Wise persons don’t enter the service of a gov’t: Turkish main opposition leader

ZONGULDAK – Doğan News Agency

"A wise person is someone who does not rent his mind," Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said.

The leader of the Turkish main opposition has slammed the Wise Persons Commission members, who recently kicked off their nationwide meetings by conducting their first visits since being assigned the beginning of the month. “A wise person is someone who does not rent his mind, someone who does not enter into the service of the government,” Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said April 13 at the inauguration of a thermal power plant in Turkey’s coal mining capital Zonguldak.
 
Kılıçdaroğlu argued that the Wise Persons would not transmit any different message than the government’s own stance. “A wise person does not do what a parrot does. He does not visit the whole country to repeat what somebody says,” he added.
 
CHP’s leader also criticized the fourth judicial reform package enacted April 11 by the Turkish Parliament following long public debates, emphasizing that it fell short of expectations. “I told [European commissioner] Stefan Füle when he visited me that after each judicial reform package, the number of jailed journalist had increased. Does the number of journalists in jail with this new judicial package decrease? No. Are the obstacles in front of the prisoner of thoughts removed? No,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, adding that CHP’s Zonguldak deputy Mehmet Haberal was still in prison for his alleged role in the ergenekon coup-plot case. “If a ruling party does not respect the people’s will by keeping the deputies elected by their vote in prison, it means that there is not a healthy democracy in this country.”