NGO Sector and the Ruling Parties - A year after the parliamentary elections

Insufficient self-criticism - mutual name for the reality estimation
 
The Government should initiate meetings for certain sectors more often, at which the corresponding NGOs should be invited, said Klime Babunski - PRO MEDIA

Katerina Bogoeva

Do the NGOs expect too much of the present government and the coalition parties? Do all of them sometimes recall the pre-election promises they gave a year ago to compare them with the results they accomplished and with the greater and more open cooperation they announced? These questions leave much room for wondering whether with criticism only, and not self-criticism, can the wanted relation that Macedonia needs so much for its social development be reached? The process of bringing closer the views of the present and future of this country is going on slowly, but it is not due to the cautiousness of steps taken from both sides, which usually results from the past experience, but as an expression of initial mistrust. It is a result of the non-built awareness that the citizens' interest should be continuously reflected in the government actions, but also that citizens should come up with their requests more intensely. NGO gradually cover almost the whole territory of this country with their activities, which presents an extremely favourable opportunity for the present government to monitor what is going on in the field, outside the cabinets and offices and create a different view on the reality.

EA Biosfera - Bitola It is not the Government's fault that the NGO sector has turned into social companies   "Our awareness is at a level of a Green Euglena. We take positions and hide the crumbs under the carpet, with no courage to solve essential problems seriously. On the other hand, it is not the Governments fault that the NGO sector has turned into social companies for providing fees. There is still no real partnership between the Government and the NGO sector, because neither of the both are mature enough the respond to the role they should have in a true civil society for which we all strive.  Neshat Azemovski

At the last elections, the ruling parties paid considerable theoretical attention to the necessity of existing the NGO as their respectful partner in building the country's interests. Today, after a year and from a position of coalition partners in the Government, the Socio-Democratic Union of Macedonia, the Democratic Union for Integration and the Liberal-Democratic party, have another views for cooperation with the NGO. "No government can function well without taking into consideration the NGO attitude on various topics. SDSM is building relations of partnership with the NGO regarding the work on party, parliamentary and government level. We are indeed willing to hear their attitudes. In future we are firmly determined and obliged to contribute to an additional development of an ambience for free, independent and democratic development of NGO". These are the promises of the SDSM spokesperson, Igor Ivanovski, who did not mention any example of good or bad cooperation in the past year. And the NGO came up with their remarks:

"The relationship is changed, allegedly, but in fact it is NOT" - says Violeta Simjanovska on behalf of the Centre for Performing Arts Multimedia, sending her remarks to the Ministry of Culture. "When they gained power, one of their priorities was cooperation with NGO and very soon we were invited to a meeting, but we have no seen any concrete results of it. Simjanovska does not go back to the pre-election promises, she says that she hasn't read them all, her past experience is that much is written, but most of it forgotten after the lections. But she, too, does not offer any examples. However, she emphasises that "there is much to tell, but mainly, the experiences are negative, with a certain tendency to become positive, so we will see". "I am a sceptic that something will be changed", saying that in the whole process of mutual communication, it is necessary to involve relevant people who would work together. "It is necessary to establish centres for cooperation, action plans, that we will be able to implement with political support that is necessary for the success of any project. The Government should be more transparent and show openness for any initiative. Therefore, it takes new people in one joint body, that will consist of both, Government and NO representatives".

Democratic Union for Integration "DUI finds groundless the accusations by some NGOs that the election promises have been forgotten" - Ermira Mehmeti, spokesperson. Socio-Democratic Union of Macedonia "SDSM has no obligation, nor intention to make any remarks to the NGOs and accepts their remarks. Thus, we will work better"- Igor Ivanovski, spokesperson. Liberal-Democratic Party "The negative evaluations of the Government's work by the NGO sector, does not correspond to LDP and Government's attitude and activities"- Natalija Velkovska, spokesperson.

