On September 29, the "European club" Viciebsk held public hearings on limited stay of a person as president to two terms. The experts gathered in front of Viciebsk residents were ex-speaker of the Armed Forces Mieczyslaw Hryb and political analyst Oleg Lahvinets, played the leading role the deputy chairman of the movement "For Freedom" Yuri Hubarevich.
First performed Mieczyslaw Hryb, which is connected with Viciebsk lot of good memories. It was in the city on the Dźvina was his professional formation, he went away to the big policy. He reminded the audience about the circumstances associated with the work on the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, adopted on 15 March 1994, under which on behalf of the Supreme Council, he put his own signature.
As the former chairman of the Supreme Council, while the Constitution of Belarus was quite democratic. She passed the relevant examination in England, France, the United States, and even received a positive assessment of the Venice Commission experts. But today the Constitution (1996, as amended) is not recognized by any democratic country, although sometimes Lukashenko is proud to announce that its Constitution allegedly passed examination of the Venice Commission. "I do not believe he's lying, no expertise, it did not pass," – said the politician.
Mieczyslaw Hryb focused on the main stages of the usurpation of power in the country after the infamous referendum. That referendum was exclusively advisory in nature, but, despite this, the results served as the formal basis for the possibility of one person to hold the presidency an unlimited number of times.
Once the sun has become under the control of the president, only the Constitutional Court can contribute to resolve the political crisis related to the violation of the basic law of the president of the country, but it quickly turned into a full material, depending on the Office of the President. After one person took control of all branches of power, Belarus lost the right to be called democratic.
Performance by Oleg Lahviniec concerned democratic forms of political governance that exist in the world, where the term limits on the presidency is universally recognized democratic practice. He drew attention to the fact that the local ideologists and propagandists, telling the world about the European Belarus, quite often use the word "democracy." But the word "democracy" is used even far from democratic political regimes. Eat it and odious figures such as Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi, but in a civilized understanding of the concept of democracy contains a specific set of criteria, which easily allow us to determine whether the democratic regime.
Despite the common democratic principles of democracy, each has its own national characteristics, traditions and which are explained by the fact that a country comes to democracy. Thus, the shape of today's American democracy came after Franklin Roosevelt was elected for president four times. Only then did the Americans have matured up to limit the stay of one person in this office to two terms.
In the American tradition, the president is the de facto head of the government, but the extent of his power has certain limits. The country has set up a special system of checks and balances to ensure that none of the branches of government is not to dominate others, but only to decide within its jurisdiction.
American principle of power is very attractive. After decolonization, the mid-20th century, it tried to mechanically move to the country, which became independent. However, despite this, many Latin American and African countries are still became dictatorships. The thing is there that the person receiving a direct mandate from the people, and concentrated in his hands all power, do not pay attention to other fundamental features characteristic of American political models. First of all, any democracy should ensure the respect of liberties and human rights, which the newly independent states has not been done.
When we talk about democracy as a government of the people, in today's sense of the word it means that the power of the majority of minority rights are respected. First of all political rights, as a democracy – it is also a means of resolving political conflicts that exist in society, and that power should be settled exclusively by democratic means. Among the fundamental rights and freedoms should be called even freedom of conscience, freedom of assembly and association ...
For example, France is a mixed type of political system: a classic presidential republic, which was formed under Charles de Gaulle, when the country was in a difficult political situation. Its powers are wide enough, but they are smaller than those attributed to himself Lukashenko. In 1958, in response to accusations sixty general said: "I'm not going to make a career of the dictator." This answer reflects his deep political culture.
However, not mechanically copy the constitution or the democratic institutions and to move them from one country to another. To the French Constitution was in force in Belarus as well as in France, you need to Belarusians were the same as the French, and had the same political culture. French workers are always very quick to respond to violations of their rights, and strike for them has always been the most effective tool for the protection of rights.
Among other inalienable human rights – the right to property. But we have no owner, as there is no private ownership of land. People are almost completely dependent on the state and little prepared to defend as his own. In our political culture of citizen, as the owner of their political rights, it is almost absent. In addition, due to the dominance is so-called "Russian World", we learned that not enough of the Belarusians in Belarus, although twenty-five years of independence have not gone unnoticed.
There is no ideal society, but democracy – a humane and civilized way of solving problems. We – a European country, and we can take advantage of the advances that have been created by others.
The European model of democracy is different from the US, where the head of the executive is the Prime Minister, who is usually elected by the Parliamentary majority. The president or monarch in Europe often has a nominal function and limited powers, and is the prime economic policy in the country. For example, Angela Merkel – Chancellor of a coalition government and within the coalition she had to negotiate with other political actors. It also has great limitations. German Constitutional Court is completely autonomous, so has the ability to block any decision of the Chancellor, if it is at odds with democratic norms.
Today's version of the Constitution of Belarus does not pass any examination. This is not normal when the head of the executive power to appoint legal (Lukashenko has the right to appoint eight senators out of 64, although indirectly appoints all of them). In fact, there is no democracy in Belarus, since the majority of the officials appointed by the Lukashenko. For example, in France, this practice is not possible.
For a short time the idea of returning to the united Europe has helped the Central European countries to carry out reforms. There, they invented ways to solve their problems. But we remain outside the European Union, we lose our perspective of accession to the European standards, but ahead of us is very difficult reforms. Now for all responsible man. People think that it gives even pensions. Freedom, democracy, human rights – is the basis of development of any country that does not get around to us.
Today we fly on one wing, as dependent on a single country. But if we care about the future, without the further development of independent component we can lose our country. Only independence and European integration can create a guarantee that we will not find ourselves as a part of some other country. Europe gives us the opportunity to save his country.
Such arguments have been apprehended by activists present at the meeting and contributed quite positively active discussion threads on their part.
Vitebsk Spring
