A POLITICAL atmosphere reminiscent of the period preceding the 2004 referendum on the Annan plan has developed since the arrival of the troika. The troika has taken on the role that Alvaro de Soto’s UN team had in 2004 as the callous foreigners who came here with the sole objective of causing maximum harm to the Greek Cypriots while championing the interests of the Turkish side. The Turks are not part of the equation this time which may explain why public anger is less intense, but the government has been working hard to take it to referendum levels.
Like the Papadopoulos government during the referendum, the Christofias government is selectively leaking information from the negotiations, calculated to rouse opposition to a bailout. Every day another item of alarmist news relating to the bailout is distorted and packaged for media use, as part of the government’s anti-bailout campaign. There is the obligatory, ultra-negative spin, the thinking behind the proposal is never explained and it is presented out of context. Nobody does propaganda and misinformation better than AKEL, and with the troika not remotely interested in engaging in a communications war (it does not care if we do not want to sign a bailout) our communist rulers are free to manipulate public opinion as they please.
Opposition parties are reluctant to challenge the official message for fear of being labelled enemies of the people by AKEL’s spokesmen who accuse anyone that supports the immediate signing of a bailout of siding with the evil troika. The ‘us and them’ mentality that prevailed during the referendum is being cultivated again and opposition politicians are falling into line. Nobody is asking the obvious question: can they trust anything that is said by the government and party of the worst president in the country’s history?
Unfortunately, it is very easy to turn politicians, in a country in which populism is the only political currency, against a bailout. Most of them agree with the government’s red lines and repeat the misinformation being disseminated by the presidential palace. Everyone, for instance, repeats the idiotic idea that the bailout should focus on growth because austerity measures did not work in other countries. But there would be no growth and job creation without drastically improving the economy’s competitiveness, which is what many of the troika’s measures are aimed at. And what growth can there be, after the collapse of the banks, which will be inevitable if a bailout is not signed in the next couple of weeks?
There is also the breast-beating over the proposed privatisation of semi-governmental organisations without a single rational argument to back keeping them under public ownership. The latest ‘outrage’ is the claim that the troika wants ‘to get its hands on our natural gas reserves’. A non-issue, considering we will not have revenue from natural gas for at least another six to eight years (if we do have any revenue). Nobody has pointed this out, preferring to repeat the myth the troika want to steal our hydrocarbon revenues.
This crude demonisation of the troika (it is now publicly being referred to a ‘loan shark’) is unrelenting, and stepped up every day. Yesterday, it was reported that proposals regarding the pensions system could never be accepted. Again, there was no information about why the troika made the ‘unacceptable proposals’ and what it was trying to achieve. It was bad because our completely untrustworthy government, which lies as a matter of routine, on a daily basis, said so.
Through the managed control of the flow of information from the negotiations to the public and the negative spin put on everything, the government is quite clearly preparing the ground for the irresponsible demagogue Christofias to utter a ‘resounding no’. He will then claim he is expressing the will of the people, the people he and his party had manipulated into believing that agreeing to a bailout would be catastrophic. Of course none of these political crooks - which include Lillikas, Omirou, Malas and a host of deputies from opposition parties - dare tell the public what will happen if we do not sign a bailout.
Failure to sign will lead to the annihilation of the economy, as the banks will collapse. Those who are able will take their deposits abroad, we will be obliged to leave the eurozone and living standards will fall to pre-1974 levels. Nothing and nobody will be spared. This is never mentioned by anyone, for fear of being labelled ‘supporters of the troika,’ and ‘enemies of the working people’ by AKEL’s henchmen.
It is imperative for politicians, officials, journalists who care about this country to speak up now, warning people of the looming catastrophe. If they do not, they will be accomplices in the crime
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Our View: Misinformation over bailout echoes 2004 referendum
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