What does Lukashenko's intention to halve the number of executive committee staff mean?
In short: served and achieved.
On 12 December, at a meeting to review personnel issues and appoint heads of local authorities, the dictator said that the number of local employees could be cut by up to half. And he suggested that those laid off should be sent to agriculture.
Well, congratulations to everyone on the future cuts and new appointments to collective and state farms. Especially, of course, to the civil servants, military personnel and teachers who took part in the rigging of elections.
You're probably thinking now - how is that possible? It is very simple.
The Lukashenko regime is at the point in its degradation where only people who are unconditionally loyal to the dictator should remain in the system. Especially when at any moment the dictator can give an order to attack Ukraine.
His toolkit for instilling loyalty is a standard one - carrot and stick.
The carrot is buying the loyalty of officials. To whom he promises an increase in salaries at the expense of those who will be made redundant. Similarly, he is now buying the loyalty of the army with promises of cheap housing.
What will the disloyal ones get?
Exile to declining collective farms, to the countryside. "Archipelago collective farms". And of course the whip. Executions. Surprised? Yes, the bill on firing squads for treason and the dictator's proposal to reduce civil servants to collective farms are links in the same chain, perfectly complementing each other.
Some of you will think: "Well, I'm not a traitor, I'm loyal! I'm not like Latushka - I didn't support the Belarusians against violence, lawlessness and falsification, I didn't speak out, I didn't condemn the war, I serve faithfully - and all this won't affect me for sure. Not a reduction, much less a firing squad. You would be wrong.
In the wrong mind, so do those who deep down condemn the regime, but never out loud. Those who are just quietly "doing their job", keeping their heads down.
There are no longer safe workplaces for anyone inside the regime.
More than anything else, you are now dangerous to each other. Isn't that right, former fellow officials? A 50% reduction in the district executive committees means writing denunciations on each other, setting each other up for work, and if you have 1-2 years of seniority left before a good pension? You are caught in a viper's nest and your master has plunged you there with his head!
The state and military service in Belarus has become a completely unpredictable time bomb, planted under every functionary. And this bomb can explode just as quickly under a "rogue element" as under the most staunch supporter of Lukashenko's regime.
By adopting such decisions as these, Lukashenko is weeding out the remnants of dissenters from the system and creating conditions for internal cannibalism for his functionaries for the future.
Through denunciations, through anonymity. As it was in the USSR, where despite the totalitarian system, there was always a "competitive" struggle within it to prove to the bosses and the leader that you were more loyal and more useful. And everyone had an alarming suitcase under their bed - because at any moment they could come and take you away to an unknown destination. Or, more precisely, to a gulag archipelago or to a firing squad.
Today, the Lukashenko regime offers another exile option - the "archipelago collective farm".
By the way, a thought-provoking question - would the refusal of a sacked civil servant to go to raise the village be considered treason against the state and a reason to shoot him?
But seriously, use your brains. You still have a chance to save yourself and help destroy a system that would otherwise destroy you.
Quit. Form underground cells. Leave the country if your safety is an issue. Join the democratic forces. Join our programme - Cadres Reserve for New Belarus.