TURKPULSE No:53..........OCTOBER 26th, 2001
Parliament
is working hard to rectify its misguided step about increasing MPs salaries
and pension payments with a last minute addition to the parcel of 37
constitutional amendments. President Sezer seems bent on punishing the
Legislature and the Executive by referring this unpopular move to the
people’s vote, but in so doing he is increasing his popularity at the
expense of risking the violation of his duties set out in Article 104 of the
Constitution, “… to ensure the
regular and harmonious functioning of the organs of State.”
For the details of various alternatives considered by Parliament to prevent the conduct of a referendum within 120 days and their prospects, please see the following article.
An
unbelievable achievement of the Turkish Parliament, the amendment of 34
articles of the Constitution at record speed, is tending to take a turn for
the worse towards a crisis at the top of the Turkish administration
hierarchy and jeopardizing political stability. It concerns the amendment of
Article 86 of the Constitution concerning the salaries and pension payments
of MPs (Members of Parliament).
When the
parliamentarians passed a last minute surprise article for increasing their
salaries by TL700-800 million a month after having legislated 34 articles
out of a total of 37 introduced by an inter-party reconciliation committee,
President Sezer promptly conformed to the outcry of the people and
forestalled it. In doing so he chose the most embarrassing path for the
Government and Parliament and referred it to a referendum within 120 days in
accordance with Paragraph 5 of Article 175 of the Constitution.
The
outcome of the referendum, if it ever takes place, is a foregone conclusion
– a nearly 100 per cent rejection votes by the people and an unbearable
slap across the face of Turkey’s executive and legislative rulers
excluding the President himself as he is the man who prevented this most
unpopular step by the MPs from coming to life.
A short background of the affair
The
President’s forestalling the legislation of this amendment was totally
right and in accord with the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the
people. The path he chose for it, a people’s vote, was equally wrong and
controversial. Instead of referring it to a referendum he could have vetoed
the amendment and Parliament was ready to comply with the people’s and the
president’s wishes by discarding it.
President
Sezer maintains that he had no right under the constitution to single out
and veto an amendment from the rest of the 33 amendments, which were needed
for Turkey’s accession to the EU as well as serving Turkish democracy. Yet
one of the 33 amendments had given him that power. He could first get these
articles published in the Official Gazette to go into force and then single
out the last one for a veto. Despite all the insistence of PM Ecevit and
Parliament Speaker Izgi he did not chose that path and insisted on a
referendum.
The
President’s routine weekly audience to PM Ecevit last Thursday (18th)
lasted only 16 minutes and most of it passed in silence. The Prime Minister
wisely chose to skip discussing this topic and remarked that it was an issue
between the President and Parliament. Thus he threw the ball into the court
of parliament speaker Omer Izgi (MHP-Konya). Yet Speaker Izgi has not been
any more successful in persuading President Sezer about withdrawing the
referendum demand and replacing it with a veto for the relief of the
Government and Parliament in rectifying a mistaken step by the legislature.
Now the 15-day period for the President to do so is over (the deadline was
October 20th) and this easiest way out of the crisis is legally
out.
Parliament is sweating to find a new way to forestall a referendum
After
another friction between the President and the Government over publishing
the President’s letter for a referendum in the Official Gazette, this last
formality has also been fulfilled now and the 120-day referendum process has
begun. If something is not done in the meantime, the referendum will be held
on February 24th, 2002 and the result may go as far as forcing
the Government to call early elections after a certain hollow defeat by the
people’s vote.
The
Official Opposition Party, the DYP, is exerting strenuous effort to achieve
such a result, but neither the three ruling parties, nor the other two
opposition parties seem to share Tansu Ciller’s enthusiasm. The defunct
FP’s successors, the AK Party and the SP are new parties, which need time
to complete their local organisations in order to be eligible for the
elections. That is why they are not so keen on early elections. The three
ruling parties are fully aware of the fact that they have to do something
about the current economic crisis before they can possibly stand for any
elections.
