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Karbalevich: Authorities Lied Many Times, Belarusians Remember This

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Karbalevich: Authorities Lied Many Times, Belarusians Remember This
VALER KARBALEVICH

Lukashenka has become a hostage of his own words.

Without waiting for quarantine to be announced in the country, the Belarusian opposition and civil society leaders called for a “People's Quarantine”. In their appeal, they argue that the authorities “deprive people of reliable information”, and urge them not to attend educational institutions, public events, as well as minimize social contacts, DW writes.

Some Belarusian doctors, having joined their colleagues' global flash mob, also asked fellow citizens to stay at home. In turn, the Belarusian Union of Journalists (BAJ) pointed out that the Ministry of Health does not update daily data on the number of infected people, and also prevents journalists from receiving timely information.

According to political scientist Valer Karbalevich, the panic mood of part of the society, reflected in the social networks, testifies to the mistrust of its representatives to the state:

“The authorities have lied many times, for example, about the devaluation of the ruble and the elections, and Belarusians remember this.”

Karbalevich reckons the authoritarian political regime in the country, as well as the absence of tough measures in the fight against the coronavirus, to be the reason for distrust (it is difficult to assess its real level, as there is practically no independent sociology in the country): “Under an authoritarian regime, power is not elected by the society and is not accountable to it, therefore Lukashenka not so much dependent on the electorate as European politicians.”

Karbalevich also believes that Lukashenka has become a hostage of his own words and his concept of “stability”, because for a long time the official propaganda assured that Belarus was the only safe haven against the backdrop of the world cataclysms. “Since Lukashenka said that a pandemic is a psychosis, he can’t pedal back on his words, even if he sees that the situation in other countries is becoming threatening,” the political scientist concluded.

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