На русском языке:
Мнение. Серж Харитонов о «референдуме» как имитации демократической процедуры
На беларускай мове:
Меркаванне. Серж Харытонаў пра «рэферэндум» як імітацыю дэмакратычнай працэдуры
Serge Kharytonau, the iSANS media expert, published a post in his telegram channel, in which he explains why the discussion of polling stations abroad during the «referendum» is meaningless, what limits the rights of Belarusians, and how long Lukashenka’s system can exist. We quote his words unchanged.
I consider the discussion on whether there will be polling stations in the branches of Vladimir Makei‘s offices abroad or not completely useless – as well as the discussion of the paper that was made hastily in the office of the former president.
The main point of current events is that no «referendum» is held in Belarus – just an imitation of this democratic procedure is carried out. However, both at inside the country and abroad, many experts call this ridiculous *** [damn] circus a «referendum», and in all seriousness discuss what is written in paragraph A of the article so-and-so.
I believe that it is completely meaningless to discuss the content of the paper, which was formulated by a group of people not only without any official status, but also responsible for the armed seizure of power, as a result of which the legal system was completely devalued.
«This document will determine how Belarus will live,» critics will say. No, the way Belarus will live further will be determined by the lack of legality and existing legal mechanisms in it. This form of organization of society has been implemented in practice for more than 500 days, but many are still sincerely surprised by this and appeal to the laws that no one particularly complied with until August 2020.
Moreover, now the imitation of voting is carried out by people who do not have the authority to conduct this procedure on behalf of the Republic of Belarus. Both Aliaksandr Lukashenka and Ihar Karpenka do not have a mandate to represent the Republic of Belarus (in the status of president and head of the CEC, respectively) and exercise powers on behalf of this state.
Juridical fact: at the moment, the Republic of Belarus as a state institution has neither a president (or an acting person who has the right to hold referendums) nor the head of the CEC. Because after the removal of Lidia Yermoshina from this post, any appointee of Lukashenka in this position is not the head of the CEC for the same reason that all other people appointed by Lukashenka after the «secret inauguration» of 2020 are not recognized. That’s what we need to talk about.
The rights of Belarusians abroad are limited not by the lack of polling stations in the offices of Vladimir Makei abroad, but by the lack of real diplomatic missions of our country abroad, the lack of an electoral system and the erosion of all state institutions of the Republic of Belarus. And the most important thing is that there is something incomprehensible instead of a real referendum.
The history of all nation-states in the XX century shows that, first of all, Lukashenka’s system will exist until the Belarusians themselves cease to consider it authority. For the time being, they will consider Makei’s flunkies as Belarusian diplomats, and the offices of the corporate structure, which they oppose, as embassies of the Republic of Belarus abroad. At the same time, a real alternative to these structures has not yet been proposed in a year and a half.
First, in order to destroy the old system, Belarusians need to stop playing along with it and repeat the narratives created by it. So far, I do not observe this as a mass phenomenon even abroad and, I think, in the near future such a reboot of consciousness is not expected.
Instead of completely resetting the conceptual matrix and stopping playing by the rules of the lukashists [supporters of the regime — ed.], many public speakers from the camp of democratic forces still continue to mentally live within the system that existed until August 2020: the lukashists are still called «our power», and those who voted against the former president and found themselves in the majority of supporters of the democratic forces are called «the opposition.»
It seems that for many of these people, the events of the last year and a half have just passed by and the months that followed August 9, 2020, have turned into a «revolution for a joke.»
As the contents of the junta’s legally insignificant collection of wishes are being discussed in Belarus, Ukrainians could discuss the details of the «Constitution of the LPR» or the «Constitution of the DPR» in 2014 with the same success. But for some reason, everyone decided not to do this.
