The election, awaited with curiosity and excitement, has finally taken place. There will undoubtedly be many comments about the results. Probably, comments about the results will include phrases like “I told you so,” “I said so,” and so on. As someone joining in this chorus, I, too, will quote from what I’ve written…
KADEM’s research was widely debated in our country.
In my article titled “Poll Wars,” which I wrote on April 6, 2009, I said exactly the following: “I can’t help but be surprised as I hear the debates and remarks about KADEM’s poll! After all, when the same institution once produced the results desired by those criticizing it now, the debates went in the opposite direction. I also recall that the results of the research KADEM conducted at the time proved to be accurate.
Putting all that aside, when we consider how much Muharrem Faiz, who was also my teacher, values science, his scientific work, and his role as a university professor, I think we should bring the criticism being made to a more measured level.
Don’t you think it’s contradictory to so oversimplify a study that uses many scientific methods, turn your back on science, level such accusations against it, and then aspire to govern the country?”
It seems that turning your back on science does not go unpunished.
Another thing I can’t leave unmentioned is that, at the time I wrote these lines, I was accused of being a UBP supporter. Yet—as is clear above—what I was trying to say in my article was that it was wrong to criticize a scientific study so harshly.
Until the very last moment, our President made statements pointing to a vision of a solution without naming names. Frankly, I wonder whether he received the necessary message. For a party that is “accused” of not wanting a solution, yet says it supports one, to reach a level where it can govern alone raises a question for those accusing it of not wanting a solution: “Could this result mean that the public has moved away from a vision of a solution?”
My personal view is the opposite. I don’t think the result means that the public does not want a solution. In my view, the last period in government has shown that a vision of a solution is not something tied solely to political parties! In my article titled “The Fight Over Rent-Seeking,” which I wrote in this column on April 14, I said the following: “It would not be wrong to say that every party supports a solution to the Cyprus problem. The debates on this issue actually reveal a rather ridiculous situation. The parties accuse one another of not wanting a solution, prefacing it with the word ‘actually’; but it is obvious that no party has a solution in its hands. I wonder how convincing it can be to keep telling the people of the TRNC, who have witnessed the rule of a party that came to power with the slogan ‘We Will Solve the Cyprus Problem,’ that ‘we are the ones who will bring about a solution.’ Given this, I can’t understand why parties use the Cyprus problem as an argument.”
It seems that our people, too, have been unable to understand those who keep insisting on using this argument…
We will continue talking about the messages conveyed by the election.
But as of now, we can say that these elections have been an “election without a solution.”
In other words, a vision of a solution is important! But, as I have tried to say above, this issue is not in the hands of those in government! It appears that this is very well understood by the Turkish Cypriot people, too…
Hope to see you on Friday…
Pay attention to your surroundings, keep them clean, and please be respectful in traffic!