With the ongoing discussion about the further development of the civil society in Belarus it has to be stated that the Belarusan democratic forces haven’t learnt to come to an agreement so far.
This opinion in the talk with the EuroBelarus Information Service shared Head of the Board of International Consortium "EuroBelarus" Uladzimir Matskevichon the results of the “The state of the civil society in Belarus” conference that took place in Warsaw at the end of the October.
“It was obvious during this conference that among those present there was no wish to hear each other, to understand and somehow relate your point of view with what your opponents say”, noted Uladzimir Matskevich.
According to him, the meeting took place in the manner and traditions that do not conform to the existing state of affairs. “When the organizers of the meeting, notably the Casimir Pulaski Foundation and the Non-Governmental Organizations Conference of the Council of Europe advertised that conference they were guided by the knowledge of the far outdated civil society. They asked to make the principal opening report a man who being the representative of the civil society as he is still has long ago lost contact with it and realizes very vaguely what is civil society today, what makes it live and so on”, - declared Uladzimir Matskevich, speaking about the report of Aleh Hulak, which he called “indistinct”.
Chairperson of the Interim Coordination Committee of the National Platform considers this indistinctness inadmissible in the conditions when “there is a high interest of the Europeans towards what is happening in Belarus”. “They stopped to comprehend what is going on. If earlier when looking at the Belarusan situation they had some simple explanations, now these simple explanations do not work. And they try to figure out with interest what is going on in Belarus, why everything is carried out and is happening this way”, - noted Uladzimir Matskevich.
“That is why a normal, sensible and realistic analysis of the state of affairs was necessary and not the one that was made by Aleh Hulak. I think that this analysis could have been made by Andrei Yahorau, whom we heard only during the second day, at the board rather connected with the Belarus-EU relations than with the situation in the Belarusan civil society. In short, the conference cannot be recognized as satisfying if we regard contents”, - summarized the public leader.
He noted that in the course of the conference a number of hot and heated discussions have been arisen. “But it is very hard to name them substantial, as the manner in which Zmicier Bandarenka tried to criticise the sociology and sociological data presented by Aleh Manaeu cannot be called critics”, - expressed his opinion Uladzimir Matskevich. To his opinion, “besides touching upon the really essential matters at the conference, it has to be admitted that the level of their discussion and the level of the debate were extremely low”.
Uladzimir Matskevich noted that now a discussion about the further development of the civil society in Belarus is going on. “This discussion is rather intense; it takes place within the National Platform of the civil society. I think this way or another it will show itself at the nearest National Platform conference”.
“There are two rather articulate approaches in the civil society. One of the approaches is aimed at the development and the enhancement of the role of the civil society in the ethnic issues, regional policy, international relations and so on. The other approach rather presupposes the conservation of the current state of affairs and abandonment of any innovations and development, reasoning that with the considerable analysis of the situation and saying that now there are neither conditions nor understanding within the very civil society and so on”, - Uladzimir Matskevich described his vision of the situation.
“For us, the supporters of the first approach, the absence of anything is more like a challenge to do it, to create, to organize. And for our opponents the lack of anything means that accordingly, nothing should be done”, - assumes the Chairperson of the Coordination Committee of the National Platform.
He expressed hope that the active approach oriented towards the “dealing for a rise”, will prevail. “And then we will have to discuss more substantially how exactly we should organize that “dealing for a rise”, how we are to consolidate the civil society and the democratic opposition, how to increase the role and the significance of the civil society in Belarus”, - declared Uladzimir Matskevich.
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