Uladzimir Matskevich: Belarusan opposition lacks intellect

Stupid waste of time can boomerang against Belarusan democratic forces the moment when events in the country start calling for active decisions.

 There is no waiting for social and political recovery in Belarus in the near future. Such opinion in the interview to the EuroBelarus Information Service shared Uladzimir Matskevich, theChairperson of the Interim Coordination Committee of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum: “Now is the time of preparatory work and there are no preconditions for the events that could change the temper in the society”.

Those few initiatives that sound today do not show any positive dynamics in the coordination processes within the opposition. According to Uladzimir Matskevich, in this connection the reaction on the suggestion to choose a National Revival Council through internet voiced by the former commander of a riot police brigade, a political refugee Uladzimir Baradach is rather illustrative: “His attempt to suggest his technical variant of deciding upon the leader among the opposition forces has sooner met passive rejection than active discussion, critics of anything else. And it happens so that practically any initiative will be met this way – by passive disregard”.

And there is nothing unusual in it, assumes Uladzimir Matskevich. “The problem is that our country lacks such social and political force that could demand activity for itself from the side of all opposition parties, groups and associations. As a result, it turns out that the most active group today is a scarce diaspora formed by Belarusans in emigration who haven’t managed to find themselves there yet, but who live in hope of coming back to Belarus and are taking some actions”.

Uladzimir Matskevich  shows reserved attitude towards the term “new majority” that is able to speed up the slow-moving processes in the political life of the country: “For now I can’t see not only the majority, but any mass social group that would demand actions at all. There is no evidence that would prove the existence of this new majority. And it looks more like an attempt topass the desirable for reality. Because even if Lukashenka’s rating drops it is not leading to the increase of some opposition leader’s rating”.

Neither does this “new majority” have some clear contour: “It doesn’t reveal itself in any way. And insignificant changes of moods in the society that the results of public opinion polls show do not possess any demands and questions. Thus, there is nothing to answer to”.

Uladzimir Matskevich doesn’t share optimistic views of those who believe that Europe can carry important role in consolidation processes of Belarusan opposition: “We shouldn’t count on that, as European structures have no connections with the Belarusan society except few contacts with the civil society of Belarus through NGO sector. That is why there is no sense in waiting some influence on Belarusan society from Europe”.

If anything exceptional happens, then no sharp changes of the political situation in Belarus are foreseen, believes Uladzimir Matskevich. What concerns slow progress within the frame of preparations for the possible changes in the future, then, he believes, this is the weakest point of all Belarusan opposition and Belarusan civil society: “Unfortunately, we have very low intellectual constituent in the politics of the opposition. Today we have time to do preparatory work for the future more actively, but it turns out that we uselessly waste our temporal standstill. And this stupid waste of time is the biggest problem for the democratically oriented forces in Belarus now”.