By George Koumoulli
In a state governed by the rule of law, it is the laws that are sovereign, not the people, that is, the people. That is to say, no one – including the Head of State – is above the law. Therefore, the government is as subject to existing laws as its citizens. Thus, a closely related concept is the idea of equality before the law, which argues that no “legal” person will enjoy privileges that do not extend to everyone and that no individual will be immune to legal sanctions. In addition, the application and adjudication of legal rules by various government officials must be impartial and consistent in equivalent cases, done blindly without taking into account order, status or relative power among dissidents. In order for these ideas to have any real market, moreover, there should be some legal mechanism that obliges employees to submit to the law.
A timely example of respect for the rule of law is the cancellation of the visa of the famous tennis player Djokovic by the Australian Supreme Court because he entered Australia unvaccinated. “The law is the law, no one is above the law,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
However, to focus on our country, the biggest collapse of the rule of law was Makarios’ “olive branch”, when he returned to Cyprus in December 1974. In other words, Makarios arbitrarily deleted the coup d’état and the horrific crimes of the putschists and the members of EOKA II. Makarios did not have the legal right to take such an action. There is no democratic country where the head of state gives absolution to criminals before they are tried. The President of the Republic of Cyprus may, of course, pardon convicts who have not served their entire sentence, but this is a privilege constitutionally guaranteed and is very different from not prosecuting a category of suspected crimes for any reason. A Czech saying goes ‘law without punishment is like a bell without language’.
The Church, the Parliament and the National Guard provide us with many examples of a brutal violation of egalitarianism in modern Cyprus.
The Church and the hierarchs enjoy a special status. The most striking example is, of course, the Archbishop’s thievery. Even toddlers know that the 310,000-euro bribe that the Primate of the Church received from Joe Lowe is stolen money. The Archbishop, however, addicted to the accumulation of more and more wealth, does not return it to the beneficiaries, namely the Malaysian people, and the Attorney General does not dare to prosecute him. Another glaring example is the failure to show safepass while entering the church in most cases. In short, the Church is given preferential treatment by the CCT. If I place a bet for every time someone enters the church without a safepass to earn 10 euros, while when a safepass is required to pay 100 euros, I would soon go to my bank to deposit a huge amount consisting of ten euros.
Equally scandalous is the illegality of some MPs who write the laws, which they themselves have voted for, in the oldest of their shoes. I do not know exactly the CCT’s law on parliamentary immunity. What I do know is that in all democratic countries, this privilege is enjoyed by legislators in order to be granted protection against civil or criminal liability for acts or statements made in the exercise of their legislative duties and not, of course, to be protected from committing criminal offences. It is a national disgrace that four MPs/MPs did not pay for five years (!) their extrajudicial fines for traffic offences. With all due respect to ptB Annita Demetriou, I believe it was wrong on her part to send a letter to all members of the House of Representatives, to respect the laws of the CCT, for two reasons: firstly, most MPs (and MPs) in their honour are fully aware of the obligations imposed on them by the office they serve and therefore such a letter is offensive to the majority of MPs. Secondly, and most importantly, the PtB is aware of the names of these MPs and should have sent the letters only to them, while at the same time publishing their content in the media. Under no circumstances would the speaker of parliament in the EU countries protect the anonymity of the offending MPs. On the contrary, they will expose them publicly because transparency is an essential component of democracy.
As far as the National Guard is concerned, those who have been relieved of their military duties are mainly descendants of versatile politicians or big businessmen. Timeless coincidence? But what has been flawed lately is the case of a senior officer accused of possessing drugs and doping drugs. Miraculously, not only was he not prosecuted, but he was allowed to submit his resignation from the NG, thus guaranteeing his pension rights. No cat, no harm. Despite the protests, the defence minister’s hard of hearing ear is not sweating.
The conclusion is that Cyprus is far from a Renaissance and regenerative Paradise, full of corruption, intrigue, bribery, abuse, but the rule of law.
*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of CypriumNews.
