Sergei GAIDUKEVICH: "I do not claim the role of the father of the nation, but I can beat both Goncharik and Lukashenko"

2001-07-23

Sergei Gaidukevich, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Belarus - Unity bloc, is one of the four presidential bidders who managed to file more than 100,000 signatures required to register them as presidential candidates. Gaidukevich's party initially supported Lukashenko's government, but in the recent years has criticized the current regime, without allying itself with traditional opposition forces. Below is Gaidukevich's interview to BelaPAN's correspondent Yury Potemkin.




July 20 was the deadline for submitting voter signature sheets. According to the official data, of more than 20 presidential hopefuls, only four managed to file over 100,000 signatures. These are you, Aleksandr Lukashenko and two members of the coalition of the five - Semyon Domash [ex-governor of Hrodna region] and Vladimir Goncharik [chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus]. How would you comment on the results of this election campaign stage?

I am actually surprised, because four are quite many in our conditions. It does not surprise me that Lukashenko managed to collect [the signatures]. There was no doubt of that. What is surprising is that Mr. Goncharik managed to collect [them]. I said long ago that all the other bidders, whom I will not even name, would not collect 100,000 signatures. All of them believed that it was sufficient to nail up a small team and to declare a presidential bid. With the protest voters making over 50 percent, they thought they would have no trouble gathering the signatures. This is a fundamental misconception. Most of these bidders are just political clowns who have nothing to do with serious politics. Unfortunately, life has shown that the democratic opposition never got united. It was clear from the onset why Messrs. [Leonid] Sinitsyn [ex-head of Lukashenko's Administration], [Mikhail] Marinich [Belarus' ex-ambassador to Latvia, Estonia and Finland], [Pavel] Kozlovsky [former defense minister] failed to gather 100,000 signatures, because they have no network. Mr.[Sergei] Kalyakin's Party of Communists is going through the deepest crisis after his decision to support Goncharik. You can phone to the Hrodna-based organization of the Belarusian Party of Communists and they will tell you that all of them have joined the Liberal Democratic Party. I have never seen such a clownery when a presidential bidder claims he has collected 116,000 signatures [Sergei Antonchik, leader of the unregistered organization Worker Self-Help] and joins Marinich who has collected 80,000 signatures. This is nonsense, this is ridiculous.

We tried to contact members of other support groups during the signature collection, but we have not seen anyone but the groups of Lukashenko and Semyon Domash. Look, it took Goncharik great pains to gather 123,000 signatures, for all his vain of leading a two-million member organization [in fact, there are more than 4 million registered members in the Federation of Trade Union of Belarus (FTUB)]. It took him great pains because he collected [signatures] in cities only, as no one really knows him in other regions. Therefore, all the current moaning - though I consider myself an ardent opponent of the regime - all the moaning by Kozlovsky, [Mikhail] Chigir [Belarus' ex-premier], etc., just mislead our distinguished opposition press, which choruses their words.

I am going to say unpleasant things, but all the so-called largest opposition parties taken together, managed to gather as many, and even fewer, votes for one candidate, as the Liberal Democratic Party gathered in Gaidukevich's support. Now the BPF [Belarusian Popular Front] is supporting an elderly Communist Goncharik [Goncharik was a Communist Party boss in the Soviet times]. I reiterate, though some people may dislike it, that I speak out things that no one wants to see. [Vasily] Leonov [former minister of agriculture, recently appointed Goncharik's chief campaign manager] is roaring: who is not with us is against us. But who is with them? Is it the Belarusian Popular Front? Let me disagree. The party top never determined the opinion of those below. I know it perfectly well. They say they have chosen a single candidate. They have not chosen a single candidate, because there is none.

What really happened during the signature collection?

