Turkey's main opposition CHP to shed its long-criticized old ways
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Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has elected to use a convention this fall to reform its structure in response to long-standing criticism that it has failed to provide an effective alternative to the government, the Turkish Daily News (TDN) wrote on Thursday.
It has been decades since Turkey's founding party has had a hold on power for a meaningful duration. Even the CHP leader Deniz Baykal admits the party structures are archaic.
Now the party top brass, its deputies and academics are preparing for the party convention, which party officials say will settle for no less than a radical transformation, according to a report in the TDN.
Baykal and the party's executive board have been working on the convention for a long time and are expected to schedule it for November or December.
The party's administrative model and recommendations for "modern and visionary" party regulations top the list for the convention agenda. The party's top brass want to implement the changes before local elections in March 2009, the report said.
The party has often been criticized for sustaining an encumbered and clumsy bureaucracy, of falling behind contemporary politics, of keeping the door shut to young people and of retaining a sultanate structure for its leadership.
The party's base has been very vocal, complaining about the leader domination, vertical management structure and anti-democratic clauses in the governing of the party.
Baykal has titled the changes a "vision," instead of a "revision". His approach targets two basic points: the party's organization and its platform.
TOP CADRE NEEDS RESTRUCTURING
The CHP plans to shed the top-down approach to party management and implement a horizontal, fast decision making structure, according to the report.
Baykal previously said the party administration was archaic, while speaking to CHP parliamentarians and directors. "The party's top cadre needs restructuring. Our general secretary is working on it. We will boost dynamism in the party," he said.
"It is unclear who has the authority and how the party works at the moment. Local elections, for example: Who has the authority on that?" he asked. Baykal called for new positions held by experts in related fields bestowed with the authority to execute the plans.
"What we do now is to resume the collective decision making. We must support this with new institutions," Baykal urged his party brass.
What this means in practice is that the CHP will have four to 10 deputy party leaders, and will found new expertise boards and give it authority within the party administration. Deputy leaders will have titles such as "deputy leader responsible for economy" and "deputy leader responsible for local authorities". The Ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, currently uses this structure.
SIX ARROWS STAY, RECEIVE UPDATE
The CHP considers a renewed program as vital to establishing an effective party structure. The party's platform will not be revised; instead, a brand new party platform will be adopted, the TDN wrote.
Deputy General Secretary Algan Hacaloglu submitted the program, titled "Six arrows," the party emblem, which stands for Republicanism, secularism, statism, populism, nationalism and revolutionism, to Baykal.
A 164-page draft program has been prepared with contributions from deputies, academics and intellectuals and will be enriched with the public's view before the convention.
The party platform will promote democratization, a welfare state, solutions to the Kurdish issue and universal values of social democracy, all to be realized in accordance with the principles of Turkey's founder, Ataturk, the newspaper said.
The European Union, globalization, legal reforms and the ongoing fight against corruption will also be included in the program.
The party's to-do list will include concrete solutions for these issues, as the CHP wants to craft projects that pay attention to the smallest detail instead of stating party views with general ideas. Readers will be able to gain a clear understanding of solutions when they read the party projects.
CHP deputy leader Yilmaz Ates said his party's platforms had always shed a light on Turkey's path, while speaking to the TDN. "The program will discuss Turkey's current situation, and underline which solutions and institutions will best work to solve its problems," he added.