Professor Mirjana Najcevska at last night’s debate “The citizens for the country or the country for the citizens?!”, organized by CIVIL – Center for Freedom, tried to answer two questions, how far along are we with democracy and how far along are we with the control.

“In these 28 years we are still learning about democracy and we just can’t seem to learn. What is most often forgotten, that is, the element that is missing, when talking about democracy, is the individual. Hence, democracy is based on individuals, it’s not based on groups. Contrary to this, in our country we have parties, we have NGOs, fan groups, ethnic groups, religious groups, we have all kinds of groupings, we just don’t have individuals. As long as we don’t learn that the individual is the basis for democracy, we won’t move a step forward”, says professor Najcevska.

She believes that when the individual is lacking, so is the individual responsibility, and that is why it’s very easy to shift responsibility, and by this the quality of the individual is lost.

“We are talking about institutions, but those institutions are worth as much as the individuals in them are worth. However, very often we see the institutions as homogenous structures, as buildings, as urban elements, but never do we see them as a sum of individuals, and from the quality of those individuals depends what the institution will be like”, considers Najcevska.

Najcevska says that when there is individual responsibility, when there are measurable elements, then those who are responsible should be punished.

“Sometimes I have the impression that the rule of law means rule of laws, and it’s not the same at all. Laws can be brought by anyone and they can be the worst in the world.  The law is something totally different. The law is the manner in which a certain legal solution is reached, the participation of citizens, the interests and needs that are contained in the legal solution and the manner in which it is provided”, she highlighted.

Text and editing: Маја Ivanovska
Camera: Atanas Petrovski
Photo: Biljana Jordanovska