Petru Macovei: NGO sector is to get its claws

The relation with the government was the greatest challenge for civil society in 2010. After a new administration came to power in 2009, the quality of governance changed, being different from that of the Communist governance, which was always criticized by civil society organizations, the head of the Independent Press Association (API) Petru Macovei stated for Info-Prim Neo. According to Macovei, even if civil society wanted the power to be changed, it had to show by its behavior that, regardless of the political orientation, it promotes the interests of the people and attentively monitors governance. “This was the challenge as the NGOs were to show that they defend the people’s interests and are a critical monitor of the governance and the use of public images. I think that civil society did not manage to cope with this challenge. Thus, during the next years the NGO sector is to get its claws,” Petru Macovei said, adding that the period is now opportune for the NGOs to take this test. Petru Macovei also said that the number of failures in 2010 was lower than during the Communist administration. However, there are things that did not change. “The campaign for the constitutional referendum was unsuccessful for the politicians, but civil society also did not mange to more actively get involved in promoting the need of amending the Constitution of Moldova,” Petru Macovei said. Besides challenges, the API head also mentioned the results achieved by civil society, especially in the second half of 2010, including the citizen education campaigns carried out within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, with the assistance of the National Participation Council. “I’m sure that if a new survey on people’s confidence is carried out, civil society will have a better score than in the previous polls,” Petru Macovei said.