STAR- Columnist Omer Celik writes on the state of the concept of the political in Turkey and its repercussions for public life. A summary of his column is as follows:
As elections draw near, we’ve still going out of our way to avoid any theoretical discussion of politics and the concept of the political. Instead, we are being forced-fed a preoccupation with numerous non-political concerns such as doomsday scenarios and postponement of elections, concerns which are besieging our genuine political agenda and pulling it down to the moral bottom. Moreover, another very crucial problem has emerged: more and more politics is losing its function as the cement of social existence, the glue holding it together. Thus, society’s will to live under a political umbrella on the basis of some sort of a social contract is growing even weaker. This is what we face today in Turkey, a hitting of the political rock-bottom with almost no confidence in the political will or the institutions symbolizing politics. This, in turn, has damaged the concept of legitimacy which can only be created by the very institution of politics, sweeping aside the political as the source of the social bond. Consequently, the people have begun to question the grounds for their social co-existence and political identity, a development which has altogether resulted in the weakening of the collective consciousness. Turkey’s social breakup arises from its political turmoil and chronic state of constant crisis, paving the way to a social disintegration and a diminishing in the people’s notion of belonging to this country. This has pushed society to a counter position against the political will, and the ground of national togetherness and coherence, to which the ruling elites in Turkey are very sensitive, has grown shaky. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the conventional political rationale in Turkey is stuck in an ill-conceived notion of stability. This deformed perception of stability presupposes a homogeneous and undifferentiated mass of people which marginalize and repress any political movements trying to represent divergent element in our society. Thus, society and the political fall apart, leaving almost no space for political action. Secondly, the institution of politics is unable to renew itself. All of the above-enumerated malaises point to one thing: the social contract which holds the people of this country together is being threatened by its chronic administrative crisis. However, the source of this threat is not to be found in centrifugal forces, but rather in the very sterile center itself. This the problem to which Turkey has to find an immediate solution.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION