‘I Don’t Know What Franz Kafka Would Write If He Lived In Today’s Belarus’
- 1.07.2019, 19:53
We need to finally say to the system: “We have the right!”
Franz Kafka has a wonderful novel The Process, in which the soulless and ruthless system of an authoritarian state is shown, which, brazenly and defiantly, refuses to see that a person, a citizen has rights, and herein does not intend to give him the opportunity to realize them, writes activist Dzianis Rabianok specially for Homel Spring.
Kafka’s court is a formal mechanism for approving a decision made in advance in the interests of the system.
I do not know what Franz Kafka would write if he lived in today's Belarus and closely studied the Belarusian state judicial system. The other day at the trial in Kalinkavichy, watching the system once again denying Maryja Tarasenka the right to express her opinion through organizing a peaceful assembly, guaranteed by the Constitution and international documents ratified by Belarus, I could not help feeling like a participant of the Kafka trial.
It might seem, like, how can a modest street procession of 10 people destabilize a system that, according to the state ideologists and their hierophants, has “strengthened and flourished” for 25 years now, giving us all the incredible “happiness of life in that very crystal vessel”? Apparently, it can! If the system “holds on like grim death” and does not allow Maryja to publicly tell the truth about the monstrous essence of the “parasite” Decree in the streets of the Belarusian cities. The Kalinkavichy court, like others, dismissed Maryja’s complaint about the ban on holding a street procession. However, her Palesse judicial “Odyssey” is not over yet - there are new cities and new court hearings, where Kafka will rise again in full growth.
Seeing Maryja off to her train, we tried to find the answer to the question: “Why do we have what we have in Belarus?”, - as people say. We came to a common conclusion - authoritarianism comes and destroys the rights of the Belarusians, because they perceive themselves not as citizens, but as subjects, who consider the system to be dominant, primary compared to themselves. Moreover, they consider the restriction of their rights and freedoms to be the norm of life, not letting their own interests go beyond the narrow circle of family and domestic relations.
In my opinion, this is precisely the problem of Belarus, not that some “toxic” minister is doing “wrong” and “vile” things. For Belarusians, the way out of the vicious Kafka wheel is to finally become citizens and be able to say to the system: “We have the Right!” In everything, from labor contracts, military recruitment and extortions at school to fair elections, national identity and local self-government.
Herein, we must pay tribute to the team of real citizen Maryja Tarasenka, who by their diligent and active work bring this moment closer, defending the rights of all Belarusians.