Yes I have voted no, but it was not because the plan was not very promising in general but there were very sticky points for me like existence of military. I personally would vote against any solution that leaves anything other than symbolic numbers of troops on the ground. Even Annan plan was not satisfactory to me in this instance, but you have to suck up sometimes, and in Annan Plan total number of troops on the island in the long run was 1700, (symbolic if you ask me but not necessary at all).
I do not believe Cyprus is under threat to warrant any military. It is simply waste of money, time, and goodwill if you ask me to form a military. As far as I can see the only threat GCs see is Turkey, and if Turkey decides to invade island in the future again, after the solution then puny RoC army will not be able to stop her. The best way to defend GCs is to have a power stronger than Turkey have the protection of Cyprus. And that has to be done only with agreements.
For TCs the biggest threat is Greece backed GCs, which is an internal threat and having a military is actually more detrimental to our security. It is better to have no arms on this island, so that one extreme element can not gat his hands over it in the future for his lunatic aims. If there are no arms to kill each other, then less chance of conflict in the future.
No offense to you, (because I know this is not what your intention is because I learn you in this forum after sometime), but every time a GC talks about having a regular RoC army to defend itself against foreign forces, I fear that his real intention is that he will use the same equipment on me. There is pretty much nothing on the world that will convince me that a chance of “a lunatic nationalist (TC or GC) would not control some portion of that arseanl and equipment and start killing other society or have another coup” is zero. My idea is “No guns, less conflict”
This is a very major issue for me so even if an agreement give the golden keys of Cyprus to TCs, I will not accept it if it involves and regular army in the Cyprus.
Other than this major point,
Cross voting: The only way mixed voting can work in Cyprus is with the use or primaries. For example, from an election district let’s say one TC senaotor will be selected. Then you can have a primary in that district first, and only TCs decide the top two candidate to run for election, then these two candidates can be voted mixed by both TCs and GCs.
“Wise elder Commission”: Quite honestly I do not understand what this wise elders commission is about. I thought you were suggesting this in replacement of foreign judges. So they would be judicial figures not political figures.
What I understood from your second post is that you see this as more of a deadlock breaking mechanism in executive branch. Am I wrong? Please clarify what this is?
If they are judicial branch, why do they have to decide about any policy or executive or legislative decision anyway. There whole job would be to look up the actions of legislative and executive branch and decide if they are constitutional. I guess at this matter I agree with T.Pap. Why is there a duty in the supreme court to decide about policy issues when there is a deadlock. And how is there going to be a deadlock anyway. Something either passes the congress and becomes law or not. There is no issue of deadlock. IF you want to get rid of deadlock you can say I want the special majorities out, then I can understand.
I guess you have to clarify what you mean by this “commission”?
Territorial Adjustment:
a) Partition is not acceptable to GCs.
b) Political equality is a must for TCs
c) There can not be political equality if GCs participate in TC electoral process (at least legally)
d) a, b, and c is satisfied is with my proposal.
e) this does not mean no mixing of population but it means the political rights if GCs will be restricted. In partition there will be no mixing as I see no chance of GCs coming and settling a TRNC variant. So better than partition.
f) After some passage of time let’s say 20 years, this rule can be reevaluated by the consent of both communities. In partition there is no chane of this happeing in the future. So my proposal is like putting things in the deep freezer rather than killing it.
Economic Policy: Every state should be completely independent on managing its own fiscal policy. Federal government should not be involved at all. The only time federal government involvement is necessary is when a state goes bankrupt because of excessive borrowing, which in that case will need a bail-out. To prevent this happening federal government can set limits on state’s borrowing like total amount of debt can not exceed 30% of GDP in that state, or a state can not run a budget deficit more than 5% of its GDP for 3 consecutive years. These or regulations similar to this are acceptable in order to limit the exposure of federal government risk to state’s irresponsible economic policies. These are the kind of mechanisms that are employed in EU or in USA.
But other than this if a state want to set out an income tax of 50% and drive away all the rich people then it should be its prerogative. Again if they want to set a 50% corporate tax rate and kick investment out again it is their won prerogative. “Kendi dusen aglamaz” (Those who trips by themselves should not cry)
Green Card: Will never happen. Because it needs changing immigration system and immigration laws in USA, which is a huge political process and battle. They have been trying to change it recently for Mexicans and did not go anywhere because internally the political stakes are every high. Knowing this any promise any American representative gives on this issue should be laughed at.
Plus this is not an issue at all. Because even TRNC does not see many of the people you call settler as settler. Most of them illegal workers which should be managed with a much better immigration system, and should be only allowed into the island if there is a real need for their occupational skills. I do not think any GC would oppose to a Turkish surgeon or I do not think any TC would oppose to a Pontian professor of physics. Anyway you get my point.
