PROGRESS TOWARDS DEMOCRACY

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5306, 20 January 1947, Page 7

PROGRESS TOWARDS DEMOCRACY

TURKS TREAD WA'RILY ATATURK'S IDEAL MAY YET BE REALlSED. For all the ihiracles that have been worked itt the past quartereentiiry to Change Turkey into a mOdernisOd State, noit even the eouhtry^ most fervent admirer could claim that the ultimate miracle has yet come about — the transformation of Turkey tnto a democracy, writes Ian Bevan in the Sydney Morning Herald. Secret police, political5 imprisonment without trial, prosecution of journalists for criticising the Government, centralised administration with little delegation of authority: all these sign§ of a totalitarian State, and many more, can he foundi here. Yet it is n-ot true to call the country "a fascist dietatorship" (as Mos•cow ra'dio is fond of doing). People are no longer afraid to speak critieally of the Government . even though they are not always anxious to have their names quoted by foreign journalists. A new Press law recognises "the right of every eitizen to publish wherever he desires any and every sort of newspaper and magazine merely by handing in a statement an-nouncin-g his intention." An opposition party sits in Parliament and has ibeen able to modify recent legislation. The universities have been given autonomous control of their own affairs. Turkey is, in fact, neither dietatorship nor democracy. It is in a transitional stage and no one can yet say with certuinty which way it will end. -Despite his own autocratic exercise of power, there is little doubt that Kemal Ataturk hoped one day Turkey would become a democracy. He was enough of a realist to see that the miracle could not be worked overnight; and he had sufficient corMdence in his own political benevolence to believe he could maintaip a virtual dietatorship without preventing the growth of a democratic spirit. Testing Period. To-day5 eight years after his death, "it is at least eneouraging to see that the democratic spirit is alive, if not exactly fiourishing. The next few years will he the testing period of Ataturk's greatness, for they will show whether the new nation he created is capable of developing into a true democracy or whether it will slip back into the political darkness of its Ottorpan past. Democratic government will not be introduced as simply as, say, western dress or modern architecture. The inevitable social conflicts which Turkey must yet undergo if democracy is to become a reality may often make the Turkish people wonder whether the effort is worth wh'ile. Troubled political times lie ahead and they will not be made easier by the post-war economic problems from which even a war-time neutral cannot claim exemption. Another obstaele— to democratic progress may well prove to be the Moslem Church, which was stripped of all temporal power by Ataturk, but which even he could not strip of all temporal amhition. It is fortunate for the democratic cause that Ataturk was succeeded as President by a man like Ismet Inonu, whom Ataturk once ignom-iniously dismissed from public office. A quiet, home-loving man, he is a sober contrast to the lusty, overwhehning Ataturk, and has never been able to obtain a similar hold on public opinion at hom-e or abroad. He has worked hard, however, and guided Turkey further along the course which Ataturk charted. His bravest%nd most ambitious step has been his much-discussed creation of a parliamentary opposition. Ataturk tried it in 1930 but quickly abandoned the idea us premature and until 1946 Turkey xemained a one-party State: the one party being the P.R.P. or People's .Republican Party of which Inonu is leader. This year a new law allowed any group except Communists to form a political party and at the 1946 elections the P.R.P. faced an organised opposition lcnown as the Democratic Party. The sceptics said the new party was a carefully stage-managed affair designed to provide a tempting, democratic facade for the P.R.P. Certainly attempt to achieve power, for they did the new party did not make a genuine not contest sufficient sSats to gain a parliamentary majority. The people, however, voted for the Democrats in surprisingly largenumbers; larger numbers than the P.R.P. liked, and - probably much larger numbers than were allowed to he made public. Major Setback. The one major setback that the new party received in its election campaign came from outside Turkey, from a country which might have been thought most likely to encourage any possible opposition. The Soviet Union, by presenting its first Note -on the Dardanelles during the campaign, unified the Turkish people on a national issue and f orced the Democrats to ally thmselves completely with the P.R.P. on foreign policy. The P.R.P. came throu-gh the election, as was inevitable, with a handsome majority, but the Democrats have since -proved themselves a highly vocal opposition and they are continuing a vigorous campaign to organise party groups throughout the State. They speak seriously of winning the next election "four years hence and, if they could achieve a peaceful change of government by a democratic majority vote, it would undoubtedly be the most significant step forward in Turkey's history since Ataturk first 'began his campaign of westernisatioxu If the change were not peac'eful, it might easily undo most of the good work. which has been done in the last 25 years. There is, unfortunately, a certain amount of revolutionary talk; sufficient, indeed, foty'ex-Primp Minister Sukru Saracoglu to warn the public reeently that "party struggles

must on no account be turned into civil strife." Several of the more extreme Leftwingers with whom I have spoken have referred scoxmfully to the blatant manipulation of the last election and have said that the Government will be changed "only iby force." Such words come mostly from the younger intellectuals of the Istanbul University set, but surprisingly enough I heard very similar words one day from a Moslem priest who proved extremely well informed on all political matters,.j His interest in politics, as well as his fears of revolution within Turkey aimed at restoring the Moslem Caliphate is not beyond the bounds of possibility. Minority Support. The Democratic Party draws its most actiVe support from the intellectuals and diseontented minorities (Greeks, Jews and Armenians) in the cities of Istanbul and Izmir. It is having hard work winning support from the unorganised industrial workers and politically inert peasants. In this respect, the proposal to form trade unions "(on which the Turkish Government has had the advice of a British Ministry of Labour expert for the last nine months) is full of interesting possibi'lities. Trade unions, if they were anything more than shadowy extensions of Government control, would provide a totally new field of political activity. At present, opposition to the^'Govemment draws its greatest strength from the intellectual group centred around -Istanbul University. If a -political consciousness could ibe awakened among the working classes, and given a focus by trade unions, it would provide a far more solid -basis for the Opposition and would be an additional safeguard against any religious reaction. On the question of trade unions, all the internal problems of Turkey seem to come to'a head. They offer economic advantages if » Turkey is to continue her march towards industrialisation and westernisation. They olfer political advantagek if Turkey is to become a democracy. But implicit in their formation is' the encouragement of a strong opposition to the existing regime. It takes more than a politician deli'berately to create the cause of his own 'dowiifall. Ataturk did not live lon-g enough to face the problem. To Inonu is left the f ateful decision.