Political corruption and the financing of politics, part 1

Political corruption is the highest stage of the phenomenon of alienation. At this stage, very serious and difficult-to-remedy destruction and decay occur in the state, society, and nature.

Political parties become alienated and turn into interest groups. Political parties degenerate into a form of trade and exchange of interests. Politics is marketed by advertising agencies.

Human beings become alienated and turn into confused creatures unable to seek their rights. Their labor is exploited, and they gradually become slaves to their own pleasures. Poverty increases ever more. Capitalism crushes them as it exploits them.

Politics and political parties stand like a ticking time bomb in our society. Our intellectuals and scientists must produce thoughts and solutions on these issues.

It is very clear that political parties do not produce ideas and solutions based on knowledge and productivity.

People who are smooth talkers, shrewd, but ignorant have filled political cadres.

Members have no idea about the party, its program, or even the world. The goal and purpose of the vast majority of party members is to get a relative a job. Many so-called highly educated people who have finished school and closed their books are also chasing after tenders.

There are plenty of contractors in political parties. They look at municipalities with appetite. They do not care at all about the country's problems or the poverty and suffering endured by the people. It is a case of "every man for himself."

Almost all political parties are Westernist, pro-American, religious, and liberal parties. These parties have not been able to solve the country's problems. They will not solve them from now on either.

For example, there are municipal elections now. Which party do you think is better if it comes to power? Everyone will say something. My opinion on this is as follows: no matter which party comes to power, it will not produce work in the municipalities.

Municipalities are the black holes of the country. Especially district municipalities; why do district municipalities exist? When we compare the money given to district municipalities with the services they produce, we see that district municipalities have more expenses than the services they produce. They are a huge burden on the backs of taxpayers.

Party members do not pay dues. So how will it work? The Treasury will help them. And if you ask who audits you when you use public money, they do not accept that either. Can you imagine, this poor public pays billions of liras to political parties, but they are not audited.

Turkey cannot develop with this political system. It cannot be saved.

Political developments and phenomena are carried out through political parties. For this reason, political parties are the cause of the phenomenon and concept of political corruption and are responsible for its development and pollution. Political parties focus on ways to obtain monetary resources and how to use these resources, especially during election periods and election campaigns. Later, after coming to power at the national or local level, they use public resources as a tool for personal gain and enrichment.

That is why the financing of politics is the primary cause of political corruption.

The second cause of political corruption is the use of public resources as a tool for personal gain and enrichment.

The third cause of political corruption is the lack of intra-party democracy and oversight. Both intra-party oversight and public oversight of political corruption are negligible and ineffective.

What does financing mean?

“It means finding the money and credit required for an enterprise to function and develop.”

It refers to money, capital, resources, or funds that can be utilized for any expenditure. The scope of finance is not limited to funding an expenditure. It also encompasses the effective use of the funds that have been secured.

To understand the issue of political financing, it is also necessary to clarify the concept of a fund. It is money set aside to be spent as needed to finance an institution, a business, or to carry out a specific task. A fund carries the meaning of resources set aside later for a specific job. The concept of a fund represents all of an organization's financial resources.

In a true democracy, governments are accountable to their own citizens. Citizens want public officials to perform their duties in a manner consistent with the public interest, fairly and impartially.

The survival of a true democracy requires that political parties and candidates have the monetary resources to compete in elections. In this process, risks that distort justice in political competition and corrupt those elected increase with the sources of political financing. Undisclosed monetary resources bring dark interest relationships into play.

The political power, which has the authority to distribute public resources, also uses these resources for its own political expenses. There are also individuals and groups (third parties) who want to influence political decision-making processes by converting their economic power into political power.

For the democratic political system to function healthily, it is an inevitable necessity for political parties, the government, and the Parliament, which are the actors of the system, to gain the reputation and trust of the public. For this, it is of great importance that the financial sources of political parties are transparent and that election expenditures are recorded for both parties and candidates. Election financing must be tied to a democratic, objective audit and oversight system.

Politics and corruption, this duo has been walking hand in hand for a long time. Politicians and political parties are among the usual suspects not only in the eyes of the ordinary citizen but also in the face of institutions investigating this issue.

Corruption in the field of politics is important not only because of the illicit private benefits provided to the people and institutions we have given a mandate to govern us, but also because the methods and ways in which politics is conducted and decisions made through misdirection have consequences that will directly affect our lives. Furthermore, it is a fact known to everyone that the points where politics is intertwined with corruption cause a completely institutional decay in the system.

If politics forms the backbone of our social system, the mechanism that will protect the system is transparency. Considering that the concept of transparency forms an inclusive umbrella title that also covers honesty and accountability, it is necessary to examine whether we have strong systemic mechanisms to protect citizens. Along with all other measures and mechanisms, one of the most critical nerve endings that can cause permanent damage appears as the financing of politics.

The transparency and accountability of the expenditures and expenses of political parties and candidates' campaigns have very important consequences. The most important of these consequences is that elections take place in a free, fair, and egalitarian environment.

To prevent elections from turning into a kind of usurpation of power, the following measures are mandatory and urgent for the security of our country:

1. Media and campaign expenditures must be disclosed to the public along with their sources.

2. Service contracts made between parties and media organizations must be presented to the public with all their clarity and reality.

3. Audit and sanction rules to be applied in case of any irregularity must be clearly defined and implemented in an effective and result-oriented manner.

4. The principles of transparency and accountability in the financing of politics in Turkey must be applied at the highest administrative and judicial level.

5. Under Turkey's current conditions, the financing of political parties, the financing of election campaigns, and financial auditing are quite problematic. Legal regulations regarding the financing of politics are insufficient.

