Published in the Cyprus Mail on September 30, 2012
TOMORROW Cyprus will mark the 52nd anniversary of the Republic with a military parade at which President Christofias will take the salute. We doubt anybody will be celebrating the occasion as the Cyprus economic miracle we liked to boast about has turned into a full-blown economic disaster at the centre of which are a bankrupt state and the island’s two biggest banks, in need of several billion euros of capital.
Add to this the continuing occupation of the north, which has gradually turned into a province of Turkey in all but name, and we have a depressing picture of the colossal failure of our leadership in these 52 years. Our leadership’s poor judgement, errors and cowardice surrendered 40 per cent of the Republic’s territory to Turkey and managed to destroy a thriving economy by surrendering it to greedy and irresponsible union bosses, for votes.
The only thing our political leaders did well was to shift the blame for their blunders, usually caused by a misguided over-estimation of their powers, elsewhere. The invasion was the result of a conspiracy by NATO, orchestrated by Britain and the US which were firmly on the side of Turkey. Our political leadership, we are to believe, did not put a foot wrong in the preceding period which led to the invasion and occupation. Nor have they done anything wrong since 1974, we are supposed to believe, even though Turkey achieved all its objectives in the meantime.
A similar narrative has been developed by the government for the current economic situation - the systemic crisis of capitalism which caused the world recession combined with the mismanagement of the banks have been blamed by the government for all our woes. Yet the main reason the state is bankrupt is because it has been living beyond its means for many years, hiring more and more people, giving them ultra-generous pay-rises every year and continuously increasing its borrowing to finance its deficits.
Was the crisis of capitalism to blame for the fact that the state payroll increased by 25 per cent in four years, and the public debt by 100 per cent in the last five years? Or was the world recession to blame for the fact that public sector union bosses have been allowed to destroy the economy by politicians who were afraid to stand up to them, less the former made a fuss about all the benefits - from non-taxable but pensionable allowances to big retirement bonuses and unjustifiably big state pensions, the latter were approving for themselves?
The politicians and the broader public sector workers did extremely well financially out of the Cyprus Republic but in the end, their lack of measure and maturity destroyed the source of their affluence. Even today, with the economy in meltdown and everything falling apart they persist with their populist rhetoric, setting conditions to our lenders and suggesting they would reject the bailout if it does not meet with their conditions.
It is this irresponsible and dishonest type of leadership, leadership which makes empty promises and tells people only what is pleasant to their ears that allowed Turkey to achieve its objective - partition, without giving an acre of territory back. But the politicians continue to make their empty promises about the fair and just settlement they would supposedly secure. They have adopted the same irresponsible populism towards the troika, pledging to resist the evil foreigners who want to impose their unfair bailout terms on us. But none of them has yet told us what they plan to do if we reject the conditions for the loan that would keep us afloat?
The entire edifice of the Cyprus Republic is about to collapse but our immature, cowardly politicians are still refusing to take responsibility for the mess they created and speaking honestly to people about the tough measures that have to be taken for the country to avoid bankruptcy. Instead, they are now using the brave, defiant words, they used for the Cyprus problem, against the troika, blaming everyone except themselves for our economic woes.
President Christofias has been at the vanguard of this dangerous populism. He has done everything in his power to live up to this cowardly, dishonest, deluded and irresponsible style of leadership that has plagued Cyprus ever since independence, and we will be suffering the consequences for many of the anniversaries of the Cyprus Republic to come. If we can afford to celebrate them.
Thanks for sharing this article, Lakis. Although I agree with most of it, I'd rather see my my glass half full than half empty. I believe that the Republic of Cyprus has known some great Presidents since 1960 who were really devoted to their country. I also hope that things will look up after the Presidential elections in February.
Posted by: Anastasia | 10/01/2012 at 05:55 PM