Our View: Citizens should not have to beg politicians just to secure their legal rights

The story this week of the two children from Liopetri who had been denied citizenship because their paternal grandfather was a Turkish national who settled in Cyprus illegally after the 1974 invasion, came to highlight one of the biggest pathogenies of this island.

The family said they had been trying for a long time to acquire IDs for the children, aged nine and 12. They were both born in the Republic but were not recognised as citizens because their paternal grandparent is from Turkey and arrived in northern Cyprus and thus illegally according to the Cyprus government.

Despite this, their Turkish Cypriot father, who was born in occupied Famagusta, had acquired an ID in 2015. The parents said authorities had told them that the children were not entitled to an ID because they were born before their father acquired his.

After the issue drew widespread attention through an Alpha TV show and a call to President Nicos Anastasiades, and the intervention of ruling Disy leader Averof Neophytou, the government said it would look into the issue.

The cabinet eventually decided to grant the children citizenship on Wednesday, prompting opposition criticism that it had been exploited to score political points.

House human rights committee chairwoman and Akel MP Irene Charalambidou said she had informed the interior minister of the matter early last month, laying out the children’s legal entitlement to citizenship but nothing had been done until now.

Beyond the optics however, the case highlighted the all-pervading dependency of ordinary people on politicians to get something done, even if they are entitled to it.

This does not include favours or other deeds that smack of corruption. It concerns basic, daily matters like getting an application reviewed in a logical time period, a building permit, and other such matters.

It is an undeniable fact of life that even the simplest of tasks, that for other European citizens may entail one visit or phone call to a government department, or maybe filling a form online, may force a Cypriot to seek the help of a politician.

It was not long ago that an MP conceded in public that he had intervened to secure a hospital bed for an ill individual. One of the most basic services any self-respecting state should provide its citizens without delay – health.

This sorry state of affairs can be tracked as far back as 1960, when the Republic was founded. Politics were not the only dysfunctional aspect Cypriots had to live with. Through cronyism, widespread corruption, populism, and lack of resolve, politicians, like a group of oligarchs that followed independence, have set up a dysfunctional system of administration that is a nightmare to navigate. So much so that people are forced to seek their help, thus granting them even more power over their daily lives.

Would it have been different if there was no division, with Turkish Cypriots acting as checks and balances? Highly unlikely, as the situation in the north is not much better.