Turkish Elections : Narcissistic Jingoism Loses Grip, Lessons For Malaysia

Well it lasted while it lasted.  Erdogan may still last a while longer but the damage has been done to Turkey.  With or without Erdogan the repair and recovery will cost the people much of their wealth and happiness. Some news :

Erdogan's ruling party suffers major defeat in Turkey's local polls

suffered heavy losses in nationwide local elections

local elections to elect mayors for 30 large cities

51 provincial capitals and 922 districts

AKP lost eight of country's 12 main cities
lost Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir 
cities are economic powerhouses of country
AKP portrays itself pro-business - huge blow

• tide turned against Erdogan 
• started in August last year
• dire economic situation 
• rising unemployment, 
• economy recession, 20% inflation 
• lira lost >30%  value
• economy declining following currency crisis 

Erdogan's support based on economy, conservative Muslims

Erdogan campaigned relentlessly for two months 

daily rallies, overwhelmingly supportive media 
failed to win over the country

results heavy blow to Erdogan 
came to power in 2002
dominated politics for 16 years 
ruled with ever tighter grip

Sunday’s elections first since referendum in April 2017

that expanded Erdogan’s powers 

national elections scheduled in 2023

'people chose democracy', opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said

his secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) won Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir

CHP stronghold in Izmir, country's third largest city.

southeast Turkey Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) won 
"They robbed us of our will and we overturned this," Kurds

My comments : 

Well this is more evidence of yet another failure of the Muslim Brotherhood for certainly Erdogan is much influenced by and is close to the Muslim Brotherhood. Our Brader too will be quite sad.  

This is yet another 'Milestone of failure' for the Muslim Brotherhood. 
Nurul Izzah should be aware of this too. 

Dont forget that shocking coup attempt against Erdogan that took place on 16th July, 2016 - less than three years ago. Erdogan clamped down emergency rule on Turkey that was lifted only in July 2018. 

The resistance against him is not just because of 20% inflation (a killer by itself) or the almost 40% drop in the value of the Turkish lira (another suicide pill) but even prior to the economic collapse there was intense dislike for the Great Caliph, enough to attempt  a coup against him.

After Turkey's failed coup, Robert Fisk said that an unsuccessful coup is always followed by another one - as long as the reason for the unhappiness is still not removed. 

Erdogan has actually narrowly won these local council elections - he slipped in with a razor thin 51% of the votes. But the fact that he has lost EIGHT of Turkey's largest cities (including the all important Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir) shows that he is now dependent on the village idiots, especially the conservative muslims.

Now be the time for the coup type folks to be sharpening their scimitars again. 

Erdogan  has been selling what I term narcissistic jingoism.

Narcissism means having or showing an excessive interest in or admiration of oneself,  vain, in love with oneself, self-admiring, wrapped up in oneself, self-absorbed, self-obsessed, conceited, self-centred, self-regarding, egotistic, egotistical, egoistic, egocentric, egomaniac

Jingoism meaning blind patriotism, aggressive or warlike attitudes and policies towards others / other countries, chauvinism, extreme nationalism, flag-waving, excessive loyalty to one's cause, xenophobia

Put the two together and you have not only Erdogan but the Muslims - all over the world.  

Just like torpedoes are designed to sink ships with great effect, narcissistic jingoism sinks Muslims even faster.  The difference being that the narcissism is self inflicted. It is home grown.  

I dont know how many more decades it will take for the folks like Erdogan, his Muslim Brotherhood supporters and the like to understand this. You have to join the real world. Not coccoon yourself away from it.

Erdogan did embark on huge and grandiose projects (like his gigantic presidential palace) and other huge works of public expenditure which sucked up a lot of money with little or very slow returns to show for the investments.

His foreign policy is murderous.  He fully supported the ISIS. ALL Malaysian ISIS recruits travelling to Syria were routed through Turkey with the help of the Turkish security services. 

He bombed the Kurdish people inside Turkey back to the stone age.

He has now launched a war against the Kurds in both Iraq and Syria. 

Turkish troops are occupying territory in both Iraq and Syria. 

Wastage of Turkey's resources in such useless pursuits has also caused their Turkish lira to crash. Your money is not being put to productive purposes. 

When the currency crashes, prices WILL go higher because you need more and more of your worth less and less currency to buy the same basket of goods. Boleh faham ke?

And the Muslim governments just do not seem to understand inflation.  

They know that inflation (higher prices) makes the people poorer.

But they do not seem to understand that it is their own narcissistic jingoism that can spark inflation in the economy. 

After reading about Turkey's 20% inflation (also caused by the 40% depreciation of their lira) I checked up historical inflation rates for the European Union and the US. And Russia.  The miracle of the Internet. Here is a simple graph:

The more horizontal lines (blues, reds) represent inflation rates in the USA and the EU since 2011.

In the US and the EU (largely - except for Greece, Spain) inflation is always low (below 5%) and dipping into negative as well (prices falling) and they are maintained (yes it has to be maintained) within a narrow band. The band is within the 0% to 4% range.

This low level of inflation appears to indicate an almost perfect market where the low inflation rates can be said to be almost  'natural inflation rates' (there is no such thing, just a figure of speech). 

The aberration at the top, also in red (like Mount Everest) was Russia. Their inflation rate began going crazy starting 2012, peaked at 16% in 2015, crossed the 4% level in 2017 and has now descended even further to about 2% by 2018.

All this is due to better management of the economy. If I remember correctly Mr Putin made a drastic change towards encouraging the production of Made in Russia consumer goods (like cars, motorcycles, cameras, watches etc)  in the early part of this decade.  Instead of making tanks, bombs and missiles only. 

The Russian economy is more diversified, sustainable and open to competition in the world markets. (Can someone start importing Russian cars, trucks and motorcycles into Malaysia?) 

Inflation is a killer.  
And it is tied to the value of your currency. 
The value of your currency is tied to the level of productive output in your economy. 
The level of productive output is tied to the quality of your trained workforce. 
The quality of your trained workforce is tied to the quality of your education system.

The head bone is connected to the neck bone, the neck bone is connected to the shoulder bone etc.

When I lived in the United States for almost five years in the early 1980s, the price of a Snickers bar never went up.  It was US 25 cents. Room rents also never went up.  The price of a can of Coke never went up. 

Inflation is relatively low. They do not actively keep it down. 
They just ensure an open and as free a market as possible - competition and free market pricing being the best check and balance against things going too haywire. 

If you do not get this part right you will become poor.
If you do not understand this part you will become poor.

So keep an eye on Turkey. 
Their turkey is getting cooked.