6. The lack of development of institutional structures and deficiencies in the field of implementation have made honest state administration extremely difficult.

7. Politicians do not look favorably on reforms related to the issues listed above. In fact, there are secret and insidious obstructions.

8. In Turkey, the asset declarations of members of parliament are not accessible to the public. Furthermore, these declarations are not examined except in the case of judicial investigations. In democratic countries, in countries that include almost all European and North American countries, it is a significant contradiction that these declarations are closed and unaudited in Turkey while they are public.

9. It is important, necessary, and mandatory in terms of transparency and accountability for candidates and elected public officials at all levels to disclose their assets and election budgets before the elections, and to regularly disclose the assets of themselves and their first-degree relatives after being elected.

There is actually no audit system in the financing of politics. Carelessness, years of delays, and sweeping facts under the rug require effective struggle and institutional audits. In addition, the audit period is very long and reports are published very late. As a result of the research conducted, it has been calculated that the financial audit report for a year is published on average 4 years later. In this delay, the lack of sufficient labor for auditing has been identified as an important factor. The delay of financial audit decisions and the fact that they have lost their currency by the time they are published is another factor that reduces public impact.

The fact that the Court of Accounts reports regarding the financial audit of political parties are not open to the public is a significant deficiency in terms of the principle of transparency and prevents the public from reaching sufficient information about the functioning of the audit process. The disruptions experienced in the auditing of political parties that do not receive Treasury aid and the fact that the workload of auditors is not bound by rules are other problematic areas that need to be improved.

10. Without changing the 10% national threshold in the General Parliamentary Elections, lowering the threshold for Treasury aid to political parties to 3% will not support party developments and the establishment of democracy. The disclosure of the accounts of organizations that are under the control of parties or act together in an indirect way, together with party accounts, is important in regulating the contributions of third parties. It is mandatory for state television channels operating with public resources to allocate equal time to all political parties and candidates to ensure fair competition.

11. Expenditures made by political parties during election campaign periods are handled within the parties' accounts for that year and are subject to standard audit and reporting procedures. For this reason, it is impossible to reach detailed information regarding the parties' election expenditures.

12. In democracies, determining the government only through a free, fair, regular, and competitive election is not enough for the elected to be accountable. It is also necessary for citizens to be able to monitor and audit the actions of the politicians they elect.

13. In other words, there is a close relationship between transparency and accountability. In this context, transparency, in the general sense used in politics, is “the flow of economic, social, and political information presented in a timely and reliable manner that all stakeholders can access.”9 The most important requirements for the formation of an effectively functioning political structure in democratic administrations are openness and accountability. Thus, it can be prevented that politicians who are responsible to the citizen use their political power for their personal interests instead of the public interest.

14. Another issue affecting transparency and accountability in politics is politics-media relations.1 In ensuring transparency and accountability in politics, the press must first be free and impartial. The obstruction of the free flow of information and news and the restrictions imposed on the press facilitate the formation of media structures that support the government, a political party, or certain interest groups. While this limits individuals' right to information, it causes great harm to the principle of transparency in politics. The monitoring, censorship, and pressure on private radio and television channels, newspapers, and social media by the state, in addition to the press and broadcasting organizations in its hands, directly or indirectly; the threatening and punishing of media organizations and journalists that do not broadcast in favor of the party or parties in power are not compatible with democratic principles.
    
    Especially during election periods, the rights of political parties to benefit from public mass communication tools equally and fairly in their election campaigns are important. However, it is observed that in many countries of the world, the press is tried to be used as a one-sided propaganda tool with political and economic pressures. Under these conditions, the importance of transparency and accountability in the financing of politics emerges once again.18

15. Today, the nature of media ownership is changing. This situation can lead to the formation of various interest relationships in the politics-media-business world triangle, and to the sharing of public resources and tenders between political power holders and the private financial sources that support them, rather than for the public interest. In most developed democratic countries, there are laws regulating the financing of election campaigns of political parties and candidates.

16. In order to ensure that these regulations give effect to the principles of transparency and accountability, the issues that should be considered first are: Disclosure of media and campaign expenditures to the public along with their sources; presentation of service contracts made between parties and media organizations to the public; and clear definition of audit and sanction mechanisms to be applied in case of any irregularity. The attitude of the media in the process of disclosing violations that emerge during the audit process - whether it can report freely and impartially in a way that enlightens and informs the public - is directly related to ensuring transparency and accountability in politics.

It is a clear fact that political parties are not doing their duties today, and cannot do them. Today, political parties have become alienated and turned into a tool for sharing positions and enrichment. This situation poses a clear and imminent danger to the future of our society and our state.

Party members and party district administrations are actually dysfunctional. Nothing is asked of them. They have one duty, and that is to applaud the party leaders.

Party leaders are also actually in a rush to be elected, as seen in this municipal election. They are trying to outdo each other in rhetoric. Most of the members of parliament and party administrators in the parties do not have enough knowledge about the country's problems. Our political culture is surrounded by ignorance. Economic ignorance, political ignorance, and many other ignorances dominate politics.

Do you think the reason for the "do-or-die" work and the ambition to win in the elections is patriotism? The goal is not patriotism or anything like that, or it does not exist enough. The goal is to be applauded, to hold office, and to get rich. Politics has wrapped our country like an octopus. Unfortunately, the press is also a part of this political corruption. Municipalities finance newspapers. Or contractors who receive large tenders from parties finance them. If you ask about media ownership, that is another problem.

Oh dear intellectuals, oh dear patriotic politicians, have some pity on this country. This country does not deserve this much pollution.

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Ayfer DAĞDELEN

Ömer Faruk Gençkaya