Matskevich:Everything that the Belarusian authorities are doing now is to be corrected and done over

Civil society either does exist, or not. But if civil society exists, the last word in addressing social and political issues is always on it.

Civil society either does exist, or not. But if civil society exists, the last word in addressing social and political issues is always on it.

One can be deceiving the society for a long time. One can suppress it by force. But deception and repression are always temporary things. However, this temporality can be protracted. Decisions in civil society are being taken slowly, sometimes very slowly: it takes time before all the opinions are voiced, all the positions are presented, then discussed and agreed upon. But as soon as these are already agreed upon, then the society makes a decision, and against it armies, security forces, dictators - demagogues are powerless.

In Belarusian civil society much is not agreed upon, much more has not even been discussed. To date there is no joint civil society position on the most important challenges of our time, on key issues facing the country. Therefore I, even as the chairman of the Interim Coordination Committee of the National Platform of the Belarusian civil society, can speak not for all of the society, but only on my own behalf and on behalf of the many organizations and persons who share my opinion.

And I can’t help but talk about the most pressing issues, I can’t help but speak about the most essential thing.

The Belarusian authorities continue the conflict escalation with Europe. This is a dangerous game, in which the rate is the independence of our country. Damaged reputation for Belarus is a very bad thing, but that’s nothing when compared to the threat of total loss of sovereignty. While entering a conflict known to be losing with Europe and with our closest neighbors, the Belarusian regime sticks not its neck out, but takes risk of the entire country. The regime is losing control of the country. And in modern world the loss of control is almost impossible. Loss of control of large systems threatens other countries and peoples, so in case of loss of control of one entity, the management is immediately intercepted by another one. Today, Belarus has no political force that would be ready any day now to take over the country. This means that takeover of control of the country is only possible by an external entity. There is no need to guess who is the entity able to take control of the Republic of Belarus! This is supranational bodies of the so-called Union State, i.e. Moscow.

The diplomatic conflict with European countries and the EU can’t result in positive outcomes for the Belarusian regime. There is nothing positive in this conflict for the country, as well. From any point of view, the conflict weakens Belarus, the whole nation and the state power. It is not beneficial to anyone in Belarus; it is so evident, that requires no proofs.

But in one of his speeches, the Press Secretary of the Belarusian MFA Andrei Savinykh slipped of the tongue while describing to his companion the technical challenges of the visa liberalization with the European Union: while adducing arguments, he was appealing to the interests of the Soviet Union, not of the of Republic of Belarus. This is not a simple slip of the tongue. One does not need to resort to the help of psychoanalysis for its interpretation. Everything stands out like a sore thumb: the government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Lukashenko are acting not in the interests of the independent country of Republic of Belarus, but in the interests of supranational formation, which is not even the so-called Union State, not the Eurasian Union, but the future integrated Russia - Soviet Union, which Mr. Putin aspires to, as he sees his historic mission in reintegration of Russia in borders of 1990. Putin also stands up for the fact that this future Russia could restore the world to the bipolar state, i.e. return it to the state of 1989.

Only under this strategy of revanchism, return to the past the Lukashenko’s regime actions may be rationalized.

But it is impossible to go back and to return anything back in the history course. Putin's paradigm is unrealistic. It will never be implemented. But the damage from its implementation attempts may be too large. Belarus and the entire Belarusian nation will pay for this adventurous policy. As the expulsion of the Polish ambassador by the authorities is not a personal punishment of Leszek Sherepka, but a diplomatic move; so those who control Lukashenko’s actions, do not want to harm the people of Belarus by presenting the country at its worst. It is just that Belarusians’ troubles seem to these people a minor sacrifice in their big game. It is just that Belarusians are that people whom one won’t feel sorry for; won’t feel sorry for in this "great geo-political chess game".

But we are Belarusians! Do we agree to sacrifice ourselves to fantastic ambitions of “geopolitical chess players”?

Why do we let then deceiving ourselves?                                                             

And we are being deceived.

We are being told that the expulsion of the Polish ambassador and the representative of the European Commission is a response to the Europe’ sanctions. It's a lie! There are no economic sanctions and there will never be. These are simply impossible for many reasons. The main reason is that various governments do not have a common position. There are supporters of the sanctions, but they do not dominate and do not represent the EU governments. And several governments will never agree to impose sanctions, and their word will be crucial. Therefore, have done with it in practice. Debates on the economic sanctions are hold in the media and in various clubs, and so it remains. Therefore, the diplomatic demarche on behalf of the Belarusian regime is not justified.

We are being told that the Belarusian opposition politicians and civil society leaders are betraying their country, demanding the economic sanctions to be imposed by Europe. This is an outrageous lie! There is no official appeal from political parties or NGOs, which would contain demand, or even a proposal of imposing economic sanctions; there isn’t. And what is there? There are personal opinions of individuals, sometimes expressed quite loudly in the media or from high rostrums. These are irresponsible statements of irresponsible individuals. Civil society leaders have long time ago made an appraisal to these irresponsible statements. Therefore, the Belarusian authorities’ diplomatic demarche is not justified from this point, as well.

We are being told about sanctions from Europe, replacing the concepts, confusing "the black list" of officials who are denied entry to the EU and the sanctions against Belarus. Persons included in the "black list" are suspected of human rights’ violations which in modern Europe can be equated with crimes. Through the very existence of the "black list" the EU leadership gives to understand the Belarusian authorities that the latter must organize and conduct investigations on all the cases of rights’ violations and decide on the validity of suspicion or remove these suspicions as unfounded. Refusal to investigate all cases of rights’ violations is a crime itself. The EU can not interfere in the Belarusian internal affairs; therefore it can not organize the investigation and trials on involvement of the persons included in the "black list" in commission of crimes in which they are suspected. Without investigation and trials the European Union can not punish all these individuals, or impose to them any sanctions. But it may declare its unwillingness to let these people enter the EU. And the European Union is completely entitled to do this. This EU right does not infringe upon the Belarus sovereign rights and does not cause any damage to the national interests of Belarus. When the government or some irresponsible people are trying to replace the concepts, trying to persuade the Belarusian society that the list of persons who are declared undesirable in the European Union (persona non grata) present sanctions themselves, this is a lie once again.

Belarusian society disapproves the authorities’ attempts to deepen the gap between Belarus and the civilized world. This position is typical for the majority of civil society. Public declaration of this position as a consolidated, joint opinion of the entire civil society is prevented just by the fact what we all know what we disagree about, but we haven’t still conformed to what we agree upon.

Belarusian civil society is now in intensive search for a positive strategy.

But we can claim our disagreement with the policy of the authorities very loudly right now. And all Belarusian citizens, people of goodwill in Europe and around the world should know and they already know that the actions of Belarusian authorities do not reflect the views and positions of civil society and the majority of Belarusians. We see in these actions only the lawlessness. The arbitrariness, irresponsible voluntarism, running counter to the national and public interests.

Belarusian citizens and people all around the world should know that everything that the Belarusian authorities are doing now is to be corrected and done over; corrected when the power in democratic Belarus will be given to politicians promoted by the civil society and elected by the people, who will relate their vision of national interests with what the citizens of Belarus and entire Belarusian civil society considers it to be. This will happen only when we agree on a positive position. When we know what we want, not just what we do not want. And only then the word of the civil society will be final and decisive.

We are on the way to it.

I wish it would become true as soon as possible!