19 March 2024, Tuesday, 6:29
Support
the website
Sim Sim,
Charter 97!
Categories

Uladzimir Niakliayeu: I See Belarusians Are Ready For Decisive Struggle

12
Uladzimir Niakliayeu: I See Belarusians Are Ready For Decisive Struggle
ULADZIMIR NIAKLIAYEU

Spring protests in Belarus have given results.

One of the leaders of the Belarusian National Congress, poet Uladzimir Niakliayeu said this in an interview with the website Charter97.org when commenting on the spring of protests in 2017.

– You had to go through a lot in the past few months, the arrests after the protests have seriously affected your health. But, apparently, you have not diminished your determination?

– Of course not! I have just returned from Ukraine, from Lugansk region, from the place where the war is going on and people live in much more harsh conditions than we do. And no one there complains much about it, because people understand that they are fighting for the independent European future of Ukraine.

That's why I think that we shouldn't complain about repressions, fines or detentions. After all, our situation is less dangerous if compared with what is happening in Ukraine, and it's ridiculous to complain.

It is necessary to talk not about who and for how many days was jailed, what fine one has received, who felt better and who felt worse while being behind bars, but about the result. The main thing is that the protests gave the result.

Perhaps, it was the first time when during the mass protests people paid absolutely no attention to the intimidation of the regime, to its horror stories. No matter what the authorities do, starting from using batons to using cars to disperse mass protests, people perceive this all, I would say, not only adequately, but, on the contrary, as a demonstration of the obvious superiority of those who protest over those against whom they protest.

Now the regime operates within the space between the dialogue, which it has with the EU, and the repression, which it applies. Obviously, the authorities are in a very difficult situation.

The regime needs money come hell or high water, and it is forced to play at two sides, and it cannot do this. No matter how much they talk about the "multi-vector" nature of the Belarusian politics, it still inclines in one direction.

The regime always loses in a complex game. So it happened this time: it did not get what was expected from the West, it did not get money from the people who did not obey and is ready to fight further with even greater determination.

– In your opinion, what will happen next in the situation of the crisis and the growing dissatisfaction of the Belarusians with power?

– The regime wrongly does not agree to what Western partners call it for – that’s a dialogue, and what the democratic opposition calls for – to negotiate with the society.

It does not agree, really, in vain, because there will not be any help from Russia in connection with the situation that is developing there. Dragging out of the policy, which is being implemented by the authorities today, will not do anything.

This means that they need to find resources for the existence within the country, and they are not in the penalties that the regime rips off from the non-working people, calling them "parasites", or protesters, who are also fined.

The resources are in the possibility to increase the efficiency of the Belarusian economy, which means that it is necessary to carry out economic reforms, without which this will not happen.

The resources are also in the political restructuring of the society, since without political reforms there will be no economic reforms.

If today the authorities agree to some kind of transformation and democratization, reforms, they will largely atone the big sin against the country and the people, which they committed in more than 20 years.

Write your comment 12

Follow Charter97.org social media accounts