19 March 2024, Tuesday, 6:42
Support
the website
Sim Sim,
Charter 97!
Categories

Oksana Hryshchenko: The Advent of Democracy Is Inevitable in Belarus

Oksana Hryshchenko: The Advent of Democracy Is Inevitable in Belarus

Even the most despotic countries cannot completely isolate themselves from the world.

The head of the Kiev city organization Power of People Party (Ukraine), Oksana Hryshchenko, stated that in an interview with Charter97.org.

- Your party is known for many activists and volunteers of Euromaidan to become your members. Could you tell us more about it?

- The idea to create our party was born before Euromaidan - spring and summer 2013. Then a group of active people - not politicians, but representatives of civil society - came together. In the summer of 2013, under Yanukovych, everything in Ukraine looked depressing in terms of democracy. It was decided to create an alternative to Yanukovych in the next presidential election.

In the fall, when Euromaidan started, these people became active participants. In the spring of 2014, the organizing committee of the future party began to collect signatures for its registration. Just a month before the parliamentary elections of 2014, the party was officially registered.

- How does your party differ from other political forces in Ukraine? What are your ideas for the parliamentary elections?

- In terms of ideology, we are a liberal democratic party. To some extent, our program coincides with Svyatoslav Vakarchuk's "Voice", or with Petro Poroshenko's "European Solidarity".

But we believe that Ukraine should create parties as institutions.

Unfortunately, although there is much democracy in Ukraine, we lack institutional organizations that would work according to long-term plans.

Our parties are mainly created "for elections", so we even call them not parties, but projects. As a rule, such "parties" operate for one season. These "parties" commonly do not survive until the next elections. At that, famous people change political forces.

The country and its political culture need real parties that could exist and develop for centuries - as in Europe and the United States.

The second problem of many Ukrainian parties is that oligarchs consider them as their investment project. Of course, politics and money are connected all over the world, but in Ukraine, it is specially developed now. As a result, we have the instruments of oligarchs, not parties that represent interests of some strata of the population.

Underdevelopment of the political system has given rise to the phenomenon that we call "fan club": a party is created for a specific leader. For example, there is the Fatherland party, but everybody knows that it is Yulia Tymoshenko's party, not a political force with its own ideology.

From the very beginning, we have promoted our party as a "multileader" one. We face some challenges in Ukraine, but it is important for us to have a leader re-elected. We have limitations period for one person in charge of the party and very strict rules on financing. Because of this, we have less money, but we know that it is raised by a large number of our supporters, not from one who will use us as a tool.

We can hardly make it to parliament now, but we need to get 2% of votes to get state funding. This is the main goal of our campaign.

But we do know where our strength lies: since we want to stay for long, our people are very determined and goal-oriented.

- What would you like to change in Ukraine?

- We have a lot of deputies at local councils, we have two mayors - in Trostyanets, Sumsk region, and Chortkiv, Ternopil region. We have two deputies in the Verkhovna Rada.

Our people in power are already working on strengthening the transparency of the state system (many deputies talk about it, but we made specific steps). It becomes much harder to "cut" the budget when our party's people come.

On the one hand, we try to minimize taxes in the cities where we participate in local self-government. But at the same time, the cities with two mayors have their budgets increased, because entrepreneurs and businesses see the transparency of our policy, trust us and do not try to avoid paying taxes. For example, in Trostyanets, our mayor can show all the accounting books. And such transparency promotes proper tax payment by entrepreneurs in these cities.

The responsibility of the authorities to voters and taxpayers is, perhaps, our key message. We want to restore the confidence of Ukrainians in the state power. This would let our country get rid of many problems and avoid traps, when people are no longer able to tolerate and join the next Maidan. We would like Ukraine to develop without despots and constant revolutions.

- You say that there is much democracy in Ukraine. On the contrary, Belarus has no democracy at all. Do you think "export democracy" is needed? Is your party ready to support the opposition and civil society in Belarus?

- I would like to express my personal opinion. The example of Ukraine is significant for many people in Belarus (especially those who came to us for Euromaidan). Freedom is the greatest value, which cannot be replaced or substituted. However, many people may be more concerned about "stability", finance, well-being.

However, even such material things as well-being and stability also depend on freedom. Modern countries cannot develop without political freedom. They start to fade, degrade, and "stability" follows them.

Now the world is very competitive, global. We are talking not only about Ukraine's possible influence on Belarus. All the processes are much more interconnected and quick. It is not an option to stay on the sidelines anymore.

I think that Belarus has no choice. Your country should become democratic, free and modern. Only this will ensure real stability for Belarus - stability of development and growth.

Therefore, I think that the advent of democracy is inevitable in Belarus. And on the part of Ukraine, of course, I would like it to promote it.

On the one hand, Belarus itself should mature for changes. But on the other hand, it is complicated for the society, which has lived without democracy for a long time, to mature without help and example to follow. I hope that Ukraine will be able to solve its problems and strengthen itself and later provide some effective assistance.

But even now, at the level of information influence and exchange, it is crucial to support civil society in Belarus. After all, the world today is global, and even the most oppressive countries are not able to completely block all information flows.

I believe that Ukraine, as a country that values freedom and democracy, should provide Belarus much more assistance, at least in terms of information. This is my opinion.

Write your comment

Follow Charter97.org social media accounts