Solly Moeng: Civil Society Should Act As a Watchdog For State Institutions

• 04.12.2017, 19:18
•  World,  Armenia,  Interview

"Armedia" IAA presents an exclusive interview with Solly Moeng, convenor of the South African Brand Summit & Awards. The interview is taken in the framework of the World Communication Forum Davos held in Yerevan on March 21-22. The Forum in Armenia was organized by Armenian Public Relations Association.

- In your speech you have mentioned about the necessity of developed institutions that should act as watchdogs for monitoring the acts of leaders. What do you think what should be the role of civil society in helping to develop such institutions?

- Instead of the word just “institutions” we should use the word “democratic institutions.”  I think that civil society has a big role to play. Civil society must be the watchdog of those institutions. They should make sure that the constitutional democracy functions well. If we have leadership that appoints wrong people to be leaders of those institutions, those institutions become ineffective. So civil society should keep an eye on those institutions to see that they are doing their worked to promote democracy, open society etc.  In doing so the civil society can demonstrate, they can go to court and use other existing methods. But there it is definitely should be no excuse to leave civil society out of the process, because it belongs to them and in the end it is for the society itself.   

- Then what are the factors that should contribute to the development of that active civil society?

- Civil society groups are very organic in the way they organize. It sometimes takes long for two or three people to say: we are not happy with what is happening in our country, let’s meet and discuss it. There should also be a friendly media. So it is organic, they have to first get what they are not happy with, what they want to change and then get people around the table, get media to support them and use the exiting digital and the other media platforms to express them.