On March 30, at the Park & Spa Residence Hotel, another one in a series of CIVIL panel discussions on “Census: Statistics, not politics” took place. One of the speakers was the editor-in-chief of “Capital” Ljupcho Zikov.
Grateful for the invitation to participate in such a panel discussion, Zikov said that he is very glad that the economy is professionally given space to say what it thinks about the whole situation with the census, because there is little room to talk about the census from an economic point of view. .
“In 30 years, in Macedonia, politicians do not seem to be aware of many important things. One of the most important things that politicians operate in their campaigns is the population. Who are these people turning to? To whom do they send messages? Who will they make life beautiful for in the next years of the mandate, etc. Unfortunately, Macedonian politicians do not understand the meaning of the existence of a political scene in a country. The political scene does not exist because of them and their careers and their lives, and they do not understand one thing that the meaning of the existence of a political scene, especially in a democracy, is to serve the citizens in several most important areas: Infrastructure improvement of the country as such, which are just a few aspects for which the census is important,” said Zikov.
It is anachronistic and stupid to say that Macedonia currently has data from the 2002 census. Then we made an inventory based on a whole transition of 10 years from 1992 when there was everything.
If we start with the fact that that census in 2002 was made post-conflict, with perhaps completely inaccurate data due to displacement in that period, and it is questionable how relevant that census is. That census in terms of analysis then until today, 20 years later, operated with data from the early 90 years when the state became independent, and even then it is a question of what relevance the census had when becoming an independent state.
In all the independence of 30 years we have 2 censuses, I say, my personal opinion is that there is very little relevance in both censuses. And if we take that as a logical matrix, we make a very important and serious inventory for the first time. But in what context do we make that census? We need to do it in conditions 20 years later. The second context is the census as a NATO member. Third, we make an inventory before the start of negotiations with the European Union for EU membership. Finally, the most banal argument is that we are doing a census in the 21st century in 2021, where the census is nowhere in the world a topic, not even in the Balkans.
According to Zikov, 3 key postulates are important.
“The census data is the basis for the Government’s strategic economic policy. It is also important for companies and individuals to conduct business policy. By business policy I mean not only the business policy of companies and firms, but also the strategic thinking of individuals in the country. And third, the census is also important for conducting party policies. I will make a direct analogy and connection with the year in which we live today. We have local elections in October. I ask the party leaders: how will they make their political programs towards the local population, in the part of economic programs? For example, they want to build a gym. For how many people should that hall be made? Shouldn’t we have data on how many people will de facto go to sporting events?”
Specifically for the census, Zikov explains that it is very important what we have at the field. This is how the economic programs are formulated in the part of the political programs of the parties. He says that if the parties are not aware of that moment, that they need a resource to make their political programs, then how would they address the local population. Citizens at the local level expect the political scene to address them with projects, based on statistics.
“Why is the census important?” When a company invests in a new plant, it must know how many people are a potential company market? Do companies know how many products they need to produce to meet the market? The modern name of the citizens is consumers. Apart from counting our citizens as such, we should also count our consumers, who have their own habits. That is why the census is a statistical operation, because it is a resource in the hands of the company where many companies in Macedonia build the gross social product of the economy. Nobody analyzes and thinks about that aspect, because 80% of the questions in the census questionnaires directly or indirectly help the economic and social scene in Macedonia. The third aspect is the adoption of state and economic strategic policies. The census must be done. Hypothetically, let us say the census will not take place this year. Later it will be the biggest shame for the country when we have to do it under strong EU pressure.”
In his closing address, he stressed that we must have a census, but that a census not supported by a layer of citizens is an irrelevant census.
Irena Krdzikj
camera: Atanas Petrovski
editing: Arian Mehmeti
photography: Biljana Jordanovska
