Just as a too dominant a rule is a frailty in terms of democracy, a too weak of an opposition is frailty to the same degree. Particularly the Republican People's Party (CHP) should observe the new Turkey carefully and reconstruct itself in order for the Turkish democracy to run properly.
As I was delving into the archives, I happened upon a speech delivered by Deniz Baykal, the former chairman of the CHP, at a youth congress in the early 2000s. He said, "The CHP may not be in power. However, those who hold the power are required to act in line with the ideals of the CHP. Actual power is the power of Atatürk. It is not important whether someone or another is in power. What is more important is that Atatürk holds in the power. Our objective is to maintain Atatürk's power and we will maintain it in any case, whether we come into the power or not."
What is actual power?
If you act according to "Even if we lose in the elections, we are still in power" and approach the politics of new Turkey with them, you can never be a candidate for the actual power in a country where the president will be elected by the public from now on.
You do not try to receive the public's support but instead you seek the support of certain institutions. In brief, each and every section that is to dominate the democratic politics has to embark on a quest for a new understanding of politics and democracy.
First, we all have to acknowledge that pluralist and liberalist democratic politics must be based upon the concept of living together. Just as it is in life, politics is not a poker game.
When someone wins a victory in the real life, the other gamers do not have to necessarily lose. Everybody has to reap a profit to some extent, particularly in social, political and economic life.
Tolerance and harmony
For all these reasons, the existence of power is not sufficient on its own for democracy and there has to be a reasonable opposition.
When there is no competition in business life, monopolies rise instead of sectors. For centuries, there have always been actors who often forget these realities in Turkish society. Do polemics in the media not override the ideas and take them to a level of insulting opponents and denounce them as betrayers?
In business life, when they see their competitors go bankrupt, capital owners think they are unique and get happy.
However, there are chain reactions in economy just as in physics. In the light of all these facts, we should remember that all actors in society should help their rivals continue the game.
What should be done to prevent bankruptcy?
The members of the institutions have to work cooperatively, form solidarity against the outer world when necessary and live in harmony with the rules of a constitutional democracy.
However, they seem to be resolved to get rid of each other just as the political opponents who appear to be antagonistic parties that are determined to do away with one another. These can only be tolerated in fictitious scenarios. The discourse of "love it or leave it" cannot have a place in a pluralist and liberal democracy.
Once the passion goes beyond the reason, once the fighting to hold office makes us forget that competition should be pursued to render services, the whole of society loses.
The history of Las Vegas is full of stories that tell gamers who think that they have better cards than those of their rivals, violate the rules and are frustrated at the end of the game.
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