Economist: Situation In Belarus Reminds Medieval Britain

Today Belarus needs a bourgeois-democratic revolution.

The development of the IT sector in Belarus has not led to progress in the social and economic structure of the country, but has only consolidated the archaic practices of interaction between government and business. This opinion has been voiced by economist Siarhei Chaly, Belsat reports. He suggests the following metaphor to describe it:

"We got a class society, where different classes have different rights and privileges. This is a pyramid, which is controlled by decrees. At the bottom of the pyramid are common workers. For them, there is Decree No. 3 (also known as Decree No. 1 "On Parasites"), the main task of which is to make people work. The second class is small and medium business, for which there is Decree No. 7 on the development of entrepreneurship. The third class is alchemists. Especially in a situation where there is a problem with the treasury, when there is a need for a miracle, alchemists come and say: we convert lead into gold, but we need benefits. These are HTP and IT specialists, and there is Decree No. 8 for them. They mine digital gold," - the economist said.

According to Chaly, the problem with the IT decree is that it gave benefits to part of the business, but did not change the rules of the game.

"The new technologies themselves do not mean social progress. Along with iPhones and programming, we have an absolutely archaic political and social system. In fact, our situation reminds medieval Britain on the eve of the adoption of the Great Charter of Freedoms. What was the Great Charter of Freedoms about? On the impossibility of arbitrary taxation, on the impossibility of extrajudicial prosecution. This is what we do not have. Today Belarus needs a bourgeois-democratic revolution," - the economist stressed.