
What Belarusians Can Learn From Poland
It is easy to admire the courage and determination of the Belarusian people, but the free world shouldn’t expect too much from the protests that recently filled Belarus’s streets in anger at the latest of many fixed elections. If this movement follows the path that Poland, Belarus’s next-door neighbor, took some 40 years ago, the free world is seeing just the first steps on a long, bumpy road toward democracy.
Until now, Poles had underestimated Belarusians and their desire for freedom, convinced that after 26 years of dictatorship, any resistance to their president, Alexander Lukashenko, had long been subdued. Opposition protests were simply too weak to have effect, and the government was reported to have taken ruthless revenge on Mr.… Seguir leyendo »