Turkey's new economic super-minister, Kemal Dervis, in charge of leading Turkey out of the financial turmoil will face an uphill battle in days to come, officials were quoted as saying by the Turkish Daily Thursday.
“Not only because of the ongoing chaos but because of the challenges that will be put up against him by the corruption lobby,” one official said.
Dervis has already said the next three to four weeks will be crucial in his efforts to overcome the economic turmoil.
Leading business circles in Istanbul and political experts in Ankara say, however, that the more devastating challenges may come from the corruption lobby which is opposed to meaningful structural reforms which Dervis will have to implement to end the crisis, said the paper.
They said the departure of banking regulatory body chief, Zekeriya Temizel, who had declared an all out fight against corruption and thus was instrumental in the jailing of so many businessmen who had plundered private bank assets, may have heartened the corruption lobby.
“However, the fact that Dervis has arrived to launch a new drive for more substantial banking reforms, which may even end the system that allows the bailing out of banks and lead to the downfall of more banks and corrupt businessmen, may be a source of great discomfort for the corruption lobby which will do its best to undermine the efforts of Dervis,” a leading business source said.
Turkey has bailed out 12 private banks in two years.
"They will try to undermine Dervis by laying political landmines on his path. They will spread false rumors about him and try to weaken Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's support for him. They may even use bureaucrats to mislead him," the source warned.
Meanwhile, the daily said that big business circles in Istanbul are giving Dervis all out backing and want him to launch a full scale overhaul of the system.
They are concerned, however, that the two coalition partners, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Motherland Party (ANAP), are not in the mood to cooperate with Dervis.
The MHP controls the State Planning Organization, the Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade as well as the state owned Emlakbank, and ANAP controls the Finance Ministry as well as the Privatization Administration.
The two parties refused to give Dervis powers over these state organizations, said the paper.
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
