Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu: 'The power of being able to say "we"...'

The 7th Chairman of the CHP, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, penned an exclusive article for Sözcü. Kılıçdaroğlu's article is as follows: 

“THE POWER OF BEING ABLE TO SAY “WE”…”

Kemal KILIÇDAROĞLU – 7th Chairman of the CHP

My friends,

Everyone who lives on these ancient lands and has been kneaded with the wisdom of thousands of years knows: Our greatest strength, in our most beautiful days, is being able to say “we,” and in our most difficult times, it is being able to be “we”… History has witnessed this unity many times. Today, we are at the very beginning of a difficult period where we are in need of the power of being “we,” where we are suffering the pains of our shared existence, and where we must build a new future by ensuring social alliance…

My friends,

They say that “the people who understand each other best are those who share the same troubles and anxieties.” However, the priceless aspect of those who understand each other is that they have rejected the struggle of being “we” by becoming identical to one another… They know that the people who understand each other best are those who share the same troubles and anxieties, and whose hope is common. And they also know that the person who will best understand a father struggling to feed his child at home is another father whose child is hungry at home. A father who cannot find work, who works day and night but cannot make ends meet, who cannot even meet the most basic needs of his wife and children, who is anxious about the future and has had his pride broken, is alone, powerless, and desperate until he finds another father who will understand him best… One day, somewhere, they will seek each other out, find each other, and embrace tightly to succeed in becoming “we”…

Are they the only ones? Certainly not. Those who cannot sleep with a full stomach while their neighbor is hungry, those who risk burning for the sake of others, those who know how to be a companion to the traveler, and the intellectuals who cultivate hope in defiance of despair will also consider it their duty to be “we” and to cultivate hope with torches in their hands.

My friends,

If we cannot be “we,” if we cannot organize hope, and if we cannot bring together our millions of people who are searching for one another; we will find ourselves in the midst of internal turmoil where the strong crush the weak, where we cannot protect our youth and children, where angry crowds begin to clash with one another, and where those who break away from “us” multiply by establishing empires of “I.” History is full of stories that tell of the frustration of those who could not be “we,” the tragedy of those who could not be “we,” and their silent disappearance from the arena of history.

My friends,

After the great visionary and thinker Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK, we remained weak in utilizing our social reflex. He set out with a vision and strategy for the second century, where the whole is shared. While flexibility and working together should have been the important cornerstones of our new management approach, we have seen how structures that could not grasp change and confused “change” with “adapting” when necessary were forgotten among the pages of history.

For centuries, we have watched as wise people and leaders who prioritized service to their people above all else were held in high esteem on our ancient lands. In lands where “leadership dedicated to society” reigned for centuries, we opened and closed eras, and we watched the revolutions brought about by “togetherness.” Today, believing in the power of being “we,” we must struggle with our tradition of growing by sharing instead of shrinking by dividing into parts, and with the strength we derive from this.

This necessity, this state of struggle, this pain of being able to be “we,” will give birth to a beautiful child tomorrow, my friends. In this age where the world is changing at a dizzying speed, everyone living on the ancient lands of Anatolia must undertake the historical responsibility of being both an architect and a part of “being we.” Only then will we reach love, where we rebuild human dignity, and where sweat, labor, and honesty are valued.

Only then; for a Turkey that is democratic, participatory, and pluralistic, but where no one sees themselves as the other; that protects the rights and laws of the oppressed against the “monarch”; where every penny belonging to the nation can be accounted for; where the economic infrastructure is based on production; where courts distribute justice; where universities produce science; and that can compete with the developed world and even be a pioneer of the developing world… We will struggle to build a “mother state” that has high purchasing power, where our passport is valuable, where those among us who are not “we” have left, a country with a strong army and borders, and one that is a dove to its nation and a hawk to the outside world, my friends.

We will struggle and we will win! Because we have succeeded before, and we will succeed again now…

I entrust my efforts to share my anxieties, my hopes, and my troubles with you, and the struggle we will wage together, to you once again.

And as the Great Poet Nazım Hikmet said, my friends:

“You know, now to our table

Meat comes once a week

And our children come home from work

As pale skeletons.

You know, now we;

Believe me, we will see beautiful days, children

We will see sunny days.

We will steer the engines into the blue, children

We will steer them into the luminous blue…”

News Source: 12punto