Piotr Petrovsky: It is necessary to perfect the existing constitution system instead of breaking it

The expert said: “A rather active dialogue is taking place today. It is not just some conversation. I am talking about real platforms, including among worker collectives. Today we have a discussion among Belaya Rus activists. We truly need it because sometimes the constitutional reform proposals that foreign mass media hype up do not meet expectations of the majority of the population. We see it in the proposals that are being submitted.”

In his words, citizens have rather actively become involved in the process of amending the Constitution. “The public association Belaya Rus is busy monitoring the situation and collecting proposals because more than 70 members of the House of Representatives are members of the public association. We see rather many proposals. On the other hand, we have to understand that the Belarusian development model and the Belarusian political system have survived a color revolution. The positive traits of our social, economic, and political system should be preserved. They should prevail in the Constitution and the legislation later on. Moreover, in my opinion, the campaign to amend our Constitution should be used to correct errors. This is why we are now collecting all the proposals, consider them from the point of view of the need for a genuine constitutional reform in order to secure continuity. We should perfect the existing system instead of breaking it. We should also take into account the interest and the opinion of citizens as much as possible,” the expert said.

Piotr Petrovsky said that citizens have quite many tools at their disposal for expressing their opinions and submitting proposals. “If we talk about members of the parliament, they work in their constituencies. Besides, the lower chamber of the Belarusian parliament has a website and anyone can send it their proposals at any time, including by email. On the other hand, the public association Belaya Rus includes not only members of the parliament but also members of municipal councils of deputies. Meetings with worker collectives are arranged and the people suggest making some changes in specific discussions,” the expert said. “Anyone can come to Belaya Rus' community liaison office, to the association's primary organizations and share their proposals. This is why this dialogue platform is so broad and so democratic among other things.”

The expert added that dialogue platforms bring together people of different views. “There are various opposition forces. Some come to dialogue platforms and suggest their changes. And then there are some, who are intent on destabilizing the situation in the country, driving the wedge deeper into the society, and worsening our social, economic, and political situation as much as possible. This is why we have to understand: people are already tired of it, they demand real tools for a constitutional reform that would perfect the system instead of breaking it.”

Activists of the public association Belaya Rus, members of the parliament, and political experts took part in the discussion hosted by Belaya Rus' HQ on 22 October to talk over amendments to the Constitution.