At what extent our public organizations are non-governmental and public? Let
us discuss activities of more than 3 thousand NGOs in Armenia from this point of
view.



We all, entering governmental jobs, have to fill in a form, a heritage from the
Soviet time and titled Personal Data, which includes a section in
where we need to report on our public activities. While during the
Soviet time we would fill this from with true and false activities to look
publicly active, nowadays we even do not mention the activities we carry out. It
is natural, and from the first glance, it looks as demonstration of the
necessary division between governmental and non-governmental sectors in a
democratic society. Our public activities are our personal choice,
and consequently, it should not interest our employees. However, this is a false
impression.



Sustainability of democratic governance assumes diverse and wide expression of
civic will, which becomes functional through a special instrument, which is
called public (non-governmental) organization. This is an
important mechanism for formation of civic consciousness. Strong
and sustainable modern state is characterized also by existence of developed
civil society. This system should operate through a reverse citizen-state
relationship. The state should encourage in citizens active societal lifestyle,
and citizens should raise in themselves a feeling of integration of
person-citizen. Nevertheless, the situation is different. As a result of
symbiosis of the remainder of the Soviet syncretic mentality and
only appearance of the current state’s democratic accomplishments, we are ready
to assign our sovereign right to rule ourselves to the state, the
current ruling powers, at the same time, leaving on them the whole
responsibility for the results of it. The state to keep the stability
of its administration and provide appearance of “democracy”, without
consultation and demand of the public, uses its “pocket” NGOs. As
a result, the concept of “public” falsifies. As a result, the alliance of
state-citizen does not form. The inhabitant does not become a citizen.



By it essence, NGOs are called to eliminate antagonism of subject-object
relationship, which prevents self-organization of the society. The society
through NGOs realize its right to be beneficiaries, as well as its certainly
organized activeness. However, during post- Soviet time, this situation was also
changed, when unselfishness (at least, not realized in direct monetary income)
nature of the phenomena was prevailed by the funding coming from the state and
international donors. Putting aside a question of the origin of funding, which
is interesting at least from a point of view, i.e. what is the basis of the
existing bias, which is, as a matter of fact, of secondary importance, we
propose to consider the following criteria as indicator of activities of NGOs.
Do NGOs’ activities correspond to the public demand and at what extent they are
effective in deepening roots and strengthening real self-organization and
development of the society.



We, citizens, demand from the government satisfactory provision of services.
However, we do not keep accountable NGOs which spend significant amount of money
but fail to address these actual functions. Speeches of our governmental
officials at the international tribunes become a topic of public discussions
and, sometimes, of sharp critic. At the same time, declarations of some NGO
leaders, do not become known to the public, while, nevertheless,
damage our country’s image at the international level.



NGO are called to be the most intellectual and active layer of the society.
However, this rights should not be taken as granted (meaning, that a
representative of an NGO can speak on behalf of the public). Does
it mean that somebody can speak on behalf of the society if he/she represents an
NGO?). People interested in public opinion should observe, feel, research and
even predict processes which may happen in the society, so they can speak about
current public attitudes. If a NGO X receives a grant to pursue its goals, it
has to be accountable not only to donors but also to the public. Otherwise, our
so called NGO sector will follow the fate of our political
parties. During the 15 years of independence, the political parties,
isolating themselves from the society, destroyed the societal potential
supporting them and thus discriminated the notion of political party.
Sustainability of public and non-governmental (i.e. not governed by the state)
nature of NGOs will form not only political culture but also will promote
sustainability of political parties and other state and public institutions.