Uladzimir Matskevich: Stagnation in Belarus complies with the official ideology
The present situation in the political life of the country can be described as stagnation. But its comparison with the period in the history of USSR of the same name looks somewhat strained.
This opinion was shared by Uladzimir Matskevich, the head of the Board of the International Consortium “EuroBelarus”.
“The country is actually in stagnation, there are no prospects in sight, the way and the direction of development aren’t assigned. That is why any suggestions on modernization, transformation and so on are hampered. As any stagnation, the present situation can be characterized as “one step forward and two steps back”. Timid attempts to change al lest something after some time meet reverse tendencies of curtailing any changes and returning back to the initial condition “, - noted the interlocutor.
On the other hand, singled out the expert, because of the differences in the countries’ size it is rather difficult to compare the current stagnation with that in the period of the Soviet Union: “Soviet Union was a thing-in-itself; it was able to shut itself off pretty well from the world tendencies for a rather long time. Belarus is a small country, which is “blown” by all winds, both from the West and from the East. That is why, this way or another, changes are happening here. Some economic relations are penetrating into the country, flows of goods and advanced manufacturing sciences arrive and so on”.
One more difference lies in the fact that the Soviet Union found itself in stagnation when the program of communism building turned out to be disabled and unrealistic. “And Belarus has never had the program of development. There rather have always been an ideology of preservation and conservation”, - noted Uladzimir Matskevich.
That is why, according to his words, if in the Soviet Union stagnation was sharply contrasted to the declared goals of movement towards communism, towards world leadership, then in Belarus this period well corresponds with the official ideology.
Speaking about the actions society can undertake in the conditions of continuous stagnation, Uladzimir Matskevich stated that “when there is no evident, clear movement forward, when there is no development, then hopes can be connected only with the structures and organizations independent from the state and state ideology. That is why now we can, for instance, assimilate some approaches, programs, visions of the future development prospective which can be in demand when the system is loosened, when some points of bifurcation and shifts appear that do not depend neither on the authorities’ nor on some other’s will. We should prepare for the future”.
At the same time the question of whether independent Belarusan structures are ready to prepare something for the future is left open. “A lot of structures independent from state live for the day, too. They also seem to go along with this stagnation typical for the whole country. And only few independent think tanks which are somehow concerned with this vision work for the prospective and try to build some programs and plans, which can be in demand in case of the disturbance of the current equilibrium”, - highlighted the head of the Board of the International Consortium “EuroBelarus”.
Together with it, he noted that not all the visions of future which are under development are realistic. “Because work with the future is quite complicated thing. Projecting and programming built on the real analysis, on the awareness of the state of affairs, with account of the available forces and resources is one thing. And what is called a “utopian vision of the future” is something else. Here one should treat these perspective programs very critically, distinguishing between real programs and projects from those of unrealistic character and utopias”, - Uladzimir Matskevich shared his view on the problem.
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