Uladzimir Matskevich: It is necessary to be ready for a change of power

Belarus’ civil society has to move towards the mutual understanding and interaction with political structures and coalitions. Such an opinion was expressed in an interview to the EuroBelarus Information Service by the Chairperson of the Coordinating...

Belarus’ civil society has to move towards the mutual understanding and interaction with political structures and coalitions. Such an opinion was expressed in an interview to the EuroBelarus Information Service by the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee of the National Platform of the EaP CSF Uladzimir Matskevich.

Being elected one month ago, the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee of the National Platform Uladzimir Matskevich thinks that "the main weakness of the current National Platform of Belarusan civil society is that right now the Platform unites only non-governmental organizations, the NGOs sector, whereas civil society is much wider. There are creative and trade unions, intellectual communities, academic circles, and other associations".

The immediate prospects of the National Platform, according to Matskevich, include "first, the creation of strong bases for the development of regional platforms. And, second, the National Platform should cover the segments of civil society, which are not covered yet by our activity".

Besides the development of regional structures and the Platform’s incidence of civil society’s segments outside of the NGOs sector, Matskevich believes that it is not less important to work out proposals and ideas, which could become a basis for joint actions and consolidation of various public-political forces, "The majority of coalitions and associations today, both in civil society and politics, is at the level of personal relations and quite roughly understood interests. But we need to create a platform of ideas and approaches for any kinds of associations. The more so, as now we have a tool for this purpose - the dialogue on modernization of Belarus".

Uladzimir Matskevich admits that the conversations on modernization and reforms have been conducted from time to time and for a long time; however, these conversations more often are abstract, "They say something like that - what would have been if we had started privatization in Belarus? Or - it would be good if in polyclinics there would be no queues and doctors could examine a patient not for three minutes, but half an hour. But there are no thoughts of how to make it. This is how the idle conversations on reforms and modernization differ from concrete actions. Everybody can and should talk about it. But to plan reforms, to plan steps on modernization, and to plan all this with the help of theoretical, project, and program grounds - this has to be done by professionals".

In Belarus, there will be a revolution anyway

"First of all, it is necessary to be ready for a change of power, - Uladzimir Matskevich underlines. - Many people simply do not know how the state structures work, how information is spread there, how instructions are given, etc. What basically does a public official, who receives power, have at his/her disposal? After all, he/she cannot count only on him/herself. All state actions are big systems, which include hundreds, thousands, and sometimes millions of executors. Try to rule your family, a brigade on the construction site, a platoon in the army. For some reason, people think that it is easier to rule the country than an army platoon or their own family. Because of that, very frequently, when there is a sharp change of power, it turns out that there is simply nobody to rule the country".

According to Matskevich, in the countries where there is no continuity and democracy in the power change procedures, governance is getting lost, and the country becomes just uncontrollable for some time, "There starts chaos because nobody knows how it all works. It turns out that nobody knows what happens in the country. Only democracy, with all its drawbacks and all its stupidity when each fool wants to express his/her opinion, believing that it is the only correct one, allows to keep the situation in the country under control. There are always a slew of people who have the sufficient competence; therefore, during democracy, anarchy is impossible. There are always people who are able to do any work. And only if there is a sharp change of power - there are problems of how to rule a country. In Belarus, we have a situation when there has not been and will never be any normal procedure of a change of power. It is impossible to replace Lukashenko in a normal democratic way. In Belarus, there will be a revolution anyway. It does not mean that people will flood the streets or there will be shooting. The situation may develop according to various scenarios. But who will come to power as a result of it? The people who have only flapdoodled for years and have not watched any state processes at all? In this connection, within the bounds of the National Platform, it is necessary for us to program and project already now such programs and projects, which will be realistic and which can be started at once after any change of power".

People have forgotten how to make independent decisions

The leader of the Belarusan civil society’s National Platform thinks that already now there must be programs and projects with which it will be possible to arm those who will hold ministerial posts, those who will head separate spheres, separate branches of the economy, "For today, we do not have a lot of things that are ready for this purpose. We can name, probably, three or five directions of the state activity in which we will not lose control and where there will be no anarchy during any change of power. While the bigger part remains under high risk, is under the threat. Therefore, our task is at least in local conditions to prepare people who are ready to take responsibility in any sphere of public life".

Even if to consider that we still have time to prepare a part of such experts, then in many spheres we will still have to use the specialists and managers who serve today's regime, Matskevich marks, "It is good that there are such branches as, for example, housing and communal services. Yes, this branch is arranged today not in the best way. But it has to do with the general conditions, while as a whole - we have a certain order on the streets, in houses, in the heating questions, etc. Yes, there are problems, there may happen flooding and switching-off of hot water, but the whole system works anyway. It survives thanks to the work and enthusiasm of simple workers. Everything that has to do with the general management, the price policy, patterns of ownership, has many defects. But the bigger part of our normal life is supported by and works due to ordinary Belarusans who do not care of politics and do not ask any global questions, but simply do their job. They have got used to do their job honestly and qualitatively. And they will keep doing it during any power, any regime".

But in many spheres in the future practically all should be created anew. Thus, Matskevich pays attention to the fact that in some directions there are just no prepared people today, "Take local government. Today, the regime has liquidated local government in general. Local communities in our cities, districts, and villages are not able to be self-governed. Within the scope of the constructed vertical of power, all are appointed and supervised from above. People no longer know how to make independent decisions. And we will have to restore all that anew. Yes, somewhere at the local level, there are prepared people, but somewhere there are no such people at all. And there will be chaos there. It is necessary to get prepared for that in advance; this is why we need to have projects, programs, cooperation, and joint activity of all interested parties within the bounds of the National Platform of civil society of Belarus."

Earlier, Uladzimir Matskevich had already declared that within the scope of the dialogue on modernization our country needs a dialogue, not a uproar, and also underlined that it is impossible to come to an agreement with those who do not want to talk.