The
inter-party reconciliation committee that worked out the 37 amendments and
surprisingly passed them in an unbelievably short time much to the EU’s
surprise, is now working on a formula to change the referendum decision. The
easiest way is to pass a constitutional amendment to repeal the referendum,
as well as the pay rises to the MPs.
This
simplest way to solve the crisis has, however, a few setbacks. One of them
is that a bill rejected by parliament cannot be brought up with the
Legislature before the lapse of a year under the Standing Orders of
Parliament. This hurdle will be overcome either by changing this rule or
with an interpretation by Parliament that the matter under review is not a
bill, but an article that is not subject to the one-year rule. Another
interpretation is that Parliament did not reject the article, but passed it
and did so by reaching the required qualified majority of two-thirds of the
plenary session. So it is not a case that is subject to this rule
No
matter how this relatively easy setback will be overcome, a much more
serious hurdle, indeed danger for the prevention of the referendum is the
possibility of not passing this new article with the required qualified
majority. If the secret vote on this amendment remains between 330 and 367
votes (that is between three-fifths and two-thirds of the plenary session)
the article in question will automatically go to referendum, under the
Constitution, which means the three coalition parties need the support of
the opposition in passing this amendment. As the DYP is trying to force
early elections out of the referendum, it is not cooperating with the ruling
power, though the other two opposition parties promise to support it. To
ensure this support, PM Ecevit is considering brokering a deal with the AK
and SP parties on the lifting of the political bans on Recep Tayyip and
Necmettin Erbakan both of who have court rulings precluding them from being
elected to parliament. This matter is still subject to negotiations among
the six parties represented in Parliament and most probably a solution will
be found with or without Tansu Ciller’s cooperation.
Even if
the worst comes to the worst and a referendum becomes inevitable, it is
doubtful that this will result in early elections, as PM Ecevit rightly says
that the opposition is as much responsible for a wrong step by Parliament
about the salary increases as the ruling parties. Besides, MPs would think
more than twice before they vote for shortening their parliamentary terms by
two-and-a-half years no matter what their party centre may wish.
Other
formulas are also considered to preclude the referendum such as the Speaker
Izgi’s suggestion of holding the referendum at the same time as the
elections on April 18th, 2004, with a temporary article to Law
3376 that regulates the terms of a referendum. The general tendency,
however, is to pass a one article constitutional amendment for repealing the
referendum for MP`s salaries.
President’s
popularity rises at expense of harmony among State organs
According
to a PIAR Gallup Poll, President Sezer, with 78.5% backing, has surpassed in
popularity, the traditionally most prestigious institution of Turkey, the
Turkish Armed Forces, which scored 74.6%, while parliamentarians had the
backing of only 8.8% of the participants.
While
this is the case on the popularity front, a close scrutiny of the
Constitution shows that the President is clearly risking his neutrality and
acting with political motives. Paragraph one of Article 104 of the
Constitution stipulates:
“The President of the Republic is the Head of the State. In this capacity he shall represent the Republic of Turkey and the unity of the Turkish nation; he shall ensure the implementation of the Constitution and the regular and harmonious functioning of the organs of State”
Is
President Sezer conforming to this rule of regular and harmonious
functioning of the organs of State by falling at odds with the Executive and
Legislative Powers of State? Is he not acting from the narrow angle (not to
say “blinkers”) of a jurist rather than the neutrality, experience,
flexibility and far-sightedness of a top-level statesman of president
stature, and doing so at such a critical point of the national economy and
war conditions of the world? President Sezer with his modesty and high
principles of an impeccable jurist has won the esteem of the nation in his
first year in office, but he has certainly become a problem for a truly
honest prime minister and his three-party coalition that is making
Parliament work unbelievably efficiently under severe economic conditions
and at a turning point of the nation and the world. uras@ada.net.tr,
October 26th, 2001