The Good Party
I look at the Good Party (İyi Parti) from two perspectives: What the core is and what the overarching concepts in their program are. İbrahim Uslu, head of the ANAR polling firm, had said that “white-collar right-wing voters” who feel alienated from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) would cast a “No” vote in the referendum earlier this year. That is exactly what happened.
Today Uslu says 30 percent of the voters are not pleased with the existing parties, and that the Good Party would appeal to them, but that the number of votes they receive will depend on their performance. Uslu’s analyses look realistic to me. That disillusioned thirty percent have differing tendencies. It is not easy to unite diverse political views that cover nationalists, conservatives, social democrats and liberals, under the same “roof,” as Uslu states.
Akşener clearly does not aim to create a huge party, but rather a small, ideological party that will remain for a long time. They have already said they will run for the presidential elections.
Akşener aspires to appeal to voters with concepts such as “center” and “patriotism” as opposed to ideological concepts held by other parties. In politics, practice always supersedes theory. As the government bloc is fairly active, with some judicial processes under their control, Akşener and her friends face certain limits.
The new party will need to struggle in order to succeed. I would underline the following principles featured in the Good Party’s program concerning the law:
• We will return to the parliamentary system and strengthen the separation of powers.
• We will reconstruct the Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) in accordance with ensuring the independence of the judiciary and providing assurance to natural and legal judicial principles and processes.
• We will immediately end governing with state of emergency decrees.
• We will ensure that the principles of international criminal law rule are utilized in arrests and make sure reasonable suspicion is obligatory.
The government currently determines the HSK. A fundamental problem in Turkey is that political authority overwhelmingly influences government institutions. In this regard, I would also underline the following principles in the Good Party’s program:
• The Central Bank will be operational and independent when identifying and managing monetary policies. We will ensure that the Central Bank is independent from political authority.
• We will make the Supreme Court of Accounts - one of the constitutional institutions - active again to inspect budget spending.
• We will form a committee to fight corruption. We will remove the issue of the influence of the statute of limitations on corruption trials. We will build special courts to hold where corruption cases.
• In provinces, we will organize judicial police organizations connected to the chief public prosecutor’s office.
I must emphasize this: Unfortunately law enforcement is tied to the Interior Ministry instead of the prosecutors. The Police can write indictments. There has long been an emphasis on “judicial police” in U.N. reports. The AKP also said they would “form a judicial police” in their 2001 program but until today no such force has been formed. If we want our government to work within an honorable state that is subject to the rule of law, we must pay great attention to these judicial and corporate principles. We must always keep them on the agenda.
