Stanislau BahdankieviДЌ:The president has already taught Belarusan women to bear children correctly

Belarus is on the way to reaching a deadlock in all the directions, while the modernization of the country should be started with political reforms. And the first thing to do is to reject the authoritarian system of government in order to make it...

Belarus is on the way to reaching a deadlock in all the directions, while the modernization of the country should be started with political reforms. And the first thing to do is to reject the authoritarian system of government in order to make it possible to carry out the current system reforms in all the areas of life. Such an opinion was expressed in an interview with the Information Service of "EuroBelarus" by Stanislau BahdankieviДЌ, the chairman of the National Bank in 1991-1995.

Media attention in August is traditionally running on the next battle for the harvest. News from the field is daily conveyed, and governors of the regions report to the president on the number of harvested grain. The head of the state, in his turn, requires from professionals to increase the efficiency in the production of crops and teaches them the proper technique of milking cows.

Former head of the National Bank is not quite surprised by this situation: "It has historically established since the Soviet time that our government still continues to compare everything with those times, trying to maintain the level of good crop capacity and drawing parallels with the Soviet period. But in general, we are seriously lagging behind the neighbor countries. And not only in terms of high productivity, not only in the agriculture sphere. Today Belarus is lagging behind in almost all respects: on yield on capital investment, labour productivity, energy intensity and complexity of the economy, inflation, external debt. We are lagging behind in terms of the level of civil society development. We are at the end of the European list of indicators in numerous parameters. And it can not happen that any of industries would make the leap, and could be compared with the countries that all in the complex are far ahead of us".

A group of former Belarusan executives at the current government’s initiative has recently visited farms of the Minsk region. Stanislau BahdankieviДЌ took also part in the trip, together with several former heads of the Belarusan government: "We have been in four advanced enterprises of Minsk region. And we heard everywhere the same thing. We were told that all the most advanced experience had been achieved through the experience of civilized Europe. So we were shown: this is a Dutch technology, that's a Swedish one, that’s a French one. And this is in view of the fact that in the current political situation, Belarus has fully cut itself off these countries, off the close cooperation with them. And all the eastern experience in our enterprises is only the money associated to Russian natural resources. Everything else - intellect, technologies, achievements - exists only in the West”.

During a trip to the Minsk region the dignitaries "were specifically showed, where and what": "In ЕЅdanoviДЌy, tomatoes are grown based on the experience of Netherlands. In one of the farms, bumblebees are raised based on western technologies. Modern technologies of milking cows and growing beef are also taken from European elaborations and Western experience. And herewith our country behaves in such a way that we have no Swedish Embassy in Minsk any more, and we are constantly worsening relations with Europe. And the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had been heading the department during all Belarusan-European escalations, was decorated with an order. Another minister is to take personal responsibility for the collapse of the national currency, with the collapse of prices in the consumer market; but instead he has had the title of a national hero. Rather than pension him off with, drummed out for incompetence, he has been invited to become assistant to the president. And so is everywhere, as the overall level of the leadership of the country underlies".

Stanislau BahdankieviДЌ is already pretty tired with annual demonstrative battles for the crop, "I, like many people of Belarus, am absolutely fed up with it. But again, this is not just about agriculture. When I see that the president constantly meddling in all the matters, letting no one, either a minister, or anyone else to be creative, I understand that it can bring no good. What do these constant guidances to redo everything mean? Is it the president's matter – to interfere in everything? A specialist should be treated with respect. There is a hospital with a maternity department near my house. And I will always remember how our president once came there, and he was teaching women, explaining them how to give birth to children. What can be witnessed with this fact? Only the low standard of culture, nothing else".

According to the reputed economist and politician, indicative diligence in a sector of agriculture, as well as seasonal demonstration of activity in other sectors is the eternal marking time: "This is the essence of any authoritarian system - marking time. When the power is held only by one person - it is always voluntarism, like they used to say at the time of Nikita Khrushchev’s ruling. This is not normal. And such an abnormality is observed everywhere. Our economy has collapsed; the fact that would have caused a political crisis, mass resignations and an investigation on this matter would have taken place. Still, it did not happen, and as a result we are in the last place in many respects. The level of average wages and pensions we lag behind neighboring Lithuania and Russia in half, behind Poland - three times. And this is taken into account that even such a situation is provided by the consumption of all that was created by previous generations. Our foreign debt made zero point zero tenths 18 years ago, and today it makes already 34 billion, or 63 percent of annual gross domestic product. This is, however, a direct indicator of the current economic model efficiency, which leads to a gradual loss of sovereignty".