When democracy functions well in a civilized society… and where the people respect the rights and opinion of others, it can never go wrong! I am referring to a mature British democracy where the government has offered British citizens the right to a historic Referendum on 23 of June. The people would decide what’s in the interest of Britain of whether to remain “IN” or get “OUT” of the EU. It prescribes, that, important constitutional and sovereignty decisions are not left to a cabal of temporary politicians.
The British PM kept his election promise and did the honorable thing to name the day of the Referendum. What is amazing, a number of his cabinet minsters publicly declared their stand to get “OUT” of the EU without the fear of political repercussions by the Party hierarchy – that’s political maturity.
It is now up to the two opposing camps to debate the issue publicly and then let the people decide. A well-informed citizen would ultimately make a well-informed decision! This is what direct democracy and transparency is all about – freedom of information!
An untouchable political elite in Cyprus operates in exact the opposite way; one of elected dictatorship! In fact, the current President and his Party have not kept one single election-promise made to the electorate. They get away with it, because citizens continually fail to hold them responsible for disloyalty – that’s political immaturity.
Today, the nation is faced with a constitutional quandary of biblical proportions where citizens are kept in the dark about the Bi-zonal, Bi-communal Federation (BBF) negotiations; negotiations that aim to partition the island! If the current pro-EU government and its allies get their way, a BBF referendum may also become another broken promise of the past.
It is prudent to take an interest in the British EU Referendum debate and learn from them not to handover sovereignty decisions to a group of temporary politicians without the overwhelming support of the electorate. A referendum is none other than a People’s Veto against ill-conceived government policies that threaten the national interest of the nation.
Like the Brexit question, a Cyprexit question may not be a bad thing either…
Andreas C Chrysafis
February 21, 2016
