Hence the wonderful excuse that the “system” (everything from big capital to the US, Barzani and the world system) wanted the AK Party to win. Some attribute their miserable performance at the ballot to money: the AK Party spent more money than any other party. Why? Because it has more money than others. Is that so? The Republican People’s Party (CHP) is the richest political party in Turkey, owning about 31 percent of İş Bank. With its cash and investments, it is probably one of the richest parties in the world. The Democratic Left Party (DSP) is no less rich, notwithstanding the late Ecevit’s humble lifestyle. These parties either did not want to spend money (and we know this to be the case for some parties) or did not know how to spend it.
One explanation I heard from a CHP member of Parliament who was not elected this time is the AK Party “used” (he meant “mobilized”) 200,000 women in İstanbul alone for its campaign. This is a comically high number even for a city like İstanbul. But assuming that the AK Party was able to mobilize this many women, is this a good or bad thing for democracy and women’s participation?
CHP spokespeople took pride in the high number of women in the republic rallies before the elections. It looks like women’s participation in political affairs is a problem when other parties mobilize their female constituency. The “use of women” argument is a clearly and painfully Orientalist explanation where women are “oppressed” when they decide to be religious or participate in the AK Party’s political campaign. Are women emancipated only when they vote for the CHP? Assuming that such a poorly constructed argument is true, why did the other political parties not mobilize their female supporters?
The list of “brilliant” explanations continues. One of the famous ones was given by a prominent member of the CHP when he said that there is no logical explanation for the elections outcome. What he meant was clear: The Turkish people cannot be called rational when 47 percent of them vote for the AK Party and only 21 percent vote for the CHP. Of course the CHP representative wants to say they are stupid but did not have the guts to say it. At the end of the day, it is apparently the voters, not the politicians, who must be wrong.
Having failed to convince themselves, some old foxes of Turkish politics brought up the issue of percentages. We had heard it before and are now hearing it again: The argument is that 47 percent of Turkish voters voted for AK Party but the remaining 53 percent did not. It is simple math and true: 53 percent of voters did not vote for AK Party, its past policies or its future promises. What a huge victory for the opposition!
When one hears this argument, one wonders what kind of a representative democracy they have in mind. One may remind them of the fact that the 79 percent of the Turkish voters did not vote for the CHP either. And 86 percent did not vote for the MHP. And 95 percent did not vote for DP. And 97 percent did not vote for the Young Party (GP). And so on.
Unless we call for an absolute majoritarian democracy, which amounts to tyranny, not democracy proper, there is no way of making sense of such stupendous claims. To say that the 53 percent of Turkey did not vote AK Party is no occasion for the opposition to celebrate. By the same logic, 47 percent did not vote for the entire opposition, which includes more than 10 parties and many independents. Fifty-three percent is divided and dispersed whereas the 47 percent is united on one political address.
But this is fuzzy logic and no way to nourish a functioning democracy. No one can expect a political party to get 50, 60 or 70 percent of the votes to be in a position of legitimate representation. This would not be democracy but something close to tyranny under the guise of popular democracy.
Abdullah Gül gave an answer to all these questions at a press conference last week. He compared the demands for higher popular support to have legitimate political representation to the Baath party phenomenon in the Arab world. “Should we establish a Baath party and get 92 percent of the vote to be called legitimate?” he asked.
I guess the Turkish Baathists would love to see themselves have a percentage of this kind at the ballot. But they know it is a dream only for themselves. This would be a nightmare for Turkey and democracy.
