While political commentators are still trying to guess what "message" the JKP will come up with this time to avoid falling face down in the mud in the October 1 Saeima elections, its leader Jānis Bordāns is taking action. To the accusation that the party won't get any votes in the upcoming elections because it is as empty a shell as Parekss Banka was when it was bought for one lats by the Godmanis government, Bordāns replies with a chuckle – just you wait!
Bordāns' conviction is based on a simple calculation. People always, consciously or unconsciously, try to repeat actions that have borne fruit for them in the past. If in the previous elections the JKP was remarkably successful in presenting itself as the most ardent fighters against the "oligarchs", Lembergs and ZZS, then this time too it must find a sufficiently convenient opponent to "fight" against.
Clearly, "fighting" the old straw puppets is unlikely to inspire anyone to go to the polling station on October 1 and cast a ballot paper with these mouthy boyars on it. Some fresher bait to put on the hook needs to be invented in a hurry. A more fashionable puppet should be constructed, against which a cardboard sword should be waved furiously. And so it happened, and a strange document saw the light of day. Amendments to Section 231 of the Criminal Law.
That is the section on hooliganism. The Ministry of Justice, headed by Bordāns, proposes "to add Section 231.2 to this law in the following wording": Section 231.2. Dissemination of false news and fabrications. Gross disturbance of public order, which is manifested by the public dissemination of deliberately false news or fabrications, disturbing the peace of people, the work of institutions, organizations - shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years..., if repeated, then for a term not exceeding four years..., but if it has caused serious consequences, then for a term not exceeding five years...
Although it is about those spreading "false news and fabrications", the main direction of the attack is broader: the so-called anti-vaxxers, opponents of forced vaccination and all those who do not support the incitement of the Covid hysteria. The target audience that could fall for this new bait is the angry, enraged people who have suffered in various ways from the pandemic and are convinced that it is all the fault of these people - these anti-vaxxers and their informative mentors. This is Bordāns' plan, and it must be admitted that, under certain conditions, it may well save the JKP from the coming fiasco.
Andrejs Judins, Chairman of the Saeima Legal Committee, is apparently targeting a similar audience. Otherwise, it is hard to explain why he is actually defending these amendments. Judins emphasizes the words "deliberately" and "if it will grossly disturb people's peace", but history shows that laws that are later used for mass repression or to neutralize political opponents are always initially presented as non-threatening to law-abiding people, because they will only be applied if... and the lullingly reassuring excuses begin.
The only point of these excuses is to keep calm all these Judinians, who are happy to accept these controversial laws but at the same time feel that they are legally weak. These excuses allow them to feel morally untarnished and to maintain, at least in their own eyes, the reputation of being "honest". Even then, they are aware of the dangers of the wide room for interpretation, since these rules can always be abused as soon as the level of legal understanding in society drops. Unfortunately, as recent events clearly show, this is now rapidly happening.
It is naive to imagine that the natural, obvious state of society is a democratic order, tolerant of diversity, tolerant of different views. Even those who pay lip service to tolerance are, in practice, militant fighters against anything that differs from their specific understanding of tolerance and what is right. That is why, under certain circumstances, society is prepared to isolate, repress and, in the most serious cases, even eliminate anyone who does not fall in line, without much objection.
To think that it is the 21st century and that society has become so humane that a return to the madness of the 20th century is unthinkable is simply childish. Only people with no life experience can say that, who think that the world before them has been populated by narrow-minded fools who know nothing and that it is therefore extremely easy to "fix" the world. Just let me grab the steering wheel and let me act!
Bordāns' "good intentions" are out of the question - he acts not only out of sheer calculation, but also in accordance with his deeper nature, which was perfectly articulated by Lato Lapsa on Twitter: "If it ever occurred to me to write a book about Bordāns and his gang, the title is already clear. 'Fascist.' Plain and simple."
It is regrettable to say that in any society there are enough people who are ready to throw anyone who thinks or behaves differently from themselves in prison for many years or even to shoot them. It is a pity, in their view, that the cowardly people in power have been mollycoddling "all those people" for so long. If I were in power, they would be dealt with quickly. If anything, place them up against the wall, and problem solved. There are such people in society, and unfortunately not a few. They are the ones that Bordāns and, in the words of Lapsa, his gang are targeting.
Is Judins in there as well? The fact that sooner or later someone would pull out the fascist flag that had been stomped in the mud, raise it high above their heads and carry it on to the sunny future with shining eyes was foreseen long ago. Bordāns has done so, and is not only not ashamed of this action, but is proud of it. He is going to the elections with this flag. If for some reason Judins is siding with him, then we can only conclude that the fascist virus has apparently infected him too. It turns out that Judins no longer distinguishes between the rule of law and a mockery of it.
As for Bordāns, like the notorious Inquisitor Torquemada, he is convinced that all the "bad guys" should be burned with a hot iron and that what he is doing is a blessed work of providence. It is sad that Judins and others who do not reject this unjust and freedom-of-speech-threatening bill at the root are willing to be led by this man, who is apparently possessed by nightmarish messianic delusions. All that remains is to call on them - wake up! Do not support the brownshirts! Do not stand next to their rows!