Country is being run on autopilot
WHILE making my Monday morning walk to work, I usually spend my time dreaming up a contemporary topic about which to write in order to fill this page.
However, this week was one of the rare occasions on which nothing in particular came to mind and grabbed me, and as a result, I arrived at work mostly unsure of what I was going to write.
I could write a page on how the Cyprus Turkish Electricity Authority (Kıb-Tek) is bleeding us all dry with extortionate energy bills that will doubtless leave many being forced into choosing between cooling their houses and putting food on the table, but I have already filled this page at least once before writing about how Kıb-Tek are bullying consumers.
I could write about how the government is fannying around with fuel prices, moving them in a general upwards direction so that the fuel companies do not miss out on their precious, precious profts, but are now adding in the odd minor price reduction in order to attempt to fool the masses into believing that things are possibly not getting inexorably worse.
However, I have already penned an opinion piece in this newspaper about how the fuel companies have a tendency to act like the mob.
I could write about how stagnant wages have left workers defenceless against price increases, with inflation currently through the roof and the cost of living endlessly rising.
That being said, with the way things are going at some businesses at this point, those who are being paid at all can count themselves, comparatively speaking, as the lucky ones. However, I have already written an article about how low wages are in this country.
I could write an article about how this country’s infrastructure is crumbling, about how the new Ercan airport terminal remains unfinished despite being under construction for almost a decade, about how the roads resemble the surface of the moon, about how domestic public transport is, at best, decades behind the rest of the world, and about how pedestrian safety is nonexistent, but I have already written multiple articles about this.
Failing any ideas regarding local politics, I could turn my attention to the Cyprus problem, where the current policy seems to be nothing but kicking the can down the road, avoiding any opportunities to engage or attempt to make any kind of progress, and how the Turkish Cypriot people are being hung out to dry by this relentless can-kicking.
However, I have already written about this particular subject more times than I care to remember.
The issue is that despite my having written about all of these issues at some point or another in recent months, not even an attempt has been made to solve a single one of
them.
When people received shockingly high and simply unaffordable energy bills this month, the government did absolutely nothing.
When fuel companies hold the country to ransom and refuse to supply fuel unless consumer prices rise, the government does nothing but bend to their will.
When people are plunged into poverty by stagnant wages amid rising inflation, the government increased the minimum wage but kept it below the poverty line. Regarding public transport and the Cyprus problem? Nothing.
For reasons unbeknown to me, this country has been left on autopilot. As far as I can tell, the government has no plan whatsoever to deal with any of the problems facing ordinary people in this country, nor does it have any intention of drawing up any said plans.
Simply put, the government has removed itself entirely from the role of governing the country, simply allowing things to continue to become ever more broken and for the people living here to become ever poorer.
I was ready, on my walk to work on this particular Monday morning, to point out that nobody had seen or heard from Prime Minister Ünal Üstel in what felt like weeks, but he had in fact been in Güzelyurt over the weekend to tell the people there that the government “is aware of its responsibilities” and that “new policies are on the agenda”.
Personally, I am loathe to criticise Mr Üstel as I feel he did a very respectable job as Health Minister during the pandemic, and for that reason, he began as Prime Minister with a fair amount of credit in the bank, as far as I was concerned.
However, after four months in office as Prime Minister through a summer where the working people of this country have become considerably poorer and nothing has been done to ameliorate that growing problem, that credit is dwindling.
The “mini economic package” that Mr Üstel announced earlier this summer was little better than derisory, effectively just inviting people to take out loans in order to make ends meet or attempt to start a business.
Aside from that offer, we have seen absolutely nothing from the government, despite being constantly told that “new policies are on the agenda”.
If these new policies are so good and so ready, why are they not being announced and implemented?
What, exactly, is the government waiting for? I suspect that in reality the truth is that there are no new policies, because the current government’s modus operandi seems to be to do nothing, and therefore to create effective policy would be the antithesis of that.
With this in mind, I find myself wondering why the government has left the country on autopilot and is seemingly so averse to doing anything at all. Is it hubris? Do they believe that their jobs and careers are safe in any case, and that therefore they do not need to bother tending to the country which they proclaim to love?
If not hubris, are they out of ideas? Do they believe that they have exhausted all potential avenues to alleviate the cost of living crisis, and that therefore nothing can be done?
This I doubt, as Mr Üstel seems clear in his mind that there are “new policies on the agenda”, though there is a distinct possibility that this is bluff and bluster as we are still yet to see any of these new policies.
I have written before in this newspaper that the government’s only objective seems to be its own survival, and this seems to only ring truer as more and more time passes.
In the absence of policies and initiatives, what is the point in being in government, other than for the sake of it?
Quite possibly, the aim is to keep others out of government. It is not out of the question that this band of current governors are simply leaving the country on autopilot and occupying ministerial positions because they agree with each other on little more than that those in opposition would be somehow worse.
With tribalism tightening its grip over democracies across the world, I fear that this government is staying together and doing absolutely nothing while in office simply because they would all prefer that than see their political “adversaries” have a taste of power.
Briefings against opposition parties have at times been brutal and barbed, with opposition parties not hesitating a jot to return the favour, in particular after the coming to power of Mr Üstel.
This level of rhetoric does of course lead to tribalism and people end up supporting their “team” through thick and thin, rather than considering the real world consequences of a government being in power and its actions, or lack thereof.
I cannot say with any certainty that Mr Üstel’s government is simply remaining in power and leaving the country on autopilot to ensure that the opposition parties do not have a shot at power, but if that is the case, it is a sad state of affairs.
Whatever their reasons for being in government may be, however, it is about time they began acting like a government.
The people of this country are crying out for the government to take action in order to at least try to solve the cost of living crisis, make energy and fuel affordable, ensure workers earn enough to survive and get paid on time, complete much-needed infrastructure projects, and do something other than kick the Cyprus problem into the long grass.
If Mr Üstel’s government is incapable of doing any of this, then maybe they should hand over the reins to the opposition.