The result of the rush of the omnibus bill

We are right in the middle of a scandal that would never ever occur in a country under the rule of law.

The Criminal Court of Peace judges who are authorized to decide on arrests have been rejected; it is not definite which authority is to decide on this demand. 

According to the one who thinks like me, the Criminal Court of First Instance should be the correct address. Another opinion is that the authorized court in this case is the “Criminal Court of Peace in the nearest province.”   

There may be differences of opinion, but this is an extremely delicate subject: It is about the rights and freedoms of individuals; the restriction or non-restriction of a person’s freedom depends on this. 

And in such a critical situation, there is one reason why it is open to interpretation: It is the omnibus bill. 

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has included a clause about Criminal Court of Peace judges in haste in an omnibus bill to cover up the corruption investigations and what we are going through is a true legal scandal that has erupted as a result of this. 

As matter of fact, there are hundreds of legal people in the Justice Ministry that understand and can solve these matters. Almost one-third of the parliament consists of legal people. There are legal experts in every party; some of them are professors.

Despite all that, this law came out so sloppily, because there was no time left to discuss it; neither was there time to review the shortcomings of the newly introduced law.

If normal procedures were applied and if this business was not done by omnibus laws, then it would have been like this: 
The experts in the Justice Ministry would debate the draft law and prepare it. This draft law would be submitted to the government. The government would look into it – they have many law people there also, you know. 

Then this draft would be submitted to the parliament, it would be discussed in the Justice and Constitution Commission. Each party has its best law people appointed to these commissions. They would have discussed it and would have made sure that the law has been written in the best way it can be. 

Then it would be debated in parliament and finally adjustments would be made through proposals, be voted on and accepted. 

If it were like this, then we would not be experiencing this scandal. However, the AKP’s mentality of “I have done it and here it is” has brought Turkey here.

When the entire society is corrupt  

According to a survey by Transparency International, 48 percent of voters in Turkey will not change their vote despite corruption claims about the party they have voted for. The country head of the organization, Oya Özarslan, said she was horrified at the results of the survey.  

Actually, there is nothing to be horrified about. This is the result of general corruption in Turkey and it is not surprising at all.

The reason is that there should be only very few people in this country who have not taken advantage of the general situation we define as “corruption.”

Politics is financed by corruption to a huge extent, from the remnants of this, the voter benefits through coal, flour or cooking oil. In this country, “turning the wheels” is a form of doing business. This style is seen as a type of “income distribution.” 

In this country, whatever you do, according to the general belief, you do it for some kind of an interest.
If football coach Mustafa Denizli has said on TV that something should not be a penalty, he has done so absolutely for interests; this is how it is perceived. It is only the fans of that team who believe he has interpreted it as so because he saw it that way. Next week, though, these fans will believe that Denizli interpreted an offside wrong on purpose because of “interests.” 

In this country, finding a loophole in the laws is actually “knowing your business well.”

A person who thinks he or she has committed no crime has at least annexed his balcony to his living room, thus committing a building crime. 

This picture can be defined as, in its most general sense, “corruption,” and unfortunately we are living in such a country. 

For this reason, we are never free of trouble and scandal.