About Sırrı Süreyya Önder's criticism of secularism and the republic

Born Immigrant

The big problem of those who do not understand Sırrı Süreyya Önder's criticism of the Republic and perceive it as hostility towards the Republic and secularism stems from the fact that they have only known the only form of secularism so far, the form implemented in representative democracy.

The same problem applies to the discussions that take place in the context of his criticisms of the Republic. We see this in the fact that the public does not have a mature enough idea about the very different nature of the different criticisms of the Republic, and that it tries to melt all the criticisms of the Republic in one pot and criticize them all by applying the same criterion.

Some statements made by Sırrı Süreyya without taking into consideration the general world of ideas, singular sentences picked from his statements were circulated in a conscious and organized manner, and an attempt was made to declare him an enemy of the Republic and secularism. It is as if Sırrı Süreyya was against the Republic and defended the Ottomans and Abdulhamid.

Whether we consider it in the context of Sırrı Süreyya Önder or another personality, or independently of his or anyone else's personality; the discussion of secularism and the republic is a discussion directly related to democracy and democratization.

CRITICISM OF SECULARISM

Secularism means the secularization of politics, secularization means the secularization of property. Secularization of politics means the period of politics to the people as the source of legitimacy. Secularization of property means the distribution of the property of the big property owners and other big landowners to the people through land reform.

Representative democracy determines the people as the source of legitimacy for politics, but it only asks them what the direction of politics should be, it cannot make them the subject of politics, or more broadly, of their own destiny. The populism of representative democracy is a "half-hearted" populism.

In representative democracy (Marx and Engels define it as a “representative state”), the people determine the direction of politics by electing their representatives for a certain period of time, for example 4-5 years. The reason why there is a thousand and one alienation in politics, and why politicians develop a thousand and one games and manipulations to be elected, is due to the representative form of the system. The current representative system leads to an increasingly insurmountable distance, even a chasm, between the administration and the people, between the ruler and the ruled. Land reform, on the other hand, has never been fully implemented in any modern republic or in countries governed by constitutional monarchies; in our country, it has always been promised but has been postponed.

But human history has also produced more advanced forms of laicism and secularization. Laicism, which was not sufficiently taken into consideration when the republic was founded in Türkiye, was the most advanced form of laicism produced by the Paris Commune and developed historically, that is, practically, by humanity at that time.

While the Paris Commune tried to compensate for the constantly postponed land reform by making property common, it aimed to realize freedom of belief down to the last individual by eliminating the institutionalized positive religious belief as the greatest obstacle to freedom of belief because it unifies it. Positive religion ceased to be a belief system of religion and turned into an ideology that apologized for the existing property and power relations.

According to this new form of laicism and secularization, the people are no longer merely the authority to which the direction of politics is sought and to which representatives are referred to choose. The people are transformed into the subject of politics and, moreover, the direct determiner of their own destiny as a whole.

According to this most advanced form of laicism and secularization developed by humanity, the people have direct control over their representatives and can dismiss their representatives at any time and elect a new representative instead.

By applying this practice to the appointment of judges, the Paris Commune aimed to ensure direct public control over the legal and justice system.

Sırrı Süreyya Önder is a socialist politician and his criticism of the republic and secularism is related to his starting from a more developed form of the republic and secularism. Önder's criticism is not reactionary and destructive, on the contrary, it has a progressive, developing, revolutionary content that aims to encompass and surpass.

CRITICISM OF THE REPUBLIC

As I mentioned, Sırrı Süreyya is a socialist. Socialists are democratic and republican in principle. They advocate that democracy and the republic should be continuously developed. Sırrı

Süreyya's criticism of the Republic should be viewed from this perspective. The concept of the modern republic corresponds to a style of government that remains within the framework of a bourgeois republic in principle.

The Republic established in our country is also a bourgeois republic. The construction of the nation was carried out through capitalism. Sırrı Süreyya points out the limits of this republican understanding with his criticisms.

In this form, he wants to say that the republic cannot promise a future to workers, laborers, poor peasants, and children of the people. For this reason, he demands a more populist, more democratic, and more social republic, on condition that the historical gains of the republic are preserved. Sırrı Süreyya's criticisms of our republic, which must definitely be defended against reactionism, should be taken in this sense.

This criticism of the Republic by Sırrı Süreyya has nothing in common or related to the mentality of the reactionary criticism that aims to completely eliminate the Republic and secularism. Meanwhile, those who defend the capitalist Republic as it is are now only republicans in name. This should definitely be taken into consideration.