An amateur political arena These show even a lack of professionalism from the part of Cypriot politicians and the governance system in general. By carefully going through these points and facts, what it seems to me, not only by examining the press year by year but also through my experience in the Cypriot society, is that we don’t have a reliable political arena with serious politicians who co-work with technocrats and other professional agencies in order to produce effective, reliable, and modern legislations. There are many proofs to that and the previous are just a few. How is it possible to have a state in which the government consults an informal group of people (Group of Conscripts’ Parents) in order to produce legislations? Moreover, how can happen, to discuss these measures over and over again while it is obvious that they are unconstitutional and they cannot pass. Let’s keep aside their unconstitutionality. Why do politicians insist? Based on what rational? Isn’t it pointless and an indication of idiocy? These are just rhetoric questions but at the same time they are another way to dive into the core of Cypriot mentality which is reflected in our political arena.
The Cypriot mentality A further food for thought for that point, is given by the LSE Fellow, Dr Omiros Georgiou, who is a social scientist and he himself, as a Cypriot, has an important experience not only in the National Guard but also with the Cypriot mentality. I interviewed him for the purposes of this research and some of his remarks can shed a light at this exact point of the paper. ‘We have a problematic governance system in Cyprus. You don’t have to be an expert to understand that’ Dr Georgiou says to me in a combination of a sarcastic and puzzled tone. As he emphasizes, Cypriot politicians misuse their powers and at the end of the day they ‘cut and sew’ policies without any indication of seriousness and professionalism and that’s an important reason for their failure59. Dr Georgiou gives an example to that and says that ‘Even recently, a few days ago, they (Cypriot politicians) violated one of the four basic pillars of the European Union (free movement of capital) because they couldn’t think of any other way to handle the economic crisis. What would you expect from them to do with conscription? The exact same thing with different actions and characters. In the first instance they stole money from people by giving cheap justifications which present them as the only option, accompanied with 59
This can also be the answer to the crucial question which has arisen earlier, as to why politicians propose such profoundly undemocratic, unconstitutional proposals so easily and repeatedly, without any indication of respect towards basic human rights and international standards.
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