatedly, politicians have to
deliver these days. They will be forgiven if they miss out on one or
two of their pledges. But to fail on all, is a recipe for electoral
disaster and strained international relations.
Let’s go through the list of 2009 promises. First and foremost, there
is the laudable democratic initiative. After all, the statements of
the ongoing commitment at the end of last year, there is no way back
in 2010. Either the prime minister successfully puts all his energy
into overcoming the many obstacles in the way of a peaceful solution
to the Kurdish problem, or the ruling party will lose its credibility
among Kurdish and Turkish democrats. The same applies to the basic
Alevi demands. After all these workshops that seemed to bring a
solution closer, the AKP has to come up, this Spring, with a
comprehensive plan that will convince most Alevis. If not, forget
about those votes. But the ruling party will not only lose at home
when they fail to deliver. The protocols with Armenia were considered
by many in Europe and the US as a great achievement. But, those
positive feelings will disappear quickly when and if these promising
plans are not put in practice because the AKP majority in the Turkish
parliament fails to ratify the agreements. Again, no way back. The
same goes for the announced opening of the Greek-Orthodox Halki
seminar. If it does not happen, Greece will be extremely disappointed
and Turkish opponents inside the EU will have an extra argument when
they claim that Turkish authorities talk a lot about reforms, but are
not able to put their money where their mouth is.
I am convinced the Turkish president fully understands the negative
logic of broken promises. I think the prime minister does as well.
Therefore, 2010 will again bring, without any doubt, many surprises.
Including, I hope, some final remedies to the problems that popped out
of the many boxes of Pandora that were opened in 2009. I wish you all
a happy and exciting New Year!