Uladzimir Matskevich: We will continue consolidation

This opinion shared the Chairperson of the Interim Coordination Committee (ICC) of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF), the head of the Board of the International Consortium “EuroBelarus” Uladzimir Matskevich summing up the results of the year.

He is being less and less surprised at the events and people’s responds. Egoism, fear, people’s callousness stop making him indignant. The philosopher finds important that to this day he retains an ability to get surprised with trifles: “For example, at the chestnut flower I saw on a tree with almost no leaves on it”.

Uladzimir Matskevich is not in a hurry to enumerate the chain of events that have been printed on his mind in the outgoing year:

- In the traditional culture human life presupposes some obligatory events. But it can happen so that the event is planned but it fails to happen. Can we name the non-happened event an event at all? If yes, then the main characteristic of the outgoing year can be considered the elections to the Belarusan Parliament which never come to be the main political event of the year. These elections have never become an event; they haven’t become anything for the country at all. I think this is the main characteristic of 2012.

The first lecture in the Flying University this year was unsuccessful –instead of the public lecture, the representation of Siarhei Dubavets’ book took place. But the name of the lecture that was declared is an event in itself, I think. This lecture was called “Life in the stopped time”. And Parliamentary elections, which failed to become an event, characterize this life in the stopped time in the best way possible.

One more thing. The presence of the political imprisoners in the country – is this an event? We entered the year with the political imprisoners and we finish it in the same way. And this prolonged process is an event as well.

Uladzimir Matskevich suggests careful evaluation of the social and political situation in Belarus at the end of 2012:

- Let us assume that there stands a house. We lack some resources for its renovation, human ones, economic ones, time, after all. We took pictures in the beginning of the year and in the end – the house stands as it used to. We can’t see any difference, but the house has grown one year older. We can’t see microcracks in the walls and rotten chevron, but it still happens. That is why even in the most stagnated situation things, people, relations are growing older. We need dynamics for the development, we need potential difference, and in the time of stagnation everything grows older and collapses.

One should understand that the developed countries are making life comfortable for themselves. And Belarus falls under this arrangement as well. But the presence of hotels, supermarkets and roads doesn’t make us a developed country. All this is infrastructure of the developed countries’ citizens. They want something from us, in Europe, in Russia, in China. But no one will take upon itself responsibility for us. And if we don’t take into consideration the interests of Europe, Russia, China, if we don’t meet their desires but act other way round, then Belarus will become a closed country for investments, trade, business development, for tourism, basically. It will happen if we are not aiming at the leading group of the countries, if we do not stimulate our own development.

According to Uladzimir Matskevich, if we are to search positive information somewhere in Belarus, then it is only in the sphere of the civil society:

If we consider civil society as a whole, I would say that from its two main characteristics which are discordance, pluralism, diversity and ability for consolidation, Belarusans have achieved success in one sphere – in discordance, pluralism and in individualism. What concerns solidarity and ability for common actions, then we are still learning to do that, though there is certain positive movement. We unite and it is in this that we considerably differ from political opposition in the country. There appears lots of information about the formation of various political associations, unions and coalitions. But practically anyone writes about the fictitious nature of these unions, about their incapacity in the presence of formal declaration. For example, the information about signing of the Vilnius Memorandum came with great pompousness and loudness. But nobody in particular describes that the situation with consolidation of opposition has basically remained as it has been. And Mass Media characterize the processes that are going on in the civil society in an absolutely opposite way. Any information about the planning split in the civil society or the disagreement in the National Platform is carried on cheerfully. But practically no one writes about what sort of splits they could be and how to solve these disagreements positively. Nevertheless, National Platform is preserved; it is developing and becoming stronger. And in the outgoing year the idea that the hopes for the development of Belarus are mostly connected with the civil society has become firmly established.

Unification and consolidation of all the sound forces in the society doesn’t in any case cancel individual and local goals, believes Uladzimir Matskevich:

- The paradox of today’s situation lies in the fact that even those people, who are not democrats in their viewpoint realize that they need democracy. Both nationalists and communists need it. Even those who value today’s stability are interested in changes that will at least let to hold steady what we have now. And I believe that this notion should make people treat the suggestions and initiatives in the civil society more carefully at the minimum. As practices shows, even tens of thousands people can’t change the situation in the country. That is why the necessity for unification is obvious.