About time minister hit back at campaign of lies.

IT WAS ABOUT time Minister of Education, Andreas Demetriou responded to the campaign of lies and misinformation being waged against his education policy. For far too long, he had allowed the extremists to dictate the public agenda on education by not responding to their attacks, in the hope that they would eventually give up.

Not only did they not give up, but they saw the minister's unwillingness to confront them as a sign of weakness, stepping up their intimidation tactics. On Monday he hit back during a lunch-time television show accusing his critics of disseminating "manufactured lies, fantasy scenarios and conspiracies that have no relation to reality." He asked: "If this is not a return to McCarthyism where everyone's thoughts are controlled, then what was McCarthyism?"

Having castigated the illiberal mentality of his detractors he then ran through the lies they had used in their campaigns. The play staged at the Karpas gymnasium did not contain any negative references about the country and our ancestors, as the nationalists had been claiming for the previous 10 days; allegations that teachers had introduced a questionnaire at a school aimed at absolving the Turkish side of any responsibility for our troubles was incorrect -- it had been prepared by students; and the claim that children had been barred from wearing a cross at the English School was a myth.

The attacks were sparked several months ago when it became known that the government had plans to embark on a major educational reform and that committees of educational experts would be set up to review the entire school syllabus. The government admitted that history text books would come under review as part of the reform and the nationalist camp automatically assumed that this would lead to a "distortion" of Cyprus' modern history to make youth accept a settlement more readily.

It was a pre-emptive strike, as the committee that was carrying out the changes had not even been set up, let alone had a chance to distort history. This, however, did not stop the Archbishop, teaching unions and anti-settlement politicians from attacking the government and the minister for their plans to "distort" our history. The minister's refusal to engage in this absurd debate, in the belief that protests would die down proved a mistake, as the issue has been exploited by the anti-settlement camp which has been using it to slam the government's alleged lack of patriotism.

Essentially, all the fuss is geared at rallying Greek Cypriot opposition to a settlement, which is why it was necessary for the minister to take a stand. President Christofias will also have to publicly back his minister on the matter, if only to show everyone that he will not be intimidated if and when an agreement is on the cards.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2009

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