Cyprus-Forum.com

[Alexis]

Transparency International have come up with their latest corruption table for the world:

http://www.transparency.org/policy_rese ... s/cpi/2006

Cyprus comes 37th with an index of 5.6. This is 17th out of the EU 25. I calculated that the EU 25 had an average index of 6.74. Finland came top (EU and world) with an index of 9.6. Poland came bottom of the EU 25 (61st= in the world) with an index of 3.7.
Other notable countries:

Greece 54th Index = 4.4
Turkey 60th Index = 3.8
UK 11th= Index = 8.6

Looks like Cyprus still has a long way to go, but the results are encouraging and we are certainly head and shoulders above all our neighbouring countries (with the exception of Israel, which has an index of 5.8 )

[miltiades]

Interesting that Cyprus , please take notice , way ahead of both Greece and Turkey !!

[Alexis]

Interesting that Cyprus , please take notice , way ahead of both Greece and Turkey !!

Very good point you make Miltiades. This is yet more evidence that shows that Cypriots do have European values and that we were right to be given admission to the EU. This is actually an area in which we need a lot of improvement (compared to others) and yet we are still way in front of all our neighbours (except Israel). Our greatest problem is still that we are not united as a country and much of our efforts are spent mulling over the Cyprus Problem. Think how far ahead we could be.

[cypezokyli]

with the current scandals, israel might have fallen as well... wemight even be the first !!!!!

as a side note : in all other things we want to be counted as europeans. in this case we dont compare ourselves with the rest of europe , but with our closest neighbours....with those who we dont feel we belong or liked to be compared
(dont take this too seriously )

[Alexis]

with the current scandals, israel might have fallen as well... wemight even be the first !!!!!

as a side note : in all other things we want to be counted as europeans. in this case we dont compare ourselves with the rest of europe , but with our closest neighbours....with those who we dont feel we belong or liked to be compared
(dont take this too seriously )

Point taken (not too seriously)
But, actually the reason I compared us with our neighbours is that most of them are not in the EU and that this is (one reason) why we are. I absolutely do compare us with the rest of the EU, remember even there with our low score we come 17th out of 25, and given that we wouldn't necessarily expect to be anywhere above 16th position this is actually not too bad. Also note that the most corrupt nations in Europe are not necessarily the newcomers (check out Slovenia and Estonia for example). Even so this is definitely an area we need to improve on especially as we are significantly below the EU average where on many other indicators we are a lot closer to the EU average and sometimes are even above it.

[zan]

Lukas Haralambous stressed on the unlawful conducts in the office of Denktash which had been under intense investigation as a result of it and “it is now the turn of our administration to be under microscope.”

In the article published in Greek daily newspaper Politis, it has been disclosed that there has been donation summing up to 50, 000 CP by a foreign Petroleum Coy, Watford, during the Papadopoulos elections campaign. The mentioned donation was made during a time when the economical charges were matter for the courts against Watford Petroleum Coy were waiting in abeyance.

The reaction to the case by the President and his allies were unique for Greek Cypriot administration. Papadopoulos lied by saying “it is not my concern. I don’t even know the representative of Watford Petroleum.” In fact Papadopoulos’ close friend Sarris, arranged two meetings between Watford and Papadopoulos. On the other hand Hristophias had demonstrated a political insolence by throwing his support behind Papadopoulos and said “the mentioned amount is too little for Papadopoulos to sell his sole”

The conducts of Papadopoulos and Hristophias did not come as a surprise to me. If they reacted differently and showed political sensitivity that would have been a great surprise. What I was trying to make emphasis on the differences between North and South ( if I should have to use a terminology that demonstrates the current tendency) is the vast cultural variance between the two sides.

When we characterize our neighbors as “the fake state” in fact in the recent time they have developed a political culture which should be our envies. They have developed a mass media system that, the level of our system becomes obsolete as compare with theirs.

Though we are in 21st Century our mass media system is 50 years behind time. Some of the media organizations have sold their soles and become the mouth piece of the ruling party. You can not see this level of politics in underdeveloped African countries that is prevalent in our country.

The comment of “the donations were suspicious” made on radio station which is a subsidiary organization of the “Dias” media organization was significant.

If Papadopoulos were a president in any other country in the world or even in TRNC for that matter, he would not possibility be holding his office after accepting a bribe of 55,000CP.


Hristophias who declared reforms under the heading of “the restoration of the Organizations” on 27 August 2003 in fact was the culprit in their destructions. If he was not guilty as such would he try to defend Papadopoulos?

Finally I can say that nothing could change in this country. Even now the EU is openly saying this:

“We have made a big mistake by taking the Greek Cypriots to EU. If it was the African Union I maintain my suspicion that they might not take us as their members. In reality WE ARE THE FAKE STATE. In theory we are fake more than our neighbors who already have proven that they belong to Europe.”

[Alexis]

I accept that corruption is one of RoC's biggest problems what I do not accept is that we somehow 'cheated' our way into the EU. The EU had every chance to refuse us entry but decided against this. By all means blame us (GCs) for rejecting Annan Plan but if you are looking for someone to blame for letting us into the EU either look at the EU for this or perhaps even your own and Turkey's politicians. When it was agreed that Cyprus would accede to the EU, Turkey was still insisting she had 'solved the Cyprus Problem' in 1974 and denktash was still following his intransigent partitionist policies. Sure the deadlock was a two-way thing but accession to the EU was always going to happen. Don't link Anna Plan to accession because you know this to be wrong.