Most of the scant attention that Belarus receives in world press focuses on the undemocratic and dictatorial ways of Lukashenko and his illegal efforts to consolidate power and falsify elections. His background is hardly ever mentioned and is relatively unknown, but it provides insight into how he rose to power so quickly in 1994.
Lukashenko 's Rise and Civil Society's Fall
Lukashenko was raised without a father and had a fairly difficult childhood. He graduated with a degree in history but was unable to find employment in his field. Instead, he held a variety of jobs ranging from ideological officer in the Soviet Army to managing a collective farm in eastern Belarus. He entered politics and in 1990 was elected people's deputy of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus, where he focused mainly on fighting corruption. He developed something of a name for himself because of his ranting and colorful speeches and public tirades, in which he railed against supposedly corrupt individuals. Despite the fiery rhetoric of his speeches, which often turned into public spectacles, his actual accomplishments as a parliamentarian fighting corruption were quite modest. Lukashenko's only other claim to lame before running for president was that he was the only Belarusian parliamentarian to vote against dissolving the Soviet Union in 1991-something he played up heavily in his presidential campaign, as many Belarusians were already nostalgic about the "good old days" of the Soviet Union.
In his effective and efficient 1994 campaign, the charismatic Lukashenko ran as an independent and exploited the sociopolitical and economic situation in Belarus to his full advantage, even coining a campaigri phrase that resembled something from a U.S. presidential race: "I am neither with the leftists nor with the rightists, 1 am with the people" Perhaps most important, he cleverly played up his anticorruption role in the parliament as a sign that he was fighting for the average Belarusian. This resonated with voters, particularly the one-third of the voting population that is retired and therefore the most vulnerable during economic and political transition and also the most sensitive to allegations of widespread corruption. To say that Lukashenko campaigned as a populist would be an understatement. Lukashenko's victory in July 1994 carne as a complete shock to the West-not because of fear that he would reverse all progress but because of amazement at his overwhelming victory. The formerly unknown collective farm boss garnered 80 percent of the vote in an election runoff that was internationally recognized as being free and fair. Lukashenko's charisma, plain-spoken manner, and professed hard stance on corruption were exactly what Belarusians were looking for.
Lukashenko at the HehWasting No Time in Cracking Down on Independent Media
It took only five months for the new president to start his assault on civil society. In accordance with Lukashenko's pre-election promise to fight corruption, Deputy Parliamentarian Sergei Antonchyk carried out an investigation of corruption in parliament. However, his report contained credible and compromising corruption charges against various high-ranking officials close to Lukashenko. The new government banned press coverage of the report, and as a protest the newspapers Respublika, Sovetskaya Belarussiya, and Zvyazda ran huge blank spaces in their 23 December 1994 editions, where the report was to have been printed. The same day, copies of the dailies Narodnaya Gazeta and Gazeta Andreya Klimova, which had already printed Antonchyk's report, were not permitted to leave the state-owned printing house. During this time, Lukashenko also consolidated total government control over the issuance of radio frequencies, cable television licenses, and the registration of radio stations and ensured that the country's only broadcast television station was state owned. This amounted to complete control of the broadcast media. In a February 1995 address to state television and radio employees, Lukashenko provided an ominous indication of what he had in store for the independent media by saying, "We have freedom of the press and a journalist has the right to support any opinions. I agree with that.... however, there is one `no' here-you work for a state TV and radio company. 1 stress a state one, and this obliges you to do everything for the benefit of our state. . . . Journalists should not get involved in the game of big politics" Not long after, the editor-in-chief of Narodnaya Gazeta, at the time the most widely read newspaper in Belarus and known for its criticism of Lukashenko, was dismissed for what Lukashenko said was his open promotion of "violence and
civil confrontation," and the two other editors of the aforementioned newspapers, Sovetskaya Belarussiya and Respublika, were also dismissed under similarly flimsy pretexts.
Status of NGOs in Belarus before 1996: Granted a Stay of Execution
Despite wasting no time in strangling independent media, until November 1996 the Belarusian authorities exerted only minimal pressure on political and nonpolitical organizations, the total number of which by that time was around 1,100. The regime did not yet prevent NGOs from receiving foreign grants, as public associations and political parties were granted the status of economic entities, which allowed them to obtain finances from any legal source. In July-October 1995, the government even set up a preferential tax system for money and property received by NGOs and economic entities associated with the International Science Foundation and the Belarusian Soros Foundation. Thanks to the measure, the Soros Foundation had by 1996 become the largest donor organization for Belarusian NGOs. The new government's security services, however, stepped up their monitoring of NGOs at that time, and Lukashenko also made sure that the government maintained influence over public associations, mainly through a registration process. Many NGOs, distressed and wary about the government's crackdown on independent media, wanted to fully legalize their activities and elimínate their political aspects. They were encouraged to do so by large grant-makers, including the European Union's Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States Program and the Soros Foundation. Some independent NGOs even began cooperating with government agencies, although this was soon to change.
Отредактировано POLITICO (19 января 09:40 pm)
