Uladzimir Niakliaeu: I have no friends in the opposition

Uladzimir Niakliaeu has just been assuring everyone that opposition cannot do without common candidate. It was just two months that ex-presidential candidate announced this question to be unsolvable.

It was Mikola Statkevich who called Niakliaeu to account; however, the poet and politician is sure that already this year there will be an opportunity to discuss all accumulated questions with Statkevich at liberty.

The talk with Uladzimir Niakliaeu about various kinds of transformations started with a question about whether he enjoys his socio-political life.

- I never thought about whether I enjoy it or not. I believe that it was Uladzimir Matskevich who wrote recently about politics as about hobby. I agree with it, as if people had some primary occupation, then politics wouldn’t be such a mess. I wouldn’t call politics my hobby, but if a man involved in politics has some extra profession he feels more stable and self-confident. And in the current conditions politics can hardly be enjoyable.

In order to take pleasure in my work I find time in my political activity and occupy myself with literature. This is where I belong.

- “Tell the Truth!” campaign runs for 3 years. What has been most memorable for you?

- The creation of the campaign itself was a creative process. It was collective creativity of very intelligent people. I got similar experience only in the editorial office of “Krynitsa” magazine.

- Has routine substituted creativity soon?

- I am not an office politician, I’ve never aimed to join opposition, my specific aim was “Tell the Truth!” civil campaign that was created towards the presidential election. The situation seemed to be favourable: the regime was worried about its future, foremost economic condition of the country and for these reasons started closer relations with the democratic West and even undertook certain responsibilities. At that time we thought that we would be able to reach our goals and to create the force powerful enough to make the regime collapse.

It never happened. And I saw no sense to be in opposition further. But we all are prisoners of our decisions. I couldn’t merely say “Thank you” to hundreds and even thousands of people who were with me in “Tell the Truth!” campaign, who voted for me and who went out at demonstration (“Square 2010”).  “Tell the Truth!” was subject to tough repressions then, and if I had left at that time, this campaign most probably would have collapsed.

- What is your current motivation to deal in politics?

- I have only one motivation. Prolongation of today’s regime has a pernicious effect on the future of my country. Today’s regime is marginal; it employs simple methods that are reduced to providing for bodily needs.

Well, even being a man of letters, first of all I am a Belarusan, who cares about national values, culture, history and language. My character doesn’t allow me to watch what’s going on in a detached way; I feel bound to do what I am doing today.

On truth and political prisoners

- In everyday life you can always encounter the fact that there are many people around who are not that willing to hear and tell the truth?

- It has nothing to do with politics. We all stand for truth, but sometimes each of us wants to escape this truth. It is the essence of human nature, as every person knows everything about himself. And this truth is always worse than that he wants to claim to be the truth. But what makes a person great is in seeking to become a better man however bad he is in real life. And we should tell the truth for that.

- Mikola Statkevich also calls for telling the truth. How have you perceived his initiative to discuss what happened at the presidential elections after all?

- I have already said that I ‘m ready to discuss what happened at the presidential elections. But in order to do that everyone should be present and be in the same conditions with the opportunities to ask each one questions. Once the participants of those events are able to gather I am ready for discussion. We have to leave all the questions in the past.

- Why this initiative was voiced by Statkevich, not by the people who are out of prison now?

- I have already said about it two years ago when I was summing up my results of “Square 2010”.

- Still some uncertainty is felt with those questions that Mikola Statkevich touches upon in his letters. You have even answered to them in public, but his wife Maryna Adamovich believes that you still haven’t told the key words…

- I agree with the opinion that the participants of the elections should discuss everything together. And I wrote a letter to Statkevich, though I don’t find it necessary to talk about it in public. There are things that are not worth public discussion. I have rather close relations with Statkevich, and it is he who has a right to ask questions from all the candidates. I hope that already this year we will have a possibility to discuss everything at large: I believe that the situation will make Lukashenka to discharge all the political imprisoners. And then we will discuss all the mistakes made during that presidential campaign from the very start. And will tell everyone interested about it.

On ideas and provocations

- You have recently stated that opposition should learn to sell itself to the population. Not everyone understood it explicitly…

- I don’t know what can be ambiguous there. Political idea represents the same goods as anything else; any political idea can be generated, after which it is either consumed or rejected by the society. I think that today opposition has some ideas that can be consumed by our society; regime offers the same goods. Yes, it has more opportunities; they have monopoly on realization of goods in the country, but even in such unequal conditions we should learn to sell our ideas, inform the society and our consumers about them.

Thus, our ideas should be offered as opposed to what the regime offers today. We want the main agenda of the majority of Belarusan citizens, which is economic changes and revival of justice between the citizen and the state to become a real civil agreement about these changes. And so that the authorities are unable to ignore this civil agreement of “new majority” in 2015.

On unity and elections

- You note that today is not the best time to specify the personality of common candidate from opposition and not the time to talk about the presidential elections. What priorities do you have for the future?

- From my point of view, the question of election of a common candidate is unsolvable now. And I see no sense in abstaining from participation in local elections. That is why we will participate in local elections and will become a platform for all those who want to speak of their problem or idea, who want to stand up for their interests. And at the elections of 2015 the authorities will fight to the bitter end. So we have to think carefully, whether we should participate in the elections or not. It is the same with the war, when civilian population can’t fight against the army anymore.

- You were in political emigration for some time, so you are well aware of how it feels to do something far away from your home country. Do you believe that today’s Belarusan political emigrants can influence the changes in the country?

- Changes in the country can only happen from within. Of course, emigration can further them, but only if it works for these changes. I think that our new emigration comes to understand that the tactics it has chosen initially can bring no good. The only correct tactics is to work for the country’s good inside the country.

- What initiatives in the opposition do you support and who from your colleagues in the democratic forces in Belarus do you treat with affection?

- I have no friends in the opposition, as there can be no friends in politics at all. But the main thing is that I have no enemies from the side of the Belarusan opposition either. Neither from those who have left, nor from those who stayed in the country. As this way or another we pursue one and the same goal: to change the regime and to escape from this evil.

What concerns my political partners, I must admit that the division within the opposition that was made according to participation or non-participation in the parliamentary elections came to be artificial, as both sides had one and the same goal. Some decided to reach the goal through boycott; some preferred to participate in the elections. Personally, I wasn’t against the boycott, though I didn’t believe that it would be efficient. And now it is very important now to avoid similar mistakes at the future elections. Already today we state that we will participate in these elections and we are open for all sorts of discussions and cooperation. I think that it is the attitude of the political forces to the council elections that will predetermine all possible variants of consolidation during the presidential elections.

- But don’t you want to leave politics and exclusively engage in creative work?

- I have some time for creative work during the night, though not during the day. If I had no commitments to many people from our campaign, then I wouldn’t be in the politics now – I have manuscripts I have no time to work on. For now I can’t even imagine when I will find time for that.