The way the AKP government has handled the recent train tragedy and the gaping holes in their management style that the accident has revealed have been a wake up call for the liberal commentators in the Turkish media who for the last two years had suspended their disbelief in AKP government`s efficacy.
Even when their colleagues were setting off fire alarms, they have displayed a principled discipline in sticking to their wait-and-see stance in the name of fairness.
However, more and more liberal commentators are now admitting their disappointment with the AKP-style while their detractors are gloating that their initial suspicions have at long last been vindicated.
Here are the translated excerpts from a recent column written by daily Hurriyet`s liberal commentator Cuneyt Ulsever who gave qualified but clear support to the AKP government for the last two years. He seems to be quiet disappointed with the direction the AKP is heading in:
“(begin text)
1) All those parties that come to power staff the state bureaucracy with their own people. However, the previous governments had cadres with previous state bureaucracy experience. The AKP cadre`s experience is limited to Istanbul Municipality. They do not know how the Turkish state works. Moreover, some of them are of very low caliber.
2) As a result of an excommunication (from power) psychosis which dates from the past and is still valid to a certain extent, they believe in and trust only those who are “one of them.” They view those who view them as “outsiders” as “outsiders” as well. This pathology is a bit excusable when you are in parliamentary opposition. However for those who came to power with the promise that the state will represent all the people, it is not possible to accept such an exclusionary psychology.
3) For the AKP folks, the source of the criticism directed at them is more important than its content and quality. With a stereotypical tribal mentality, they believe that the “adversary tribe” is always trying to get the better of them. They are underestimating external information.
4) Since some of the AKP officials are still trying to justify their logic and reason on the basis of their belief system, they fall prey to the tradition of accepting the information parted by those in power without any questioning. “Systematic suspicion” which forms the very basis of scientific thinking is regarded as “apostasy” by the ruling authority. They believe that “our gang is always right and the others are always wrong!
5) More often than not, they are acting hastily in an attempt to prove themselves to others. For example, the laws they pass usually have technical errors. The technical veto by the Constitutional Court of the decision regarding the Supreme Court (Yuce Divan) was a true fiasco [for the AKP government]. Not only the train-on-hormones [referring to the recent speed train tragedy] but the “double highways” are also problematic for the same reason. The contradictory decision of the THY [Turkish Airlines], and the TRT`s [Turkish Radio Television] latest moves all betray an instinct to act in a preemptive manner even when one is not ready to act in a correct manner.
With such weaknesses, you can engage in politics but cannot run a state apparatus.
(end text)”