Event
chair Ertanch Hidayettin shares his thoughts on the historic General Election
hustings, organised by T-VINE Magazine.
It
was a privilege for me to chair the hustings event, at the TCCA on 29th
April 2015. It was a first of a kind event, where four candidates from the
Turkish, Kurdish and Turkish Cypriot communities, chosen by the three main
British parties to represent them for the 7th May General Election,
made up the panel.
For
me, the event was no ordinary event. It had a multiplicity of objectives:
- To publicly recognise
the achievements of the candidates from our communities. It was no easy
achievement to be selected by their parties. All four described the difficult
journeys they endured in the face of stiff competition from other party
activists. It was important as a community to congratulate them publicly and
give them encouragement.
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| Sharing a joke during the hustings. L-R: Ibby Mehmet, Dr. Turhan Özen, chair Ertanch Hidayettin, Isabel Sigmac & Gönül Daniels |
-
Thirdly, we wanted to
tackle the apathy our communities suffer from, as the general public do,
towards the forthcoming elections, and towards politics in general. We wanted
to urge people to go out and vote. To
use their democratic rights, to influence what goes on in the local areas they
live in.
The
success of the languages campaign – to get the main parties to pledge that they
would protect Turkish and other community languages GCSE and A Level
examinations – has shown the power of lobbying, especially before the election.
It is important that our communities realise their influence. The hustings
event was an important tool for us to emphasise this.
I
was very impressed by the depth of knowledge, the level of preparation and the
passion shown by all the candidates in pushing the policies of their parties.
If they persist and persevere I can see all going to places within their
respective parties.
Sometimes
political parties select candidates from the minority ethnic candidates in
unwinnable seats. This I believe is the situation for all the four candidates
from our communities who attended the hustings meeting on 29th
April. However, it is important for them to use the experience they have gained
form this for the future. I have not seen any evidence that either of the four
will be disheartened and give up.
The
interest shown by the Turkish-speaking media was another hugely pleasing aspect
of the meeting. Nearly all the written media was there. In addition the event
was covered and the candidates were interviewed by the TRT – Turkey
10-year-old Ria asks a
question at the hustings, takes part in school debate the next day
The
very high quality of the questions from the audience, and from those who were
not able to attend the event was another satisfactory aspect of the event. Many
issues were covered, including education, youth provision, housing, social
welfare, the general apathy and lack of engagement of our communities, identity
issues, the Cyprus
I
was particularly happy to ask the first question handed to me by a 10-year-old
in the audience. Ria’s question was about how the parties would improve
secondary education. Her mum told us that Ria had been chosen to represent a
political party at a debate at her school the following day.
My
overall impression, which was shared by everyone I spoke to on the night, the
comments I read on the social media and comments I have been sent by some of
the people who attended the event were all positive. I am extremely encouraged
by this response. I believe that many other important issues could be debated
through this type of format in the future.
My
heartfelt thanks go to Ipek and other T-VINE personnel for organising the
event, the staff and Management Committee of the Turkish Cypriot Community
Association, the media, and the public who attended the event.
RELATED
ARTICLES
T-VINE UK General Election Special – North London hustings and a chance for younger British Turks to get politically active, 19 April 2015
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