The opposition campaigns waged via media organizations are ineffective, and the mobilization launched through the bureaucracy is narrow-minded. This is so despite the fact that considerable damage can be caused to the ruling party through concrete and constructive criticism of certain policies of the AK Party. Yet, this is not what the opposition groups do. They resort to familiar defamation methods. Citizens do not like these sorts of interventions."If the AKP secures a rate of support below 52 percent, it should be deemed unsuccessful," said Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal. Should we take this as a joke or irony? Baykal calculated 52 percent as follows: "For the ruling party, it [being successful] means adding four or five points on top of the [rate of support it obtained in the] general elections. Adding these points to 47 percent, we get 52 percent." Wonderful! He has the perfect gift of gab! Do you think that Baykal, whose political career spans almost 50 years, does not know that being the ruling party means losing votes while being the opposition is an opportunity to gain support. OK, it must be accepted that the AK Party has breached this rule to some extent. It has emerged stronger than before from every election it has entered. But, can't we attribute some of the blame for the ever growing voter base of the AK Party to the faulty tactics of the opposition?
Baykal's latest statement implies that the opposition has failed to draw lessons from the rise of the AK Party. Baykal does not set any success criteria for his own party, but this is a typical opposition reflex in Turkey. Nevertheless, we should note that voters have not forgotten about Baykal's promise when he had said, "If I fail, I will swim to Rhodes." Unfortunately, the CHP and its proponents cannot analyze Turkey accurately. This is unfortunate because this country really needs a proper opposition and a sound opposition mentality that can raise constructive criticism, that will supervise not beliefs but the government's performance, that will not seek assistance from anti-democratic groups, that will not hurt people...
Those who seek to crush people instead of understanding them are doing wrong. Some media groups fail to understand this. And they are offended when they hear objections or criticism in this regard. For instance, the CHP leader insistently says he is "the advocate of Ergenekon." Perhaps he is not aware that such an approach seems so obnoxious to people. If the CHP had said, "If there is a crime, it must be fully prosecuted," what would they have lost? The second indictment of the Ergenekon trial was submitted to the court on Tuesday, and Baykal made some implications. Does this suit him? How can a political leader who has fought for democracy for many years feel uncomfortable when illegal, shadowy networks are unearthed? Bombs, weapons, assassination plots, etc. While there is hair-raising evidence, how can Atatürk's party act as if nothing has happened? Who is right? Mustafa Kemal, who urged military officers to remove their uniforms if they intend to start political careers or the senior CHP executives who urged party members to applaud the Ergenekon suspects during a meeting in Parliament?
The government's support for the Ergenekon investigation is turning Recep Tayyip Erdoğan into a political phenomenon. The opposition cannot even see this obvious fact! And the media organizations that think they oppose the AK Party cannot publish the photos of even one of those "respected people" mentioned in the second indictment. They harshly criticize the AK Party, but they hide under the table when it comes to illegal networks. And they delusively think that the nation is not aware of their hypocrisy. Is such an opposition acceptable? They act as if they hear nothing about the two indictments, each of which is around 2,000 pages, but they raise hell, saying, "The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey [TÜBİTAK] ignores Darwin." Even the Contemporary Jurists Association published a declaration accusing the bar association of involvement in the pro-Ergenekon camp. Even some members of the Judges and Prosecutors Association (YARSAV) felt the need to tell the YARSAV president "not to give such obvious support to Ergenekon suspects" and voiced their protest on their Web site. They are running out of justifications for their advocacy for the people detained in the investigation. Voters do not find it convincing to be critical about one particular party while keeping silent concerning the illegal network.
Even opposition that relies on the economic crisis is useless. They suggest that the crisis hit only Turkey. Do you think that the nation will believe this lie? Of course, the crisis is hurting the nation. But when the citizens who previously voted for the AK Party ask media organizations, "Who do you think will overcome this global crisis?" Media organizations say without hesitation, "It is the CHP." But, voters are confused by this answer as they were expecting the opposition, which gave full support to the midnight e-memorandum and party closures and relies on generals for its politics, and its proponents to swim to Rhodes.
