This week I shared with you my opinion on TEKEL workers issue. In the meanwhile, the students who will take the university entrance exam this year were drawn into the 'coefficient' trouble. Have you thought what students to take the university entrance exam this year and the workers that will be given the 4C status with the closure of Tekel tobacco processing facilities have in common? Do not directly conclude that there is no link between these two groups; think about it. What they have in common is that they could not foresee the near future because of rapidly changing decisions of the public authority. Inability to foresee the future makes it harder to make decisions and damages the investment climate. It makes raise difficulties for those willing to plan their future. It is depressing and harmful. Turkey is a world record holder in making individuals' life miserable and turning their future into darkness via public decisions. Apart from the students and workers, we can add to the list the doctors, hospital owners, pharmacists, and employees and managers of pharmaceutical firms looking just at the couple of last months. Such a country cannot make a progress in perception surveys on investment climate. In fact, it does not.

So, what is Turkey's problem? Turkey's problem is that the administration is not aware how it intervenes in the daily lives of individuals. When making decision, the administration does not care how the lives of small individuals will be affected by its decisions. They of course take into account some factors; but the victimhood of individuals is not among those. Let us begin with the university entrance exam candidate students. Their problem is not at all related with the political identity of the managers of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK).Old YÖK used to care the daily lives of individuals not more than the new YÖK. So, there is nothing new in YÖK's side considering our ephemeral daily lives.

University entrance exam series of this year will begin in three months. However, students yet do not know what to do. As a result of the bureaucratic-legal battle going on, the system as to how the students to take the entrance exam make preferences is not set. First, the YÖK, guarding the imam hatip high school graduates, introduced a regulation to eliminate the coefficient difference in expense of vocational high school students (they would never work on this issue if it was not for the imam hatip schools, but I would rather not touch upon this today). Then, the Council of State has annulled this regulation. So, the second round of the bureaucratic battle began. YÖK, ignoring the decision of the Council of State, dared and introduced another arrangement. Council of State realized the showdown, and annulled the new YÖK arrangement once again. Everyone has been fighting with passion to set the tactics for the next round of the bureaucratic-legal battle. But none of them care the students to take the university entrance exam this year.

How does the process work in normal countries? If coefficient unjust, the problem would be tackled, but the justice sought here should be Prophet Solomon's justice. What did Prophet Solomon do when two mothers applied to him to decide the guardianship for one child? He offered the candidate mothers to cut down the child into two. Then, the mother who cared for her children stepped back and foregone her right on the child. The other mother, captured by the passion of the struggle, said that it is a good idea to cut down the child. If the aim is to win the fight, you do not consider the child as a being per se. upon this answer; Prophet Solomon gave the guardianship of the child to the first mother who stepped back from her case. So, the moral of this story is that neither the YÖK nor the Council of State cares the students who will take the university entrance exam. There only exists a struggle to win and the passion of fighting. The unhappiness of a couple of students is just a detail. If you go and ask people, everyone would say shiny words reading 'they are the bright future of this country'. But the result is evident. They are victims of this story. The 'statesmen' are interesting beings; they somewhat be happy if more people are victimized.

But, what is done in normal countries? It is quite simple: Any step taken is takes affect a couple of years after the action is introduced. People are given time to adapt to new state of affairs and a margin is left for possible bureaucratic hustle so that the number of victims does not increase. But here in Turkey the understanding is that if I am a victim, you and even everyone else should also become a victim. Otherwise, we will not be relieved. There exists a pathological "I am a victim/you are a victim/we are victims" psychosis. Such is life here in Turkey.

Is this situation unique for the current new YÖK? No, there is no difference between Tezer's YÖK and Özcan's YÖK with respect to its modus operandi and ability to create victims. A couple of years ago, with last minute changes, it was made impossible for some senior year students to make some certain preferences. This is how it works in Turkey. If we do not introduce last minute changes in the system and surprise the students, we feel offended. The attitude is the same in all fields: the implications of the public decisions on the lives of individuals do not interest the decision makers. This is extremely sad but true. On these territories, there prevails apathy on individual lives.

To change the status of Tekel workers to 4-C means making them sign a limited-time contract for one year. What will happen at the end of the first year will be decided also at the end of this first year. In the meanwhile, the statesmen will decide the best for us without taking the opinion of humbles like us. This is what they always do; they intervene in our lives loutishly. They cannot have 'yes's' or 'no's' for the future; they only have maybes.

If this is the perception of the public authority, we will have to keep asking ourselves why Turkey fails to attract investors who will bring employment generating advanced technologies. The only investment we can attract is in energy, telecommunication, and real estate sectors. Investment for the future cannot be made in a climate where the behavior of authorities cannot b estimated.  You can only save the day.

This commentary was published in Referans daily on 11.02.2010