A contribution to the opposition

Sabih Kanadoğlu has made a rather pessimistic forecast, from his own or the opponents' standpoint, about the process concerning the constitutional amendment. According to him, every move made with the intention of opposing the constitutional amendment seems likely to serve the AK Parti's interests. Whether the opposition resists in the parliament, whether, once it becomes law, it applies to the Constitutional Court and the Court accepts this application and issues an annulment decision or not, in any case it is inevitable that the AK Parti will come out of this move profiting.

In an earlier interview, Kanadoğlu had explained that, far from being angry at him for the "367" invention, AK Parti members should even be grateful to him. I do not know any AK Parti member who is grateful to him, but thanks to heeding the advice he gave during the 367 process, the way was opened for Abdullah Gül to become President with a far more indisputable legitimacy, and even more was secured. In the referendum held under the influence of that atmosphere, the election of the president by the people from now on was accepted by popular vote without causing serious tension. What made it possible to take these steps, revolutionary in terms of democracy, was the wind that the opposition front, to which Kanadoğlu also made an important contribution, set blowing. Thanks to that wind, the AK Parti found itself in a position of rightness to carry out arrangements it could not have made under normal conditions.

When Kanadoğlu thinks that AK Parti members owe him thanks, he is therefore not unjustified. But it seems doubtful how far he himself will heed the lessons he draws from this style of opposition. His mind is still searching for the most effective way to be displayed against the constitutional amendment. Yet this very search serves no purpose other than continually opening up positions and fields that will ease the AK Parti's politics.

Because the process the government has started on the constitutional amendment fits the general demands and good sense of society's sociology, the opposition shown against this process has no chance whatsoever. It would truly be to the opposition's own benefit to heed the voice coming from Kanadoğlu's vast experience. They are still in a naivety such that, if they can reflect this process to their own base as they wish, that is, as the AK Parti's attempt to take the judiciary captive, they could disrupt the process. When they oppose, merely because the AK Parti is doing it, constitutional reforms that their minds in fact wholeheartedly approve and that many of them have themselves put on the agenda at different times, they are badly mistaken in thinking that their own base will not part from them, like a partridge in the bag. They could understand, at least by listening to Kanadoğlu's voice, that this style of opposition they are engaging in suits the AK Parti and in the end has an empowering effect on it.

In fact, the way for them to come out of this phase stronger lies in becoming partners in the process instead of opposing it. If they stand beside arrangements that will certainly be well received by society, it is even possible for them to share in the premium the AK Parti might collect from this and to benefit from the process with minimal damage, even with a great political profit. Perhaps the CHP has real reasons for being, in essence, against the arrangements especially on the judiciary. Because it sees the judiciary as its backyard, there is the matter of this sphere of influence being taken from its hands in this process. But this country cannot bear the damage that its continuing this relationship, which has by now "come out like iodine," does both to itself and to the judiciary. Sooner or later the CHP or the judiciary needs to end this relationship, to end the attitude of "I won't let the judiciary be taken away." The CHP's continuation as a political party seems it will depend on reviewing this relationship.

Yet the lesson the MHP must draw from this scene is both easier and far harder to do otherwise. It must see that an opposition it mounts on this issue merely so as not to benefit the AK Parti will bring it no benefit whatsoever.

Perhaps it is not an advice that is valid at all times, but especially on issues with such high social resonance, joining an initiative of the government strengthens one's position as an opposition far more. It should have more than enough experience of this, with the knowledge of what its support for Gül's presidency gained it.

The MHP must decide whether it should form an alternative to the government or to the main opposition. Despite the working electoral alliances it has established with the CHP base in many places, it will be forced to shrink its target audience greatly by trailing behind the CHP as its alternative. The return from forming an alternative to the government is of course far greater; it can strike an easier language with the voters there, and the government's voters are far more numerous. To form an alternative to the CHP, one has to resemble the CHP. Of course, to form an alternative to the government too, one has to prove at least that one is better on the issues where the government is truly weak, but also to show that one is, or could be, with it on the good works.

Let this be my humble contribution to the opposition.