{"id":1441,"date":"2018-06-19T13:22:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T11:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/?post_type=article&p=1441"},"modified":"2018-06-19T13:22:52","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T11:22:52","slug":"ic-cittadin-ghandu-rwol-importanti-fdemokrazija","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/article\/ic-cittadin-ghandu-rwol-importanti-fdemokrazija\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizens have an important role to play in a democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Citizens have\u00a0the\u00a0right to\u00a0collectively\u00a0choose their own\u00a0governmental, political and electoral\u00a0systems. The authority wielded by government, therefore, arises from the will of the citizens as expressed in their choice of systems and these same citizens have the right to participate in their government, not least through the holding of genuine elections that determine who can\u00a0legitimately\u00a0occupy governmental office.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00a0is important to remember that these general rules are incorporated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the modern constitutions within Europe and beyond. A democratic government is \u201cof the people, from the people and for the people.\u201d\u00a0In essence, we should all be reminded that these rules actually mean that: governments belong to the people; the governmental processes belong to the people and the elections belong to the people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a simple\u00a0yet complex\u00a0concept. There would be no democracy without the people\u2019s commitment. This commitment is a right and responsibility of the citizens for a democracy to work, develop and be sustained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The citizen\u2019s commitment\u00a0is manifested in\u00a0tangible\u00a0ways and serves to better people\u2019s quality of life. The citizen\u2019s commitment leads to economic, social, cultural and political development, including the provision of opportunities, resources, services and security.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For a democracy to function,\u00a0citizens need to be informed about issues that\u00a0affect their quality of life. They need to be able to work together to express their opinions and their preferences to ensure that the government takes the people\u2019s opinions into account and in this\u00a0way\u00a0they can ensure that the Government acts responsibly and is accountable for its actions. To stay informed, the people need precise and timely information, particularly information that is held by Government.\u00a0The citizens need to be able to find\u00a0out from political players whether the politicians are ready to pass on such information for the good of the people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Access\u00a0to\u00a0information is essential\u00a0if the public is to be kept informed.\u00a0Transparency is key to a democracy. The citizens, including the politicians, need to be free to express their opinion on governmental processes and public affairs; if not, citizens cannot be kept sufficiently informed and will not be able to make free and informed choices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The obstacles to citizen participation are many in any country, including Malta. There are subtle and obvious, small and formidable obstacles created by a range of factors. These obstacles, whether they are based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age or any other factor,\u00a0need to be eliminated if full citizenship is to be achieved. While they exist, our right to vote freely in elections is essentially denied and the credibility of the government is\u00a0weakened.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Citizens have\u00a0the\u00a0right to\u00a0collectively\u00a0choose their own\u00a0governmental, political and electoral\u00a0systems. The authority wielded by government, therefore, arises from the will of the citizens as expressed in their choice of systems and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1444,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[63],"issuem_issue_categories":[7],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1441"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1441"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1447,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1441\/revisions\/1447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=1441"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=1441"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=1441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}