By George Koumoulli
The death of Queen Elizabeth revealed through social media (SMS) the complete ignorance of many Cypriots regarding key aspects of the functioning of the British State.
Apart from the vulgar insults against the Queen (“good hell”, “fuck the reptile” and the like), some “experts” repeat, in the style of a professor, what little they know about the British Constitution, however incomplete it may be, in point that touch complete ignorance.
It reminds me of the American saying: “the ignorant is like a drum: it makes noise thanks to its emptiness”. But – and here’s the drama – the virus of disinformation is spreading in the MQD at a speed that even the high-speed boats of Ayia Napa would envy.
Therefore, today there is a widespread opinion in Cypriot society that Queen Elizabeth was responsible for the execution of the EOKA fighters, since she “signed”, as they say, their execution.
I wonder how this misinformation promoted by the half-educated and influenced can be combated and I conclude that this can only be done through education. I believe that a high school graduate should know basic terms of political science, such as unitary state, federation, administrative court, political equality, separation of powers, residual powers, etc., and to be, of course, informed about the role played by the constitutional monarchy in the political process, so as not to be led astray by the uneducated or half-educated.
In other words, to prevent the domination of the utidans! This lesson is necessary especially for Cyprus where we may be asked to vote on a new proposed solution (perhaps in the distant future).
In such a case, we should not vote blindly – as we did in 2004 – but with “fourteen eyes” and for this very reason, the introduction of a Political Science course would be, unequivocally, wishful thinking.
At the same time, there will be another benefit: a rudimentary knowledge of Political Science neutralizes to a great extent the pseudologists and philandering politicians.
Probably then we will elect after more mature thoughts and not have governors like the current ones, who shifted “a little” the goal of achieving a solution by making their sole concern the happiness of “their own children”.
In essence now, for reasons of space, I cannot outline the British Constitution, so I will focus on the role of the Queen (now the King). What we all need to understand is that as a constitutional monarch, the Queen had no power.
I repeat: NO authority. He always, without exception, acts on the advice of the government. However, it can have some influence. This influence was exercised chiefly in her confidential weekly audience, with her Prime Ministers.
She can, for example, express her reservations about a bill, as would also be the case for the members of the government, but she never, ever, vetoes any decision of the government, because if she did so she would be in conflict with the elected government, i.e. it would be an action against the will of the British people and therefore undemocratic.
England is not an absolute monarchy like, for example, neighboring Jordan, where the king is the supreme governing authority and, moreover, controls the three powers of the state (legislative, executive and judicial).
Some refer to the “royal prerogative of mercy” (the royal prerogative of mercy) as evidence that the queen could intervene and prevent the execution of the EOKA fighters.
Nothing could be truer! And this power is exercised by the monarch on the advice of the interior minister who represents the government.
In essence, the monarch has no involvement at all in the matter of commutation of sentences. It is worth recalling that there was a great mobilization not to hang Karaolis and Dimitriou in May 1957.
Konstantinos Karamanlis did not contact the queen, but the British Prime Minister Anthony Eden, by telephone, to have the executions canceled. American statesman and diplomat, US Secretary of State (1953–59) John Foster Dulles pleaded with his counterpart and friend Selwyn Lloyd, not the Queen, to at least postpone the executions.
Also, 30 Labor MPs appealed to the government, not the Queen, to commute the death sentence of the two EOKA activists. Any appeal to the Queen personally for a pardon suggests a complete ignorance of the workings of a constitutional monarchy.
The outburst against Queen Elizabeth, in the 1950s and today, reveals a sad hypocrisy of Cypriot society. In Greece, thousands of leftists were executed during the reign of Frederick, but how many E/K asked for a pardon from Frederick which, by the way, could reduce the sentences because, in complete contrast to Elizabeth, “she acted as an accredited representative of the government or the armed forces” (See Grigoriadis Solon, History of Modern Greece 1941-1974, p. 16).
Moreover, how many of us protested that prominent Greeks, who honored Greece, such as Mikis Theodorakis, Yiannis Ritsos, Manos Katrakis, Grigoris Bithikotsis and many others, were dragged to the Makronissou camp – the New Dachau as it was called – because of their ideology? Really, how many?
*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of CypriumNews.
