Srećko Šekeljić
eJavne rasprave–take the law into your hands!
Currently the adoption of laws by the Serbian Parliament is mostly influenced by three factors: parties, officials in public administration and corporate lobbies. However, by introducing online public consultations, another factor would be permanent introduced to the process of making laws: uncensored public pressure, i.e. the Citizens’ pressure. That's why a broad coalition of organizations and institutions requires a fundamental change of the National Assembly.
Here is a classic example of why we need this change ..
One morning the news appeared that digital equipment and recordings will become more expensive because the new law requires the payment of additional fees ti the organization called Sokoj. Suddenly, they all got up on their feet, cursing the country and government, initiated the petitions, distributed compromising information about Sokoj on blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Journalists at the time interviewed businessmen, but it was already in vain, as well as IT and economic experts who testified about how this new law was fatal for the development of digital literacy of citizens and the competitiveness of the Serbian market. In vain the net experts explained that it was completely ridiculous to limit their access to digital technology just fo the reason that a compromised organization of citizens would fill the pockets with money. The answer by institutions was simple - law already enacted. No further discussion.
However, what happened to the debate before the law with so many flaws is enacted? How many of you would support the more expensive digital equipment in favor of salaries of employees in some Sokoj? How many of you would vote for the politicians and the party with this program? Finally, had the members of the Assembly of Serbia in general understood the consequences of this legislation before they voted for it?
It is the digital technology, the use of which is actively suppressed by Serbian institutions, what allows to citizens to participate in public life and to supervise the work of their political representatives. So a group of organizations with the support of the Digital Agenda and the the Pirate Party of Serbia launched an initiative to introduce eJavne rasprave. The aim of this action is to maintain an online public consultation required for each bill, in which every citizen of this country with Internet access can participate. Of course, the Serbian government still has much work to digitize its mysterious procedures, the development of digital literacy of citizens and, of course, on achieving the greater availability of computer equipment.
In principle, citizens should govern this country by directly elected representatives in the National Assembly and the President of the Republic, which would then be to implement "the will of the people." However, politicians typically focus attention only on the right of citizens to vote for them in elections and do not care enough for our right to influence their work after they have been entrusted the chair and the associated costs to be paid from our taxes.
In the Assembly laws and amendments are proposed, argued about and voted, without much desire to allow the voters affect the content of discussion and legislation in any way. Then through the traditional corporate media people are transferred selected information on the work of the Parliament. Citizens then are left only with the possibility to grumble to themselves or to curse with friends when the Assembly adopts a law like this is fatal and serves for an additional payment to Sokoj.
With the intention to return to "the will of the people" back to the National Assembly, a group of activists and organizations offered a very simple solution: introduce a two-way communication between parliament and citizens via the Internet. Just make an appropriate minimum Internet portal that would be easy to use and optimized for integration with social networks. Citizens will do the rest - will write their comments on the proposed legislation, and will support and defy some solutions, give additional explanations, concrete examples and comparisons with good and bad practices of other countries. The discussion will be completely public and transparent and legislators will have no excuse for the adoption of irrational or harmful regulations.
Another great thing about this solution is that the citizens are to share the information from this site on networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google +. They will seek support from their friends and online connections for the proposals that were formulated on the portal. They will organize decentralized mini-campaigns around specific solutions that are sound and beneficial to society.
Currently the adoption of laws by the Serbian Parliament is mostly influenced by three factors: parties, officials in public administration and corporate lobbies. However, by introducing online public consultations, another factor would be permanent introduced to the process of making laws: uncensored public pressure, i.e. the Citizens’ pressure. By using the force of arguments, viral content sharing on the Internet and the mechanisms of creating online communities, citizens will be able to catalyze the public pressure that would direct MPs at understanding the "will of the people" regarding the bills. There are already good, but very rare examples of campaigns that by advocacy succeeded to bring to the adoption of certain regulations or the amendments thereto. New online mechanism might allow these exceptions to become the rule. In an ideal outcome, we get politicians who understand and represent the will of the people, and therefore the public will be satisfied with their representatives. Win-win.
When we talk about the availability of such services to citizens, it is sufficient to look at some data from the latest study of Strategic Marketing and USAID:
• As much as 56% of Serbian citizens use the Internet (compared to 52% last year),
• 41% do so every day (compared to 36% in 2010.)
• 95% of young people aged 12-19 years use the Internet, 80% each day (compared to 68% last year),
• 60% of households have Internet access, and only 4% use a slow dial-up connection,
• 2/3 of all Internet users have a profile on Facebook, while 91% are active.
Detailed results of the comparison with last year’s results can be downloaded here.
The volume of the daily use of the Internet and social networks in Serbia every year is inevitably growing, and generations to come have almost fully integrated their online and offline lives. Given the expansion of the Internet and its suitability for establishing two-way communication with anyone about anything, it remains a key medium for citizens’ involvement in decision-making affecting them. Therefore, the availability of Internet and digital technologies should be treated as a public good by the Government and Parliament, instead of adding excise tax, additional taxes and flat taxes to them.
You believe that the initiative is useful for the society? Join us ...
The Initiative was started by theCenter for Comparative Legal Studies (CUPS), Independent Association of Journalists Vojvodine, the Center for Education, Bureau for Social Research BIRODI, Citizens’ association Sretenje and the Serbian Employers’ Association, and supported by the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, The anti-corruption Agency, Ombudsman, The Office for Cooperation with Civil Society, Digital Agenda Directorate , as well as Pirate Party of Serbia.
Srećko Šekeljić
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