Andrei Markau: Everything Needs To Be Radically Changed In Belarus

The whole system in the country is tied to one person.

Andrei Markau, a social activist from Maladechna, has told the press-center of the Belarusian National Congress about his town, the problems that its neighbors and friends face:

- In the town, everything looks very decent at the first glance, tidy streets and neat flower beds make you think about well-being. But this is only at the first glance. And if you take a closer look at the situation, then in every area of the town life there are capital problems. An incredible amount of problems. Economics, social sphere, infrastructure, culture. If you touch on each of the layers of the entire life of the town, then everywhere you need to eliminate the accumulated issues, and if you don’t start doing it now, tomorrow it may be too late.

If you go to a job search site, then more than 80% of the vacancies range from 200 to 600 rubles per month. According to the official data only, 23% of organizations in the city are unprofitable. If this problem is not started to be solved as soon as possible, then this will lead to a collapse on the scale of the entire town and region. All Maladechna residents know that it’s almost impossible to push through to get on morning trains to Minsk. The locals go to the capital to earn money, spend at least four hours a day on a round trip to find at least some income.

Not enough hospitals and clinics. Huge lines to those health facilities that do exist. For example, the passage of a standard commission for employment can take up to two weeks, and this is far from the limit.

Since 2012, all projects of kindergartens have been frozen in our city. It comes to absurd situations that a child needs to sign up for the queue to the kindergarten before the actual birth. And if people have just come to our town, then this problem is generally unsolvable at the moment. I am not even speaking about the walking distance availability of such institutions.

By the type of activity, I communicate a lot with young people, and each of them told me that they would like to leave the town in search of a decent life and income. Many of them would like to move to Poland, less often - to the Russian Federation. Even older generation people say that in this country there are neither prospects nor opportunities.

Naturally, people blame the government, the vertical. However, the problem is not only in the officials, it is more global and structural in nature. It is in how directors of enterprises were trained to work, in what conditions they worked. Most of the vertical workers were educated in the days of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, they did not learn how to work in the conditions of the modern economy. If you change the structural organization of the public sector and redirect the town’s economy from socialist rails to the path of economic development, this will give a good result, including allowing you to raise salaries and replenish the town budget, and after this many other problems of the town will be naturally solved.

- What are the main problems in our country, in your opinion?

- The main problem, as I see it, is that if you open your own business in our country, then be prepared that tomorrow you will not have it. Even if everything is done according to the law, the tax authorities will still find violations during the audit. Anyway. The only difference is how big the fines and sanctions will be. I have gone through the confiscation of goods worth more than 60 million non-denominated rubles. The audit found the grounds substantial enough for this, however. When I spoke with the judge directly in the courtroom, she made it clear to me that the case was, in fact, insignificant and had no basis, but they should impose a fine. The same thing can happen with every entrepreneur who works in our country.

The policy pursued by Lukashenka is aimed at suppressing private initiative and entrepreneurship as such. Every person who starts their own business consciously takes risks, because an inspection will come, and they may lose everything that they have earned over many years. Unfortunately, this is the specifics of doing business in Belarus.

- You are going to take part in the “parliamentary campaign”. What will you talk about with the people first?

- For the residents of Maladechna, obviously, the key priority is decent work and decent earnings. As they say, near is my shirt, but nearer is my skin. I am also concerned about the construction of a nuclear power plant in Astravets - it is located not far from our town, and the “gaffes” occurring during its construction are, to put it mildly, alarming. Of course, the solution to all these and many other issues rests on the most important moment: holding free elections, changing the government at all levels.

- Why is this the most important?

- It is necessary to change power, if only because without it we will not be able to change the situation in the country, to solve the problems that I have listed above. The whole system is tied to one person and officials appointed by him. The path along which they have been leading us for 25 years will not take us to anywhere good, as experience has shown. It is necessary to cardinally change everything.

A change of power is possible provided that all advocates of change exert their efforts. Water does not flow under a lying stone, and it is necessary to use every, even the smallest opportunity, in order to make our future better.

- What do the advocates of change need to do first?

- Talk with people, listen to them. To convey to everyone our position, our ideas and suggestions. We are the majority, but not all of us are aware of this, keep an eye on politics. Some are putting up with the situation, thinking their participation is unnecessary. Some doubt that change is possible in the near future. People need to know that they are not alone, that there are many of us, to restore faith in themselves and their own strengths.

Each of us does some good deeds, and such actions always change our society for the better. When we get together, when there are really many of us, when everyone feels the shoulder of their like-minded person - then we will be really able to roll mountains.

In our hands, there is an opportunity to influence something. To change living standards, curb rising tariffs and prices, abolish absurd decrees and laws. To influence concrete problems that have concrete culprits sitting at the top. It is up to us. If each of us makes every effort to change the course of the history of our country, then together we will certainly succeed!