“THE CONSTITUTION says I can park wherever I want!” This was the astonishing statement made by DISY deputy George Tasou at the potato farmers’ protest at the Rizoelia roundabout on Wednesday.
Mr Tasou’s brother is a potato farmer, and he has served in the past on the Cyprus Potato Marketing Board, so he has an understandable interest in the fate of the sector. His comment came after he was told by police to move his Mercedes, having parked it in the middle of the road in solidarity with the farmers’ blockade. Police ignored his ‘Constitutional’ claim and lifted it out of the way; the deputy eventually removed his vehicle when they brought a tow truck to take it away.
Carefully as you read, you’re unlikely to find any reference in the Cyprus Constitution to deputies’ right to obstruct a public highway. And police were fully justified in ordering Mr Tasou to move his vehicle.
Of course, what the DISY deputy was referring to was his parliamentary immunity from prosecution under the Constitution. But while police would be unable to bring a prosecution against him for his misdemeanours, they are fully within their rights to prevent the obstruction taking place, irrespective of the status of the perpetrator.
In any case, Mr Tasou’s reading of the Constitution is a gross abuse of his status, one unfortunately shared by many of his colleagues. Parliaments across the world provide their members with immunity, not as some sort of perk that allows them to commit petty felonies at will, but to protect representatives from any kind of politically motivated action that might impede their activity as elected representatives of the people.
Yet here, parliamentary immunity seems to be brandished as some sort of special status that allows its holders to break laws which the rest of the population is expected to respect. This is a disgraceful example to the public. How can ordinary citizens be expected to respect the law (or the institutions of state) when the very people who make the laws flout them with such arrogance?
Only last week, the police announced their intention to crack down on parking offences, with hugely increased fines and a new stringent enforcement campaign. Yet who will take them seriously when the worst offenders are our Members of Parliament, whose illegally parked vehicles so regularly choke the road they share with the Nicosia General Hospital?
Deputies should be servants of the public that elects them, leading the way in a society where the rule of law prevails and all are equal. Instead, such behaviour, together with the trafficking of influence and patronage, boosts the impression of a privileged caste running the country for its own interest. It is sorry state of affairs.
