The other day, in my column titled “Choosing,” I underlined the importance and difficulty of choosing. Being elected is just as difficult and important! Since I thought the examples I gave in Tuesday’s column would be sufficient, I believe it would be unnecessary to give more examples about being elected. But it is worth recalling the final words of that column!
_From my January 13, 2009 column titled “Choosing”: _ _“_ An election is coming soon! With this in mind, we should already be following politicians closely as informed voters rather than voting based on party logos, and recognize the responsibility we have taken on. We must not forget that politics, the art of governing, and the politicians who practice it have a role in shaping our lives and solving our problems; for this reason, we have no luxury of saying things like “We don’t trust politicians” or “Politics bores me” during this process!” Yes, as voters, we have no luxury of saying things like “We don’t trust politicians” or “Politics bores me”! But those who are to be elected also have no such luxuries. In other words, there are things they need to pay attention to as well…
When we consider the government heading into the election, the importance of trust comes to the fore once again. The fall of the CTP-DP government, the coalition formed with the newly established ÖRP—which governed despite not having contested an election—and the years that have passed since then. But when we look back at those days, the issues being discussed were far from reassuring! Political ethics had once again become a prominent topic in the country, and a party formed by members resigning from other parties had become a partner in government.
Unproven allegations and rumors that money had been discussed had cast a shadow over the country’s politics and left deep scars in the public’s memory. My concern is not who received how much, or the allegations themselves. My concern is the events that led the public to discuss these issues. If there are candidates whose views do not align with their party’s, they should come forward now and say so openly, so that after the election this society does not once again have to deal with resignations and party-switching under these pretexts! Otherwise, telling the public things like “Trust your politicians” is just empty talk and makes no sense.
Ultimately, for us to be able to tell voters, “Hey, voters, politics, the art of governing, and the politicians who practice it have a role in shaping our lives and solving our problems; for this reason, we have no luxury of saying things like ‘We don’t trust politicians’ or ‘Politics bores me’ during this process!’,” those who are to be elected need to be mindful of their own conduct. Just as voters—whose room to maneuver we restrict and whose privileges we take away—have no luxury of acting in ways that plunge society into despair, at least when it comes to trust, neither do those who are to be elected!
In this situation, I would like to remind those who are to be elected that they need to recognize their own importance, not forget that they are in politics for the public, and remember that the society they are trying to serve has, as has unfortunately been mentioned many times in this column, a great many problems. These problems are waiting to be solved, and politicians asking the public for an opportunity to solve them need to act with this awareness. This should be the primary duty of responsible politicians who are concerned with building an advanced society! The public can see politicians who think that arguing with and blaming one another is what politics is about; when the public cannot see it, the media fulfills its responsibility in this regard.
I do not hesitate to say that we have many more things to say to those who are to be elected in our country, where the election campaign has begun, and I would like to say that I look forward to meeting you again in this column on Tuesday.
Pay attention to your surroundings, keep them clean, and please be respectful in traffic!