The state universities are a forbidden zone for the implementation of the Framework Agreement and the concept of equitable representation of ethnic groups should not be put into practice there. They are autonomous institutions that are neither public administration nor a public service and are operating under a separate law – the law on higher education, says Constitutional Law and Political System Professor Gordana Siljanovska in response to Ombudsman Ixhet Memeti’s appeal to the University of Ss Cyril and Methodius to provide information about the professors’ ethnicity with the aim of checking if the principle of equitable representation is honored, Nova Makedonija reports.
The authorities of the State Tetovo University said they have not received such a request thus far. A letter with a request for ethnicity data has been sent to a few faculties of the University in Bitola too.
“Special rules apply at universities. We do not have the same rights as the administration. We are re-elected every five years. The equitable representation of ethnic groups is one of the 11 fundamental values of the constitutional order. In other words, it is a value, philosophy, something immeasurable and cannot be put into practice. Humanism and solidarity are values too. How can they be put into practice?” Siljanovska wonders.
She says the State Statistical Office, and not the Ombudsman, is the only authority responsible to register ethnicity. In her view, qualifications and competence is what matters to work at a university. She argues that a law defining closely what equitable representation is should be passed.
Siljanovska sees Deputy Prime Minister Abdulaqim Ademi’s statement about equitable representation at the University of Ss Cyril and Methodius as an incursion into the university’s autonomy.
“This is a chance for us to see where total ethnicization combined with politicization is taking us. Furthermore, in the comparative political systems I have never come across an authority like our Secretariat for Implementation of the Framework Agreement. This is where the perversity begins. How can there be a body for a political agreement?” Siljanovska wonders.
Ombudsman Memeti explains that he has been requesting data about the ethnicity of the employees of all state universities for six years, but deans and professors says this is not true. Trajan Gocevski, ex-dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, says he cannot remember that such a letter has ever been addressed to him while he filled the dean’s position.
“No one has ever requested this of me. I think it is clear to all of us now. Deputy Prime Minister Ademi has openly said that the state universities are subject to the Framework Agreement. So the Framework Agreement has now expanded. I believe this is wrong. We employ people based on different criteria, which are not the same as those for the public administration,” Gocevski says.
The request for information about the ethnicity of the employees of the universities prompted resistance with professors.
Ombudsman Memeti told Nova Makedonija that he was doing this in compliance with the Constitution and the Ombudsman Law.