Just recall what the sociological polls said: the leaders of political parties have no rating. All those ratings were just blown-up. I have always said that a bidder cannot enter the presidential race without a network. But the Liberal Democratic Party - and I, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, am evidence of that - has the network. We have been creating our network for six years. For six years we have striven to expand our membership, [we] have created party organizations and set up offices. And now it is paying off. During the parliamentary elections, everybody took to the woods. I cannot call it otherwise. It was not a boycott - it was just the self-castigation by parties, which think that someone will present them democracy or victory on a plate. There is moaning everywhere. Moaning for being wronged. Let them turn to history: no one has ever presented democracy to anyone on a plate. Unlike Goncharik, [the Polish trade union leader and later president, Lech] Valesa was in jail, he was an outcast in his country, but he fought and won. Here, the best option is to flee abroad, to declare oneself a political emigrant and stay there chirping - either from Lithuania, Poland or the United States. It depends on one's luck. Real fighters for freedom remain here. Political impotents - this is all I can say about our opposition. No one will speak to me about the United Civic Party and the Belarusian Popular Front as the "largest" parties. These parties do not exist! They exist in the city of Minsk and there are some centers in the provinces. It is clear to me that there is only one large political party in the country - the Liberal Democratic Party. Only the next presidential election will be able to persuade me otherwise. When they pick a party leader, gather 100,000 signatures for him and get a [presidential] candidate's certificate. But now all the parties are in the woods again. All the leaders have split among different campaign headquarters. The output will be one candidate, not the leader of a political party and not the trade union leader anymore. Because after Goncharik loses to me on September 9 [election day], he will stop being the Federation's leader, just as Marinich [resigned as] ambassador, and will retire. In fact, he does not lead the trade unions already now. How could the leader of the 2-million organization gather only 123,000 signatures? Here is the answer to all the questions.

What do you think about Goncharik as a single candidate?

There is no single candidate. All of this is nonsense. Who chose him? I tried to visit forums organized by Communist Leonov, but understood that they were playing in favor of one candidate. Communist Leonov, Communist Goncharik, Communist Kozlovsky, Communist Chigir, etc., swindled on Domash, who is an orthodox Communist in their opinion. I served the state. I served in the Army. But they got their positions from the Communists. And now these Communists have decided that Communist Goncharik will be a single candidate instead of Communist Domash. And now the elderly Communist Goncharik is going to tell me that he can beat Lukashenko. I would urge these gentlemen to stop: stop, Messrs. Leonov and Goncharik! Contemplate, do not be foolish, do not deceive journalists. Look at Gaidukevich and at Goncharik, if you have not lost the ability to watch the mirror. I warn Mr. Goncharik: I am ready to wait for their decision till August 20. But I declare now - and I am ready to look into the face of any journalist and any democrat later - that Goncharik will get half as much of the votes as I will at best (there is no mentioning of his victory).

I do not know my attitude to Goncharik as a person, but for the last seven years he successively collaborated with the current authorities, and before that with [Vyacheslav] Kebich's government [Lukashenko's predecessor as Belarus' leader]. I want to tell the truth about the single candidate: no one knows Goncharik, and if they do, they know him in Minsk only. He is not liked and not respected. The "clique" chose Goncharik as a single candidate, striving for anything but the victory in the presidential election. The "clique", which formed half a year or a year ago, made up their mind for some reason that money will come to support a single candidate only. What kind of tactics, what kind of strategy was it? Did any of them read what happened in Yugoslavia? They thought that if [Vojislav] Kostunica was a single candidate, there should be a single candidate in Belarus, too. I am not going to spoon-feed it to them now. One should just know the situation in Europe. When they have all the materials on the desk, they will probably understand that they are following a course, which someone made up in rave. It seems that [they are] not interested in the election and the victory, but in something else. Let it lie on their conscience. But Lukashenko understood it and got calm. The Russian think-tankers understood it too that there is an ordinary "clique" of people in Belarus, who lost the political will, lost the zest for victory, and decided to remain an irreconcilable, unconquered opposition after September 9. How smart, Messrs. democrats! I want to warn Mr. Goncharik that after August 20 I will make mincemeat of him - in the political sense. I do not know how the Communists modeled the single-candidate situation, but it was done in such a way so as to prevent anyone from beating Mr. Lukashenko on September 9. Suppose it was done deliberately, then it is a kind of political psychosis to choose a single candidate a man who will not be able to beat even the second rival. I want to address Goncharik: I urge you to think twice before August 20 and to understand finally that the only presidential challenger who can beat Lukashenko today is Gaidukevich. God is my witness that it is due to numerous factors, it is just a set of circumstances. I do not claim the role of the absolute father of the nation, but I have no doubt that I can beat both you and Lukashenko. But you, with your campaign, do not want either to win yourself or to help the man who can do it. That is why you and all those who support you will bear the whole responsibility for the fact that on September 10, we will see the continuation of Lukashenko's rule. I wash my hands of it. You deceive the Belarusian people. I would be very glad, for Belarus' sake, if you somehow did not become a presidential candidate, and withdrew from the race. In the current conditions, even Domash suits better for a joint resistance to the regime. I cannot even unite with you, Goncharik, because no one knows you.

