Belarus
Kaieteur News – In our editorial on July 3, last year – entitled ‘Democracy or the abyss’ – written in the midst of the then David Granger administration’s attempt to steal the elections, a parallel was drawn between Granger and his four months of until then. attempted coup; then US President Donald Trump and his sign that he would not accept election loss; and Belarus President and strongman Alexander and Lukashenko, who like Trump and Granger, were wildly unpopular in the run-up to a fiercely contested national election and intended to undermine democratic institutions to protect power. As this page then noted:
“In recent weeks, the leading slate presidential election contestants for next month have either been arrested on trumpet charges or conveniently told that their registration documents for participating in the polls are below requirements legal. A recent online poll, while not scientifically accurate, showed Lukashenko’s popularity at a ridiculous three percent, rating critics say it was largely based on the leader’s initial dismissal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, with him describing an infection like ‘psychosis’ only recommends a strong shot of vodka to cure it. The country’s leader has given every indication that he will not give up in upcoming elections, even in the face of his apparent popularity, and back against his dismissive attitude towards the COVID-19 pandemic as well as plummeting economy . ”
Eight months later, Granger and Trump, while still having technical influence over their political machineries, disappeared in shame and disgrace from public life, their power weakened to frustrating impotence, their legacies – or whatever it was remaining of them – corrupting forever. However, Lukashenko still manages to dominate Belarus, after defeating an election in August that, unpredictably, was labeled as rigged by opposition and international observers.
That wasn’t enough though – since then, he’s been increasingly despotic in his actions, boycotted by massive state security apparatus, cracking down even further on general disagreement and disagreement, and of course judiciary who has always been willing to impose and a patina of legal punishment on his oppression. Shortly after the elections, for example, Lukashenko engineered the deportation attempt and then arrested Opposition leader Maria Kalesnikava, confronting her with accusations of using the Internet to undermine the country’s national security.
While Granger and Trump have used lawyers to try to undermine the basic institutions of democracy in their respective countries, Lukashenko goes one step further – he is using the country’s already corrupted institutions to undermine just enough lawyers brave to represent the interests. and the fundamental rights of his political opponents. The defiant Kalesnikava posted (or had some mail) on her Facebook page yesterday, outlining the dire situation:
“My lawyer, Ilya Salei, is under house arrest. My lawyer, Maxim Znak, is in the same prison as me.
My lawyer, Aleksandr Pylchenko, was disillusioned. They want to revoke Lyudmila Kazak’s license to my lawyer.
Is this a coincidence? I don’t think so. The procedure removes all those who have the will to protect me. He attacks and doesn’t allow me to defend myself … Those who give orders delegate the dirty work to his subordinates. Someone out there is working on devising a justification for revoking the licenses of respected lawyers. Someone prepares and signs the documents. How do these people, who take over from Lyudmila Kazak, a mother of three, justify themselves? The hope is that the country will soon run out of lawyers. ”
A related and distinctive feature of the shadow over Minsk is that it presents itself as a relatively light shade. In contrast to the accepted mythos of cruel dictatorship, Lukashenko’s methodology is deliberately ‘light.’ Protesters are given a few days in jail instead of decade-long sentences. People are not summarily executed but are beaten with non-life threatening injuries. Its biggest targets, artists and journalists (Kalesnikava is a musician), receive less prison time for “undermining national security” than young people here in Guyana are given for possessing small amounts of marijuana, like both A woman journalist who was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison for just streaming a protest live. This is perhaps why the president of Belarus has escaped the kind of international censure he has so far escaped, selling himself as Unben Lite, especially at a time when democratic nations have been dangerously flirting with contempt.
Months after our original editorial last year, in the United States and in Guyana, democracy would eventually prevail despite rallying forces to stop it. Unfortunately, in Belarus, what has existed so far is the abyss, one that deepens and spreads slowly but surely, swallowing up dozens and dozens of brave people and crushing them under the teeth of Lukashenko’s oppressive machinery . It is time for the international community to step up beyond the lofty declaration by one UN rights expert calling for the release of Kalesnikava.