This is what Belarusian officials write when no one sees them
5 November 2020, 11:48 | KYKY
The Honest People initiative has launched a chat bot for officials to express their concerns. According to Radio Svaboda, in just a week, the bot received about eight thousand messages from government officials. Take a look at what they wrote.
Сlarification: about 100 thousand government officials work in Belarus right now.
Who wrote to the bot: positions that officials indicated
- Chief specialist or leading specialist – 437.
- Manager or deputy manager – 157.
- Unit manager or deputy unit manager – 331.
- Secretary – 48.
- Specialist – 896.
Why they wrote to the bot: reasons indicated by officials
- Inability to express their opinion.
- Violence and deception in the country.
- Election fraud.
- Lawlessness in the country.
- Persecution of their relatives.
- Sense of justice.
What they wrote to the bot: quotes from officials
“My vote was also stolen. I was also kicked out of the polling station. They also chased me away from the square, shouting into a megaphone that I was breaking the law by coming to a square in my city.”
“The political crisis can be resolved only through an open and honest dialogue between the authorities and the opposition, but there is no dialogue. This is leading to disaster.”
“The country is dominated by lies, lawlessness and injustice. I want to live in a country where you can tell the truth, where the leaders do not lie, where people are not beaten (or even killed) for mere disagreement. Where people are not imprisoned by the hundreds for vocalizing their views. Injustice weighs down on me… Every day I think, why is everything so dismal? It makes me sick at heart!”
“I disagree with the legal assessment of the current events by the security agencies. I consider the actions of the country’s leadership to be criminal and detrimental to our economy, individuals and the nation as a whole.”
Some of the officials’ messages had a different tone. Honest People quoted messages saying that “the rabble-rousers will ruin the economy” and that “all dissenters should leave the country.”