Does this mean you are not going to strike an agreement with the single candidate under any circumstances?

I am ready to strike an agreement only on one condition: he should withdraw and join the team with all the rest. Let them take any positions they like, any of their ambitions will be satisfied.

Are you sure you will be registered a presidential candidate?

It is impossible not to register me. I filed 136,000 signatures. They were collected by 2,132 people who had been trained for that. I have filled in all the declarations. And I do not care, whether it is Lukashenko's Decree #20 [requiring that presidential bidders and their immediate relatives submit income and property declarations] or #23, or any else. I had no difficulty doing it. Well, [I have] an apartment, a car, income. I have put down it all, gathered [the papers] and filed them. The main thing is not to forget anything, but I have not.

If you are running for presidency, there must be something you do not like in the policy pursued by the current authorities. What is it?

One can speak about changes in the country and the way things should be done only after receiving a candidate's certificate. For the time being, I am just a presidential bidder. It is clear that judging by the situation, I will become a candidate. It is clear that there will be three of us: Lukashenko, Gaidukevich and apparently Goncharik. I can only say that my platform is ready. It is called "The Program of Leading the Country Out of the Crisis". The slogan of my election campaign is "Prosperity at Home - Order in the Country". I can only add that I have a very strong team. Time will come and I will name my proxies.

Who could make your team stronger, or which of the presidential bidders who failed the signature collection, could you invite in your team?

If they came to me I would take Marinich, Sinitsyn, [Leonid] Kalugin [director general of the Atlant refrigerator group], [Viktor] Tereshchenko [director general of the Minsk-based International Management Institute], and all the others. I welcome everybody to my team: I will accept them and give them good positions.

Is politician Gaidukevich known both in the West and in the East?

More than Goncharik is. Much more.

Could you specify who supports you?

When I get the candidate's certificate I will appear on the Russian [TV] channels. Most likely, only in non-commercial programs, because one should pay for the air in any commercial program in Russia. Meanwhile, only $9,000 is channeled to cover the whole presidential campaign here. Therefore, I apparently will appear on the Russian channels in information programs and non-commercial programs. Naturally, it was the Russians who advised me to do that.

You said in the Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta [Russian-language national newspaper] that the current election is illegitimate.

I will claim it only when the campaign is really in full swing. But it is childish to do it beforehand, as our opposition does.

But two stages of the campaign - signature collection and formation of election commissions - are over. How can you comment?

Well, what can I say… I have 176,000 signatures collected, members of my support group were able to go everywhere and nobody prevented them. It is not my fault that people oust signature collectors with sticks when they hear the names of [Zenon] Poznyak [leader of the Conservative Christian Party] or Chigir, whom the Belarusian television calls a thief. Let's admit that their support groups faced things that I did not face. What shall I say? [Shall I] support Chigir? But I do not trust them in the least after they started lying about the [amount of signatures] they have collected. Naturally, I had some claims, but I have collected the signatures, filed them and [the Central Election Commission] accepted them. Does this mean that the authorities like me? Nonsense.

Now as far as the formation of territorial commissions is concerned. How can I complain if I filed the lists of my candidates and 40 of them were included in [the commissions]. [Shall I say] that no representatives of my party are on the commissions? The [Liberal Democratic] party and the New Belarus - Unity bloc cannot have their members on all the commissions. This is out of the question. What shall I do now? [Shall I] support the opposition on principle? I will not do that. If there were serious violations I would of course have joined their ranks and howl as well. And I will do it when the law is really violated. It is true that there is an ocean of flaws. I have a special file, [showing] that a doorkeeper did not let [signature collectors] in; the boss banned [signature collection], [someone] was harassed at work… I have party members who hold high positions - plant directors, and so on. Of course, they let my signature collectors in and barred the other. This is life. He [the director] is a member of the New Belarus - Unity bloc. He has a party card. And here comes Goncharik's [support] group. Of course, they were sent about their business. We are rivals for the presidential position after all. Why don't they have more plant directors among their ranks? I can, of course, come now and say, oh, my dear Goncharik, the light of my eyes, I withdraw! You are so clever and great!.. And then all the papers will write: oh, Gaidukevich, he is a patriot of the country, he poured down in that drain hole together with them all.

A traditional question: what will you first edict be after coming to power?

Appoint you my press secretary.

And speaking seriously?

I will tell you after receiving the candidate's certificate.