Rwanda’s parliamentary lower house will be dissolved today,9^th August, 2018 as Rwandans, both in diaspora and in country,  prepare to go to polls to vote for the new Members of Parliament starting from  2nd September, 2018.

As the next parliament plans to outmatch the previous ones, I want to stress the relationship between citizens and elected leaders as a critical factor that enables power holders to keep informed of citizens’ issues, needs and priorities.

For members of parliament whose main responsibility is to vote national laws on issues of public concern, a regular touch with the general public is even a must if those laws are to be responsive to real citizens’ needs.

The previous implies that the upcoming elections are not just enough for citizens to vote parliamentarians into power for the next 5 years in office to only see them again on talk shows or on TV shaking hands with the President or their Speaker.

Neither are they voting their new MPs to see them attending state banquets or back to their communities when they want to ask for more votes so they can serve a second term without tending to the promises they were given.

When leaders are elected, they are expected to set up independent institutions and processes, but those institutions and processes must be put to work creating opportunities for the citizens they represent to lead healthy and productive lives.

Relatively happy

The outgoing MPs have done relatively well in terms of reaching out to the community. A study titled “Governing with and for Citizens: Lessons from a Post-Genocide Rwanda) conducted by Never Again Rwanda in 20016 established that citizens were relatively happy with a series of community outreach that are organized by MPs.

As citizens called for the frequency of those outreach initiatives to be increased, they similarly called local elected leaders also to emulate such a good practice. As a result of this, outgoing MPs have perhaps been, than in previous terms, more active in terms of advocating for most pressing citizens’ needs.

The issue of increasing university students’ scholarships had been for instance one of the most debated issues by outgoing parliamentary over the last 2 years. Finally, the issue has received Government attention and adequate response.

Indeed, as of the beginning of the next academic year, this issue will be solved to the satisfaction of many.

 So was the issue of expropriation of citizens’ property without proper prior compensation or of recent, the long-standing issue of private operators who used not to pay the dues of casual workers to perform some contracted public works.

Conducive laws have even been passed in this regard as a result of MPs taking at their hearts some of the most pressing citizens’ needs.

Arguably, the outgoing parliamentarians have perhaps passed more new laws on matters of public concern than ever before. Whether those laws were a result of consultative process and hence informed enough by citizens’ perspectives is another topic though.

For instance, it is not clear how much public opinion was sought on the recently passed law that established the increment of land lease fees for unexploited immovable properties, among others.

Strengthening the relationship between leaders and the citizens might seem to be such an obvious priority that it hardly needs spelling out.

Challenge

Outgoing parliamentarians have already set the tune at least when it comes to keeping in touch with the community, although their level of interactions still needed to be doubled if not tripled or quadrupled for citizens to feel more valued and attended to.  This sets a challenge to the incoming ones to do even far better.

As such, they have no right at all to fail citizens’ expectations on this matter. Instead, they should strive to do even much better than their predecessors, including in terms of engaging the general public on key laws of most concern to them.

Over the last years, and within government’s efforts to promote citizen-centered governance, all for greater government transparency and accountability have grown.

At the same time, public and media scrutiny of officials’ actions have been relatively increasing.

With citizens now having access to more information to form their opinions, it is by no surprise that  they expect a lot more from their leaders, and elected ones in particular, including seeing   their views taken into consideration during public making decisions.

Therefore, the kind of relationship advocated for here is crystal clear – transparency, accountability and effective representation.

I acknowledge that a good democratic representative doesn’t necessarily have to be liked, approved by, or even appreciated by every one of his/her constituents, let alone by all citizens.

However, a good democratic representative will be the unbridled advocate of his/her own constituents and citizens.  

 In a bid to ensure that our government continuously works for the greater public good and to ensure a collaborative relationship between citizens and their elected leaders, the following is required:

• Informed, organized, active and peaceful citizen participation. Citizens must therefore understand ideas about citizenship, politics and government. They must acquire knowledge to make decisions about policy choices and the proper use of authority, along with the skills to voice their concerns, act collectively and hold public officials accountable.

• Civil society organizations (CSOs), as they are the vehicle through which citizens can aggregate their interests, voice their preference and exercise the power necessary to affect sustained change, CSOs have to play a variety of complementary political roles that include: acting as watchdogs; advocates; mobilizers; educators; researchers; infomediaries; and policy analysts.

• CSOs to increase citizens’ literacy about participation as a civic and political right and duty as well as to empower them for meaningfully participation;

• The media to play an important role in connecting citizens to their leaders. Most of us find out about candidates for office, public officials' activities, and the burning issues of the day through television, newspapers, radio, and the Internet. The media's power to shape the citizen’s mind although has been often criticized, but it allows people to get information and also to give feedback to the elected leaders.

To conclude, I feel the need to recall that active citizenry makes the present and the future of any country as a lot depends on them even if it’s the government and its branches, including parliament that make decisions on their behalf by drafting the policies or pass the laws.

Indeed, every citizen can do something useful for the development of their country, it doesn’t matter what sphere they work in (farmer, carpenter, unemployed, corporate).

 It is also their duty to do everything they can to create better conditions, but for them to achieve that, they need to have the right relationship with their elected leaders.

Dr. Nkurunziza is the Executive Director of Never Again Rwanda.