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|Is here such a thing as Democratic Authoritarianism? Turkey under the Leadership of Recep Tayyib Erdogan|

By Almamy Fanding Taal

On July 9th, 2018, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was inaugurated as the first directly elected President of Turkey with enhanced executive powers following the victory of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its Coalition partner the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) at the snap election that was called and held on 24th June 2018. 

That victory brought back to the driving seat the two allied parties that had achieved the most parliamentary seats, the AKP and MHP. Coalition Governments everywhere for the sake of stability and development are party led except in the Gambia, it is the case in Senegal, Germany, and Turkey. In the past eighteen months many things have happened in Turkey and around the world.

President Recep Tayyib Erdogan secured an emphatic win in the Presidential election which was never in doubt.  His latest victory gives him a wide mandate and keeps him in power till 2023. Erdogan’s victory implies that Turkey, a strategic leader of the Muslim World and a vital interlocutor between the West and non-westerners, will evolve from a UK Westminster-style parliamentary system to a more US-styled system with a powerful presidential structure, reinforcing the 2017 Constitutional referendum.

With President Erdogan’s victory, voters now clearly support the institutionalisation of a new presidential system and remain hopeful that it will help resolve economic difficulties while advancing reforms. The AKP won because most people, who endured Turkey’s economic woes of the 1990s, conceded that the brittle coalitions of that era were to blame. Turkey’s electorate still indict coalitions with epic economic mismanagement. Those who remember the old, malfunctioning state with trepidation influenced this election outcome. 

Under Erdogan, Turkey’s middle class grew strong as well as their standard of living. Demand for better health, education, and housing rose substantially. However, the spectre of long-term debt now haunts the well-being of this burgeoning middle-class consumer base. Nevertheless, there are strong reforms underway in the Turkish economy which could return Turkey to sustainable growth. Recently the world largest airport terminal was opened in Istanbul so was the world largest mosque inaugurated.  

These monumental infrastructure developments are delivered alongside a host of mega projects, bridges, and tunnels beneath the breath-taking Bosporus. No doubt the Turkish people will continue demand more institutionalisation and civic development that will strategically steer Turkey’s political milieu over the coming years.

That economic prosperity and democratisation in Turkey have reached great heights positioning the country as a significant player in global affairs and undeniably makes the case that there are alternatives to the Washington Consensus and neo liberal agenda, however where the country will move on from here remains pivotal.

President Erdogan’s government’s urgent challenges and opportunities within the context of the Islamic Ummah remains to fully integrate millions of Syrian refugees, which has thus far been accomplished with textbook efficiency, ease tensions with the EU and North America and intensify Turkey’s promising geo-strategic consolidation towards the Islamic Ummah which currently comprises 57 Muslim countries that stretch across four continents and form an essential artery for international trade via meaningful land and maritime presence. 

With the global population share of more than 22 per cent, Muslim countries have 70 per cent of world’s energy resources and 40 per cent of the global raw materials. Therefore, the idea of being one of the global leaders of the Ummah can be forged as an extremely useful tool to maximise the leverage on the numerous bargaining chips possessed by the Muslim states collectively.

In this context, at last UNGA in September 2019 President Erdogan of Turkey, PM Imran Khan of Pakistan and Malaysia have announced the establishment of joint venture for a Television Channel in English to combat Islamophobia around the world and particularly in the global West. 

This is a step in the right direction, Qatar, France, Iran, and China have been broadcasting to world in English for a sometime now. It is certainly an effectively communication channel to tell the Islamic story and respond to several misconceptions about Muslims.

By any measure President Erdogan has demonstrated great statesmanship on the global stage over a series of geostrategic matters and has firmly established his leadership credentials of the Muslim Ummah over the years.  It is really gratifying to see Prime Minister Imran Khan fully supporting his leadership in a vastly polarised world and in some parts anti-Islamic. The Muslim narratives must be delivered by Muslim leaders like President Erdogan.

Considering the foregoing discussion and to answer the question above it is well to remember that Mahathir Muhammed during his long and eventful leadership of Malaysia was lambasted and called all kinds of names by the western media. Prime Minister Mahathir had recently made a comeback to active politics in Malaysia at the ripe age of 92 because of his venal, corrupt, and incompetent protégé and successor’s mismanagement of the economy. 

Therefore, describing a non-western leader as autocratic or illiberal simply means that western commentators have not been engaged as consultants or advisers of these leaders. Beyond that characterising a non-western leader as authoritarian presupposes that there is a single formula for democracy: in the last US Presidential elections, Mrs. Clinton won the popular vote by more than 3 million votes, but Trump was elected President according to the American formula of democracy.   

Even in the face of the spectacular success of Singapore, first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was often described as an authoritarian democrat. In the past this vilification against leaders of non-western countries was largely ideological ranging from Marxist Leninist communism to all other progressive forms of organising society different from the Anglo-Saxon model of democracy. 

This Eurocentric view of democracy has led some highly respected western scholars like the Japanese American Francis Fukuyama(whose ancestors were kept in internment camps during WWII) to announce the end of history and the last Man following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The main thesis of this influential article is that a remarkable consensus concerning the legitimacy of liberal democracy as a system of government had emerged throughout the world over the past few years, as it conquered rival ideologies like hereditary monarchy, fascism, and most recently communism. 

More than that, however, he argued that liberal democracy may constitute the \"end point of mankind\

By Sheriff Saidykhan & Amadou Manneh

The residents of London Corner especially those near the water-channel have lamented their growing predicaments  over access to road in the past two days. 

The residents stated that the rain of the past two days have prevented them from going out of their houses.

They also stated that they are finding it difficult to go to the shop or market because the roads are filled with stagnant waters.

They further adduced that, if any heavy downpour occur the water will cause floods in their homes and houses.

Bintou Bah,  a resident said the rain of the past two days haven’t flooded in their house yet but it has blocked their roads.

Bintou’s house was flooded in the last August flash flood  that caused deaths and destruction  across the country.  

She said that the water channel  has been unsafe for residents to go out and about, because it is dangerous to walk in the potholes fill with dirty waters.

Nyima Barjo another resident in the area said that her grandmother’s house was flooded but it hasn’t cause  any damage of properties.

“The problem is that we are finding it difficult to access road to the market or to the shop because all the roads are fill with water,” she said.

She concluded that the road is flooded because the flooding water is not smoothly flooding through the channel. Adding that it rather floods on their roads making it difficult to go out to the market or shop anytime it rains.