For AMPEP - Programme for improving the life of people in Albania and Macedonia, located in Ohrid, the experiences with the present Government, in comparison with those from 2001, have not been changed at all. In the organization, they emphasise their notions, gained by working with the people on the field, that there is a general dissatisfaction from the incomplete implementation of the Framework Agreement, the unemployment, the fight against corruption, the protection of the environment, the slow administrative procedures, etc. As a positive example they are stating the cooperation with the Ministry of Local Self-Government, in the part of decentralization. As a negative example, they mention the procedures for registering the organization, the employees and their insurance, which they assess as "slow and vague". According to AMPEP, the existence of a concrete legal framework that would refer to the NGO and their operation, as well as the Government's ear for them as a factor protecting the civic world interests, is necessary for improving the cooperation.

In this phase of establishing to civil society, within some NGOs, there is still a dilemma, whether to assess the Government, the promises given by the parties and the reality we are all facing. Many of them do not answer the questions, saying that it is better to be quiet in order to avoid any problems. For example "Otvorena porta - la Strada Makedonija", an organization working on projects for stopping the trade with women, express dissatisfaction from the cooperation with the state institutions so far, but "they refrain from commenting the work of the present Government".

Ermira Mehmeti, spokesperson of the Democratic Union for Integration, stated that the non-governmental sector should have a leading role in the democratic society, because, in a certain way, it corrects the work of the state and its institutions. "In the last few years, we have been witnessing an increased NGO activity and many initiatives, which have been fruitful in most of the cases. Their work has been very transparent, so there is always room for discussions, consultations, exchange of information and other means of cooperation". When asked, whether the global direction of the NGO sector coincides with the one the Government is heading or, or whether there is a parallelism in their actions, Mehmenti answered: We cannot expect from the both sectors to be unanimous, since we are considering two completely different sectors. Eventually, our goals are the same - social welfare, economic development, integration in the European Union, etc. However, the ways of realizing those goals are of course, different".

The present DUI experiences show that it takes more work in the direction of strengthening the relations between the government and the NGO sector. This party assesses the present cooperation as satisfactory. "Certainly, the foreign examples should serve as direction we should be hading for, in order to strengthen the relationship between us, but generally, it can be said that the NGO has and gets the place it deserves. The reforms are hard, but they are an opportunity, not a risk. Therefore, it takes courage from everyone, including the NGO sector".

Klime Babunski, on behalf of PRO MEDIA said: "The most recent experience is the participation of the working group in the preparation of the first version of the Law for free approach, prepared by the Ministry of Justice. Basically, it is a positive experience of a positive cooperation. On the other hand, if we do not want positive experiences to be just an exception to the rule, but a rule itself, the Government or the authorities should be more active. The cooperation or the contacts are in most instances initiated by the NGO sector. The Government should initiate meetings for certain sectors more often, at which the corresponding NGOs should be invited. Such dialogues can make the cooperation more open and more efficient.

In the Liberal-Democratic party they think that in the last year, they realized the programmes for cooperation with the NGO sector successfully, through the work of the corresponding ministries and the parliament group, where each on their own way, incorporated the NGO requests. "The Ministry of Labour is most active in this sphere. In cooperation with the organization "Poraka", dedicated to the intellectually disabled, it organized so-called daily centres. The requests of the invalids have been implemented in the proposal-law for employing disabled people, and in the Law against family violence, there is a special clause, a kind of novelty, which refers to the fight against family violence. It is a result of the joint work of the ministry and the initiative of the NGO sector, and the introduction of the act dedicated to the NGO in the Law for social protection for the first time in our country, is a confirmation of the determination for active cooperation", emphasises the spokesperson Natalija Velkovska, adding that the LDP parliamentary group has regular consultations wit the NGOs; that they established an Inter-parliamentary lobby for people with special needs, in which members are the corresponding NGO and the Macedonian Women Lobby, and she also mentions the cooperation with the Craftsmen Association, together with which they are working on the Law for Craftsmen, etc.