Will the fund scandal shake the government?

If only it would...

The scandal that erupted with the evaporation of nearly half a million people's money; with the feelings of being deceived, misled, and the desperately pursued search for justice, I wish it would turn into a serious political bill for the government.

There is no point in daydreaming.

Let's be realistic.

It won't shake it!

It won't even make it budge!

No one, especially the opposition, should make calculations based on this or have any expectations!

Take it from us.

At least in today's Turkey, thinking that such a political tremor will occur just by looking at this horrific heist would be overly naive.

Come, before we put on our reading glasses, let's remember that famous saying of Demirel:

“There is no government that an empty pot cannot topple.”

Is it really so?

Unfortunately, we have entered a period where this saying is once again relied upon too heavily.

Yet, the issue is far beyond that.

My country's opposition has never been able to learn that what changes governments is not the empty pot itself.

Let us make the correct diagnosis:

What changes governments is for the people at the head of the empty pot to gather around an organized, unified political will and to show the courage to do what is necessary when the day comes.

As long as this does not happen, the rest is just empty talk.

It is worth underlining this with a thick pen. Turkey's real issue is here.

The people who lost their money in the fund heist are angry.

There is a very serious grievance at hand.

But there is no strong and common ground for all of this to turn into a political outcome.

Unfortunately, opposition parties are extremely inadequate in creating such a ground.

Let us even put a big question mark over whether they are willing to do so.

When that ground is not formed, anger turns into people's personal grievance stories after a while; it even gradually becomes material for tabloid news.

There is more.

A significant portion of my country's people believes that at the end of every crisis they experience, Tayyip Erdoğan will somehow step in and solve the issue.

For them, the state is still Tayyip Erdoğan himself.

And the solution is between his two lips.

In other words, when a crisis arises, the address they look to is clear.

When this is the case, the bill for a problem that the government knowingly and willingly created or failed to manage is not written to its own account; it is thrown into the expectation that “Erdoğan will solve this too.”

It sounds like a joke, but it is like this.

How can this political paradox be explained?

They deceive people, they get votes.

They lie, they get votes.

Merit is trampled upon, nepotism and cronyism run rampant, they get votes.

They eliminate the sense of justice, they get votes.

The economic crisis turns into a social depression, the government elites seize the money in people's pockets, they still get votes.

They violate the rights of others, they get votes.

It is possible to write much more.

But the result does not change.

My country's people turn and look at the same place again after every disaster that befalls them.

One of the most striking examples of this is Soma.

The Soma disaster, in which 301 miners lost their lives on May 13, 2014, was etched into Turkey's memory.

The pain and anger were great.

Well, were the people of Soma going to hold them accountable for this at the ballot box?

In the June 7, 2015 general elections, held a year after the disaster, the AKP was the first party in Soma again.

Its vote share, which was 52.81 percent in 2011, fell to 39.87 percent, but despite this, it still crossed the finish line first.

This is exactly where one needs to stop.

The anger created by a social disaster and its transformation into a political punishment at the ballot box are not the same thing. Even if there is anger, if there is no common will to produce a political result, anger alone is not decisive at the ballot box.

Now, to get up and think that only the anger of the fund victims will remove the AKP from power is to not know voter behavior in Turkey at all.

The issue is now far beyond being explainable by political science.

We are facing a much more complex picture that requires the simultaneous evaluation of social psychology, economic behaviors, affiliations, fears, and political loyalties.

Let's continue...

There is a very important question that needs to be asked to the opposition here:

While the circumstances and conditions manifest in such an unfavorable nature, will you only show people the ballot box?

Saying “wait for the ballot box” means trapping all the energy of politics in election day.

However, the struggle for the solution to the severe economic and social problems that people are still experiencing needs to be fought today.

The ballot box is of course important.

But politics does not start with the ballot box, nor does it end with it.

If the opposition cannot organize the grievances experienced by the public, cannot turn these into a common struggle, and cannot bring different segments together on the same democratic ground, it will encounter the same picture again when election day comes.

Because the government's power does not come only from the votes it receives. The disorganization of the opposition is a gift to them.

The fund scandal has a meaning far beyond how the money disappeared.

In fact, this scandal also tells the story of why people in Turkey can still be deceived so easily.

The hope for easy money...

The dream of getting rich the short way...

The devaluation of labor and sweat...

Unquestioning trust in the state, politics, and names that appear powerful...

When all these come together, the social mentality problem also reveals itself.

Without that mentality changing, it is in vain to expect only a fund scandal to shake the government.

Because the issue is not as simple as how many votes Erdoğan will get in the next election. The issue is whether society will see what happens to it as fate or whether it will take responsibility for its own future and fight in an organized manner.

Returning to the empty pot issue...

It is not enough for the pot to be empty. The person at the head of the pot must also say “enough.”

And it is not enough to just say it. They must come together, organize, seek their rights, and hold them accountable.

Without waiting for the ballot box...

Today.

Otherwise, the fund scandal will also be talked about for a while like the others.

The victims will get angry, social media will rise up, opposition deputies will make harsh statements.

That's all.

Then the agenda changes. My country's people pin their hopes on the same address again!

“Will Tayyip Erdoğan solve this too?”

The issue is not whether Erdoğan can solve everything or not. The issue is whether society delegates its will to solve its own problems to someone else or not.

As long as it does not do this...

The fund scandal will not topple the government. Maybe it will shake the agenda for a few days, maybe a few weeks.

But the government?

Unfortunately, no...