Turkey without corruptions in 21st century

Bulent Akarcali/ ANAP Istanbul Deputy

       I want to present the issue of "Turkey without corruption" to the
       readers in two or three articles. I believe that this issue needs to be
       brought on the agenda now that five banks have been taken under the scope of
       Savings Deposits and Insurance Fonds. The public had created the slogan of
       "Clean Hands" in 1996, against all evil in society. The scream for an
       "Uncorrupt Society" was at its peak after the Susurluk accident. There has
       been serious works held for that aim and there has been many successes. The
       question is how to remove the corruption in all levels of the society seen
       despite all these works. This is the point we should fundamentally be
       worrying about. It would be a big mistake to think that this is a disease
       only our country suffers from. This illness that eats away our society's
       structure is also seen in Western and Eastern societies. Permanent and
       serious struggle against all corruption within the society can only be
       possible in democratic societies. The only regime where the public can speak
       for itself, where the public can articulate its ideas through meetings,
       demonstrations, conferences, panels, seminars, symposiums through using
       institutions of press, associations, political parties and union labors is
       the democratic regime.
       There are two basic events to remove corruption and prevent it from
       happening again in the 21st century: One is to guarantee the citizens'
       rights to obtain information. The other is the need of transperancy in
       administrating the state. Following these two come the freedom for press,
       political ethics, parliamentary control and independency of judicion. If we
       discuss the right to reach information from the state, we can see that all
       information that is not determined to be secret by law, is open for public's
       knowledge. The state does not hide things from its citizens. The system
       where all these information is put forth, is not only open for every
       citizen, but is also for free and it is fast. The society knows that the
       state is there to serve its citizens and provide them with humanly life
       standards. Civil servants on the other hand are not people who only take
       orders from and serve for their superiors. However they are people who know
       that they should be serving the citizens who pay their salaries through the
       taxes they give. The Unites States, who percieved that the bases of a
       society without corruption lies in the right to obtain information and use
       this information, had passed a law that adopts these rights 33 years ago.
       Even the Unites States society, that is an information society, had needed a
       legal arrangement for this issue, and so do we. I am hoping to inspect this
       issue in my next article, and wish that the new year will bring happiness to
       our country, nation and the whole humanity.