COMENTARY

Representatives of the people

The few initiatives raised by the civic associations, directed towards approaching the citizens and the members of parliament, are coming at the last moment. They come in time when the term "parliament" is deeply mystified and has almost lost its meaning.

"Parliament" and "Members of Parliament" - it sounds so unfamiliar for the common people, as many other foreign and international terms we use do, although for them, there are other more appropriate, more comprehensible terms in our language. Perhaps if we called the Parliament, for example "National Assembly" (although the original, Latin meaning of this word is "Place for agreement", and the Members of Parliament "Representatives of the people", they would not be so alienated from the ordinary people. Unfortunately, in our country, especially in the last few years, everything that has the prefix "national" is considered retrograde (I would have said "retroactive") and a "tail" from the previous system (where there were some good thinks that we should have adopted, as Slovenians did).

The term (or the coinage) "representatives of the people" reflects the very essence - those are indeed people, chosen and sent by the people to represent their interests. Sadly but true, they soon transform into "members of parliament" and lose their touch with the common folk. They start representing mostly their own interests, do not have meetings with those who elected them, do not know their needs and have no ear for their interests..

Therefore, I think that the civic associations' initiatives to demystify the fame called "Parliament" are extremely important. The association "OHO, for example, is implementing a very interesting project called My Parliament" within which it encourages the citizens to write to their representatives in the parliament and remind them who they are and why. Part of the project are the several public debates whose goal is to initiate the process of meetings between MP's and the citizens.

"To govern on our behalf"(In our name) - is the title of the video-material which is also part of this project and it reminds us of the essence of their function - that they represent the people and that a democratic form of governing should be realized through them. 

Several initiatives with the similar goal are being implemented by other civic associations (one of them is supported by the MCIC) - establishing lobby-groups, meetings with the members of parliament, debates, etc.

Let us hope that they will be able to demystify the Parliament for the people, and turn the Members of the Parliament" into real "Representatives of the people" - not as they are described by Nusic.


Marijana Ivanova