By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
I don’t know if this is the right way to put it.
However, it could be called ‘a shrinking of the axis in politics’.
Or, one could also define it as ‘a narrowing of political issues’.
Can you please take a look at the political agenda since the presidential elections?
Of course, we will keep talking about the position, status and outlook of the power that is the main determinant in politics, but it is obvious that we will circle around and always stop at the same point in the discussions.
We will even go back further.
Unfortunately, progress is in that direction…
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Let’s take a look at the issues that have been on the ‘political agenda’ since the presidential election.
What has been done, what has not been done, the ramifications of all these on all aspects of life, the repercussions of the economic crisis, corruption in the public sector/evidently dubious tender processes, and power struggles between ministers and prime ministers…
Favours made to companies coming to the island from Turkey, their repercussions, tender processes, financial crises…
Did any of this change the voters’ behaviour when voting?
To put it more simply, did people vote based on any of these [issues]?
Judging by the reactions on social media, almost everyone is distressed by what has happened.
However, when it comes to voting, or the voting period, other issues are reheated and brought to the agenda, and voters make their decisions based on the ‘new agenda’ rather than the old one.
What is this agenda? Fear!
The discourse of “If these people come to power, it will be shit – If these people win the election, there will be a crisis” is being circulated around.
The extensions of political gangs, called “news websites” or “online newspapers”, allegedly contribute to, and even take an active part in the creation of this agenda.
These “news websites” are fed with public resources, and voters are led to vote in line with this “new” and virtual agenda.
Currently, this is exactly how the mechanism of agenda-making is created in the northern part of Cyprus…
Why is that? Because the ‘invisible hand’ wants it that way…
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Of course, this mechanism has succeeded/is succeeding in keeping a certain number of voters under control.
From time to time, the atmosphere becomes tense, with the contribution of both sides, and the situation gets dragged into a debate on whether “you love your own people or not”.
This is what happened with the Külliye issue [Editor’s note: a new official complex under construction near the Agios Dhometios checkpoint].
Flawed and erroneous discourses used by both sides brought the situation to a point of polarization, and the ‘invisible hand’ trying to change the agenda was unknowingly served.
However, the people’s agenda was the rising cost of living, the economic crisis, the erosion of purchasing power…
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In this very situation, it is useful for those who love their country and people to stop and think about managing the agenda.
Because setting/managing the agenda has got something to do with the means of mass communication and politics.
The media has a great duty to serve here.
For journalists and press organisations who love their people and have no hidden agenda…
I can hear you ask, “How many of you are there left?”!
In regimes like ours, where democracy has suffered a ‘deep’ wound, of course the concept of media is also ill-fated.
Because in this foggy environment, influencers on social media who declare themselves as ‘journalists’, websites of individuals with murky connections, and publicly-financed, subcontracted, fake newsmen are able to find a place for themselves.
And these dodgy types have come to the point of managing the agenda.
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Of course, there are powers that manage them!
Political power groups, certain segments of the government, military groups and some financial circles…
Sometimes non-governmental organisations, and to a lesser extent associations, and independent volunteers…
Do you realise who sets the agenda in our country?
Or, let me ask this, have political groups and the media in opposition to the current regime been able to create a new agenda other than the one stemming from the point of ‘objection to what is happening’?
What have we been dealing with in recent years other than the activities, irregularities and illegal activities of the pro-regime gang?
Don’t you see that it is always the same issue behind all our agendas?
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Have we not yet realised that all items on the agenda, ranging from the collapse of governments to changing ministers, from KIB-TEK’s [Turkish Cypriot Electricity Authority] fuel to the citizenship issue, from the construction of the Külliye to the smallest problem all come from a single source?
Because we are late in realising that not only the power to engage in politics, but also to set the political agenda has been taken away from ‘us’.
In short, we must be the ones to set the agenda and we must act upon it as soon as possible.
Because something has slipped away and we are being dragged along with it.
Whatever you call the name of the problem, however you define it, these events are a big problem for the country, and it is high time that we talk about what we need to do to change this…
I am telling you…
Source: AGENDA, VOTES AND POWER!
