So here we are, two days away from Christmas 2011, the New Year just around the corner – 2012. I have to wonder just what 2012 will bring in the way of change in the Turkish Republic of (I was going to say Nationalised Corruption or No (a)Ccountability or No-one Cares) Northern Cyprus.
Will 2012 be the year when the Government steps up to the plate and insists this country’s Property Sector cleans up its act and becomes a beacon on a very dark island? The RoC seem not to be doing much to sort out its problems in the same sector, even though they are many times more serious than the North’s, simply because they have not had the stigma of being unfairly outcast by the rest of the World with the exception of Turkey. Both sides allegedly have a deeply entrenched history of nepotism and cronyism when it comes to appointing personnel for government jobs. Which side will be the first to stop this wholly unhealthy and unpleasant practice?
The side that takes that first and very difficult step will be rewarded with a very relieved populus. The people of North Cyprus are a very hard working people, who by the very nature of their long history of suffering, would not wish the same on anyone. It is distressing therefore to see their own people and their foreign guests being treated so unfairly by a legal system whose antiquity belongs in a musem and a Government who appears not to care.
I have been reading with interest of a proposal to cap the interest rates Banks are allowed to charge and to make this retrospective. If this does become law then it will be a very bold step forward but a very much needed one. It remains to be seen whether in fact this law, if adopted, will be applied to groups like the Kulaksiz 5, Olive Grove, Boyut Construction, Santa Fe and so many more Developers who allegedly took mortgages on properties they no longer owned, so in fact had no right to apply for or be given such mortgages. Banks must surely take a great deal of the blame for the situation the TRNC now finds itself in, as indeed should the governing bodies of the Banks and the Builders.
So will 2012 bring the much needed changes to the TRNC? I hope so, but I fear I may well be writing a similar piece at the end of 2012.
I hope not, I wish the Editor, all the readers and contributors of North Cyprus Free Press a peaceful Christmas and a much changed and Happier New Year.
May 2012 bring only good things to the TRNC.
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