The dialectic of decay

Turkey must urgently change its current local government legislation, which has turned into a national security issue by generating rent. In the recent past, we have witnessed the devastating effects of systematic legislative adjustments that have transformed metropolitan municipalities into suction pumps for rent-seeking.

It is a known reality that the political mill turns on the rent transferred from local governments to party headquarters. This phenomenon makes political parties dependent on metropolitan municipalities where rent is high, increases their influence at party headquarters, and in a sense, leads to the establishment of a tutelary relationship.

This is the situation for both the government and the opposition. But with one difference. The ruling party, which holds political power, dismisses/removes its own metropolitan mayors (using excuses like their term has expired, etc.) who pose a potential danger or are suspected of having a personal agenda for advancement!

The devastating consequences of local governments becoming the financial wind/breeze of the political wheel will be seen more clearly in the near future. Approaches that are completely detached from the reality of Turkey, ranging from the shrinking of the state to the strengthening or privatization of local governments, are another grave dimension of the matter.

Like communicating vessels, institutionalized corruption does not pose a risk for local governments held by the ruling party. However, when the same situation applies to opposition municipalities, a legal process that instantly turns into a liquidation apparatus is initiated.

In summary, even if opposition municipal administrators who use the opportunities provided by the local government legislation that allows for corruption gain personal advantages in the short term, they cause the start of a process that will lead to the liquidation of their parties in the long term.

It should not be overlooked that it is being voiced that the strategic goal of the operations carried out through opposition municipalities is the institutional integrity of the party they belong to (setting aside the principle of personal criminal responsibility).

The current local government legislation, in its current state, not only decays local governments but also degenerates individual and social morality. Ultimately, the spiral of corruption, which has become institutionalized and a normal element of daily life, is decaying Turkey.

Let us come to the answer to the question "What is the solution?" The first step must be to urgently make regulations that will not allow for corruption in local government legislation and will remove zoning rent from being the financing of politics from the local to the general level.

The second step is to return to the separation of powers, which is the guarantee of an independent judiciary, by removing the law from being the spearhead of the government's attacks.

The first condition for the permanence of the periodic success in local governments, which is both the advantage and the soft underbelly of the opposition party aiming for power, is that candidates and staff are determined according to criteria of merit, experience, skill, virtue, and honesty.

When a suspicion of corruption arises, internal party legal sanctions should be activated before the government-guided judicial process. The most accurate way to dispel suspicions that will arise in the public eye is to create, develop, and make permanent a party sensitivity/culture that does not approve of those who do wrong.

Instead of a party that is worn down and blocked while in opposition with accusations of turning a blind eye to corruption, a party identity that does not pave the way for or make concessions to corruption should be brought to the fore.

The founding party, established by the cadres who founded the Republic and kneaded with the mortar of the Defense of Rights (Müdafaa-i Hukuk), must seek the correct answer to this question through internal accounting.

Is it to be worn down by being labeled with corruption while in opposition, or to march to power by making the fight against all kinds of local and general corruption a fundamental principle of the party?