A system in fine health
There is a system in the country that always comes out on top, irrespective of who is prime minister or main opposition leader. It is a system that «takes care of business» and, more importantly, takes care not to upset the fine balance that sustains it. When the new boys on the block fight over their piece of the action, the old guard is there to remind them that family clashes never did anyone any good in Sicily. No, omerta worked in everyone’s interest. When a man of the system like Michalis Christoforakos, former managing director of Siemens Hellas and a longtime darling of Athens power circles, found himself exposed, the system hastened to «embrace» him to make sure he kept quiet. When PASOK’s Theodoros Tsoukatos started being too honest about the sources of party funding, the system stepped in to make sure that he didn’t bring them all down. The system has its own wisdom that knows no party color. It tries to distribute satisfaction, i.e. business deals in a fair fashion. When faced with some colorful figure who insists on the need for law and order, it seeks to make him see sense by offering some good deal. No judicial official or parliamentary committee can stand up to a system of this magnitude on their own. In some other country, the government and opposition might perhaps admit that «this situation cannot go on» and decide that the Siemens case should become a test for the health of democracy. Top judges and experts would join hands to open suspect bank accounts and shed ample light on the case. But, as we said, the system has its own wisdom. It is capable of preventing even uncorrupted politicians from realizing why people are furious. Yesterday we saw the system to be in fine health, as one veteran lawyer put it. The problem is that our politicians are like those people who litter the beach in front of their house, until one day they wonder how the sea has come to be so filthy and unpleasant-smelling.
