Outdated practices and mentalities continue in the year 2017, as many citizens demand and redeem the vote they gave to the deputies asking for some facilities which, in some cases, reach and exceed the limits of the irrational and often constitute bribes. Many citizens demand service because when some MEP candidates caught votes, they were promised either jobs or mediation to satisfy their request.
The relationship between MPs and voters is strange but also reciprocal, as both sides consider it a given to support each other. As a result, customer relationships are created and in some cases there is unworthiness, so as not to upset voters. And all this is not unrelated to the distortions that exist in the dysfunction of the state, a fact that forces citizens to depend on politicians, who use them as levers of pressure.
Every day the deputies receive a rain of requests from citizens, who e.g. They are being asked to be given priority for a hospital examination or surgery as state medical services, although many patients have been classified as "emergencies", put them on a waiting list for six months to a year.
From the morning, the telephones of the deputies are on fire by citizens who are looking for housing, work but also facilities related to social welfare. Issues that are self-evident as citizens have every right to receive quality health, education and welfare services, yet the bureaucracy and time-consuming procedures trap them.
Citizens communicate with them through any means at their disposal, such as through facebook, twitter, email, viber, whatsApp etc.
MPs say that the majority of citizens do not ask for a ransom, but demand that they get them out of the impasse. As they say, they can not turn their backs on desperate citizens, who face serious health problems and livelihood difficulties.
At the forefront of the citizens' demands are also the transfers to the National Guard and the Police and the services to the Land Registry.
Before the economic crisis hit Cyprus, most of the world's demands were for jobs, but lawmakers no longer have that opportunity, a phenomenon that was particularly acute a decade ago. In fact, when the representatives of the people do not find an answer, they ask questions to the competent ministers in the context of the parliamentary control, asking for answers about roads, gorges, and other related things.
For example, in 2013 a question was asked by the competent Minister to answer how the government will deal with the problem of stray flocks of sheep and goats that are destroying the vineyards in the area in Agios Fotios. In 2010, another MP asked to be informed when the public space near the settlement of Tersefanos is expected to be cleaned.
No matter how many complaints we make that some MPs have been caught many times unread, who with the bills they passed brought upside down in our lives, however they are a mirror of our society. That is, we vote for them to be elected and then we ourselves maintain some established ones. Of course, compared to the past, many steps have been taken, which have helped to reduce the shadows.
MPs from various parties admit that instead of dealing only with their parliamentary work, they run to serve the citizens as well as the existence of customer relations.
We complain every day about the quality of our policies but the vast majority of voters have absolutely no idea about parliamentary work. Many citizens believe that MPs can make decisions, which, however, is the responsibility of the executive. Members pass legislation and proceed with the required parliamentary scrutiny by discussing ex-officio issues in parliamentary committees and by asking questions.
Marios Mavridis
DISY MP Marios Mavridis notes that an MP is often forced to "sacrifice" his time at the expense of his legislative work, to help citizens who do not find a response from the public authorities. At the same time, he emphasizes that "the system that operates in Cyprus today is the same system that went bankrupt but we continue to maintain it". According to Mr. Mavridis, the improper functioning of the state forces the citizens to resort to their deputies to be served. Public services such as the health sector, land registry, town planning, social welfare, etc., create the need for interventions by MPs. He points out that the inadequacy of public services creates customer relations, which reinforce injustice and unworthiness. On the other hand, he notes that customer relations offer the MP a competitive advantage over his competitors. He pointed out that many times the citizen does not ask for bribes or service but simply information, because public services do not respond. There are also, he noted, requests for services and for rusfetti, but requests for rusfetti are rejected without discussion. Concluding, he stressed that some progress has been made in the issue of meritocracy, but also in serving the citizen.
Zacharias Zachariou
DISY MP Zacharias Zachariou stated that the majority of citizens do not ask for bribes and suffer from the public administration, as a result of which they claim their rights through MPs. According to Mr. Zachariou, "it is a failure of the system that we have not managed to prevent the citizens from running to the deputies for an appointment at the hospital and for a town planning permit or something else from the land registry". The DISY MP underlines that "the Republic of Cyprus since its establishment until today has not been able to give its citizens what they should, dignity and forces them to run left and right, which makes it difficult for the MP because he absorbs a lot of time from the real of the duties that are the parliamentary control and study of the issues of the Parliament ".
Irini Charalambidou
AKEL MP Irini Charalambidou, stated that the requests she receives mainly concern a large percentage of health issues and minimum guaranteed income issues. He noted that people are desperate for health services, not because of medical and nursing staff, but because of long delays. As she said, most of her time is spent in meetings where she receives allegations of corruption in the public sector. She indicated that she limits her interventions after documenting the facts presented to her. "I have to say," he said, "that I overturned the image that wanted MPs to do things and this was proven in the last elections." The people, he emphasizes, want honest deputies, not deputies who give in to pressure and make money. "I am one of the MPs who did not give in to pardon," he said.
Pavlos Mylonas
Citizens' Alliance MP Pavlos Mylonas states that he is not a member of parliament of a large party to make a fuss with the aim of getting a citizen to be promoted and improve his position in the list of appointments. As he said, he is approached by desperate, unemployed, citizens who face health problems and homeless. "I do not consider this a scam but it is my duty as an MP. People need to understand that we are not an executive branch, no matter how much others play it, that as MPs they can get a job. "This is rusfetti." According to Mr. Mylonas, irrational requests are also submitted because people do not know what the role of the MP is. One of the strangest requests he received was about hiring a civil servant who had become illegal eight years ago. As soon as it was found that the recruitment was illegal, the employee was fired. The employee asked the Alliance MP to mediate in order to legalize her illegal recruitment.
Michalis Giorgallas
The MP of the Solidarity Movement, Michalis Giorgallas, stated that they are trying to satisfy the demands of the citizens and to identify the problems that exist in order to face them legally in order to serve the citizens. There are demands, he notes, "which are considered interference in the functioning of the state and they fall into the category of bribery." He emphasizes that "our management is to explain to the citizen that he must follow the correct procedures to stop the intervention made by some state officials who encourage the client state".
Zacharias Koulias
DIKO MP Zacharias Koulias claimed that none of the citizens who come to him ask for bribes but help. One of the strangest incidents he faced during his 18-year tenure in Parliament was the request of a teacher who had asked DIKO to grant him a loan of ten thousand euros. At the same time, he noted that he mediates for health issues and cited as an example the case of a citizen who urgently had to undergo surgery.
What do their ears hear and what do their eyes see?
In addition to the requests they receive for serious issues, MPs are sometimes faced with ridiculous situations. For example, an elderly woman who, while reporting to a Member of Parliament the difficulties she is facing due to the very low pension she receives, before turning off the phone, asked the Member of Parliament to mediate to find a wife for her daughter to marry.
A similar request was made by another MP, who received an e-mail from a desperate father asking him if there was anyone free to vote for his daughter. Another citizen called an MP calling him to remove a girl from their neighborhood who, as she told him, is doing magic to the neighbors and looking at them. In another case, a citizen who is voting in the Paphos constituency, contacted a member of parliament from Nicosia, stating that he voted for him when he did not do so and demanded that he find a job for his child.
Another incident concerned a clear case of bribery, where a citizen asked a member of parliament to contact the Ministry of Education to secure a place for his child in AXIK as he was among the runners-up. Another citizen demanded that MPs listen to the judges because of the low sentence they had imposed on a pedophile case. When Cyprus Airways was operating, there was a citizen who asked a member of parliament to contact the company's management to secure an airline seat, as he could not find a seat on the date he wanted.
Source: Liberal