Greek Train Accident - The Culprit Was Found And Put Into Jail! Or Was He Not The Culprit?

The tragic train accident and the discussions around it have reminded me of a NYT commentator who recently observed in an article "the unsustainable contradiction between the country Mr. Mitsotakis insists on pitching abroad and the one he actually presides over.“

Well, it seems the country which he presides over (its institutions, its governance throughout the hierarchies, its administration and control, etc.) is indeed quite different from the country which Mr. Mitsotakis pitches abroad. Within days of the accident, all sorts of revelations reached the public about inefficiencies and incompetencies in the public sector. Mind you, not only at OSE (the Greek train infrastructure company) but in the public sector in general!

This just goes to prove, in my mind, how important Mr. Mitsotakis is for the image which Greece is now, after 4 years of his government, enjoying internationally. Yes, he is overselling his country. No thinking person would accept that a state which was not too long ago described as a "failed state" would, within only 10 years, become a near-perfect state. 

The question is whether Greece is really changing or whether the perceived change is only a PR-job of Mr. Mitsotakis. My sense is that in the private sector, there are indeed many positive signals of important changes and improvements. I cannot say much about the public sector because I know very little about the public sector. Or rather, I didn't know much about the public sector until a few days ago.

Now, I have read about the unbelievable scandal of OSE (that, I believe, is the company where the last PASOK finance minister, George Papakonstantinou, said that it would be cheaper for the state to transport all OSE's passengers by taxi than by trains). I read that everyone knew all along that Greece's railways were the most dangerous ones in Europe and that even the EU Commission was concerned about that. I read that the EU transferred about 700 MEUR for the betterment of OSE in recent years. I read that there have been multiple written warnings about the potential risk or a major accident; and, finally, I read that no one in a position to implement improvements really cared.

But yes, the master of a small train station had to be put in jail immediately because he committed such a grave human error. And yes, even Mr. Mitsotakis knew immediately that 'human error' was the cause of the accident (somehow suggesting that the culprit had already been found and put in jail). Why Mr. Mitsotakis bothered to announce the formation of an expert commission to look into possible causes of the accident is not quite understandable under that light.

For someone like myself, who has fallen for Mr. Mitsotakis' pitches, this is a great disappointment. Yes, I had started to believe that the Greek state was transforming from 'failed state' to 'near-perfect state' in a hurry. It seems I was wrong. 

So where do we go from here? How do we solve this problem? Well, certainly not by declaring the station manager as the culprit and sentencing him to life in jail and to declare the matter as closed. That, to me, would be about the most unethical and immoral strategy. Not to mention the fact that it would not work. 

The government now has the unique opportunity to show that they mean business when they talk about modernizing the Greek state. That they won't shy away from hot potatoes; that they will not fear any taboos. It is not sufficient for Mr. Mitsotakis to state that "we will do everything in our power that such accidents will not happen again." Those are words. Actions speak a lot louder than words.

If this huge tragedy does not provoke tough actions and improvements, measurable actions and improvements, then eventually Mr. Mitsotakis may be asked by foreigners why the country he presides over is so different from the one he pitches - and that would be the end of Mr. Mitsotakis' credibility.

And without credibility, you can achieve nothing!