The Moral Power of Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey

The results of elections for parliament are out and Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is winner once again. His Justice and Development Party got a record landslide win in the third straight term with more than 50% votes. In secular Turkey, this hat trick of Erdogan as a religious minded and a practicing Muslim has really set a tremendous record of achievement. What is behind this great harvest of a young man in the political field which no seasoned and veteran Politian in that country could accomplish is very important question necessary for the politicians of all Muslim countries and especially for the professional politicians in Pakistan to ponder over.

Tayyip Erdogan rose so high from the very lower ranks of the society. He is really a self made man who had to do hard for making an earning to meet the expenses of his education. Honesty, said to be the best policy, was the great treasure he had with him while entering the practical life. This attribute saved him from going sunk in the marsh of corruption when he became Mayor of Istanbul. He neither had any stains of grafts and briberies on his own cloak nor had he allowed any member of his staff to make money through unfair means. Serving as Mayer of Istanbul city from March 1994 to November 1998, honesty earned him good name and popularity and he gained courage to go higher than the post of a Mayer.

A leader is actually the servant of his community, is a golden Islamic principle, practically proven by and derived from ‘Khulafae Rashideen’ (The Four Guided Caliphs). Not only the Muslim rulers but many of the non-Muslim dignitaries also carried the torch of this principle. Erdogan became the prime minister with this torch in his hand. He started his political journey as the prime minister holding this torch an emblematic of his career. Serving the country, he put his country on the track of a rapid economic progress, raising its growth to 9%, the highest in the G-20 group after China. Improving Turkey as a weighty and dignified nation is all the fruit of honesty and a high spirit of serving his people, which the prime minister, his cabinet, his advisors do have at high rate. Corrupt secular political parties and power hungry military establishment, which never let any of the government in office for such a long time, are now dumbly watching the situation having nothing to say in the face of the steadily elevating prestige of the country and support of the people to the government under the leadership of this young politician.

Our rulers notoriously squander the national resources for themselves and their families. Their embezzlements from the state treasury are because they are in habit of deviously breaching the trust the nation put on them. Erdogan is far away from this moral evil. Simplicity, one of the greatest moral values, is the third marvel of his personal and political character, making him entirely distinctive in the rulers’ community of the world. Following this moral trait, perhaps only Iranian president Mahmud Ahmedinijad is his rival, who leads a highly simple and un-ornate life. From the house to office Erdogan has nothing of boast and brag. He has never adopted the ostentatious way of life, even when the heads of the other governments or the states visit his country. When the leaders become so high in morality, the people around them have to follow them. Hence a culture is built.