A state—or, more precisely, the governments that run it—has a primary duty to treat every citizen equally. When this is not the case, distrust and grievances arise.
In fact, it is worth elaborating on these grievances.
For example, if you give something to certain people out of the state budget—and therefore with citizens’ money—when they are not entitled to it, those who do not receive it may feel aggrieved. What you give can take different forms: a plot of land, drought compensation, employment, and so on…
The result is the same.
As a government, unless you are transparent and fair, every action you take can leave others feeling aggrieved. When you hire some people into the public sector, those you do not hire may feel aggrieved.
On the other hand, we also have long-standing grievances: very few citizens in our country do not feel aggrieved over the land and houses distributed after 1974. There are people who served as mujahideen for years and have thousands of points but do not know what to do with them. Even worse, there is no one in this country who can tell them what to do with those points…
Can there be such an administration, such governments?
If you can give millions of lira to some people under the name of drought compensation, shouldn’t you also give money to those who have not earned anything from their own private-sector work? What will you do for those operating in the private sector who have invested all their money in their businesses and are now suffering because the market is doing badly? What will you say if one day they come out and say, “We did everything, but we went bankrupt because you, as the state, failed to regulate the market. You pay farmers because you can’t make it rain, but you couldn’t find customers for us… Now give us back the money we invested or employ us in the public sector”? What will you do if they go even further, go on hunger strike and storm Parliament?
My regular readers know that I don’t go on at length…
The conclusion is clear and simple.
My advice to the government is that, whatever they do, they should think carefully about the consequences…
They should be transparent and understand that they must treat every citizen equally and fairly.
Otherwise, they will continue to create new grievances in this country with each passing day.