Injured Male Ego’s and Narcissism in Ukrainian Politics
August 14, 2007 – 9:26 amI had thought it was now too difficult for Ukrainian politics to continue to shock me. The last 3 years events (2004 election fraud, Yushchenko’s poisoning, orange in-fighting, strategic mistakes by the president, Moroz’s defection and the return of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych) were enough shocks to last a life time.
But, I was very wrong. Last summer I was watching Channel 5 in the British city of Nottingham when I fell off my chair after seeing Moroz defect to Yanukovych. When I read the Party of Regions list for the 2007 elections and saw Serhiy Holovatiy alongside Taras Chornovil and Sergei Kivalov I was not shocked, just very depressed. The question that crossed my mind, and the opinion of those whom I asked about Hoovatiy’s “re-birth” in Regions, is whether there are any morals in Ukrainian politics?
Perhaps the question is redundant? A question only to be asked by a member of the diaspora which is always accused of looking at Ukraine (as are all diaspora’s) through romantic, rose tinted glasses?
Maybe there never was any morality in Ukrainian politics and the orange revolution was just a pipedream, an aberration from the usual course of immorality?
The well known Kyiv writer Mykola Ryabchuk stayed with us this week. I had asked him to bring two newly published books from Kyiv: Boris Berezovsky’s Moy Maydan Nezalezhnosti and Leonid Kuchma’s Posle Maydana. I was surprised at the title of Kuchma’s book. Mykola had jokingly written a few years ago following Kuchma’s 2004 Ukraina – Ne Rosiya that his next book would be entitled Ukraina – Ne Zimbabwe.
In Russia when Vladimir Putin had granted immunity to Boris Yeltsin he had expressly told him to not publish or comment to the media. Molodets. Yeltsin had kept his side of the bargain. Yushchenko obviously was more generous in his immunity deal with Kuchma and in the last two years we have had the ex-president regularly commenting on Ukrainian politics.
This is a person who has no moral authority to comment on anything! At least that is what I, as a Westerner, think. This is obviously not true of all Ukrainians. Kuchma’s book launch was attended not only by the usual sycophants but also by members of the national democratic camp – Ivan Drach and Ihor Yukhnovsky.
Kuchma’s Posle Maydana has an interesting episode that perhaps says a lot about Yushchenko’s duplicity towards his voters:
“I remember the election speeches of Yushchenko and his team at numerous meetings. And, even on television advertisements. They all began and ended with the same thing: the authorities are bandits, away with the authorities! Yushchenko told me during the presidential campaign: ‘Don’t listen to what I say about you and about the authorities at meetings. Don’t give it any significance. Don’t take it to heart. This is politics’. I did not respond to this but felt that the whole thing was rather comical.”
But, lets return to Holovatiy.
Firstly, it is worthwhile pointing out that he is not unusual in his immorality (as the Yushchenko quote shows). I have a list that I drew up a few years ago of similar defectors. They all share commonalities and it is not necessarily money. Anatoliy Kinakh, Oleksandr Lavrynovych, Ivan Bilas, Taras Chornovil, Moroz, Holovatiy and many others all have one thing in common: they are male and have bruised ego’s, injured male pride and immaturity. If they don’t get what they want they say ‘To hell with you’ and defect to the other side. I suspect that this is more of a psychological issue than a financial one (although I am sure money sometimes crosses hands).
I have known Holovatiy since 1991, meeting him on occasion when he visited Britain, usually on an invitation to an event dealing with legal issues. In 1992 I asked my wife, Oksana, to drive him to the airport which she agreed to do. The problem was that Holovatiy confused the airport he was flying from (Gatwick, not Heathrow) which added an extra two hours to the journey.
On another occasion I took Holovatiy to meet the former Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky in his Cambridge home. Bukovsky is now a candidate in the 2008 Russian elections.
My most recent memory of Holovatiy was when he gave a talk in 2003 to the Centre for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Toronto. Then he was a member of BYuT and a radical anti-Kuchmaite. Usually speakers sit in the room with the chairperson awaiting listeners to arrive. Once the allocated time has been reached the chairperson launches the event. Not on this occasion. Holovatiy waited in the corridor and only after everybody was sat down did he made his grand entrance into the room. The only thing missing was an orchestra to announce the arrival of “royalty”.
This was a reflection of Holovatiy’s arrogance and ego. In April over drinks in Kyiv, Stepan Bandera pointed out to me that he had watched Holovatiy on television during the crisis and concluded that he is somebody who is in love with himself. Narcissism is defined in the dictionary as “excessive self-admiration and self-centeredness”. This describes Holovatiy.
Holovatiy had every right to criticize Yushchenko’s decree disbanding parliament. But, the right decision would have been not to stand in this years pre-term elections (especially as he had claimed they were illegal). Instead Holovatiy decided to join the Party of ex-Kuchmaites, Regions. In the process he has totally discredited himself.
4 Responses to “Injured Male Ego’s and Narcissism in Ukrainian Politics”
Pocketbook
Interesting point of view,I’ll try to remember
ksoleifdjj388
By Pocketbook on Mar 5, 2009
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By Zxirupofrur on Aug 23, 2009
Dr. Kuzio, first I would like to ask you to delete the entry of the troll above. Now, on Holovaty. You unfairly omitted an important fact of his political career. He stood up to undoubtedly unconstitutional, while perhaps politically convenient, dissolution of Verkhovna Rada by Yushchenko. I also have my doubts about Holovaty’s moral values following his rather drastic switch of political allegiance but I doubt he is significantly different from most politicians in this respect. Additionally, no one yet doubted his immaculate legal credentials and his competence in the legal issues.
I have no sympathy to the constitutional coup attempted by PR through wooing the deputies from other parties by offering to them financial perks thus attempting to amass the constitutional majority, but still it does not change the fact that the dissolution of Rada by Yushchenko, implemented then, had no basis in the law but was purely a political arrangement. Sometimes, such arrangements are acceptable on the expediency considerations, but in that brouhaha BOTH sides displayed the so typical for Ukraine abysmal political culture and legal nihilism: PR by resorting to primitive bribing to advance their agenda and Yushchenko by dissolving the parliament without legal basis to do so (and Tymoshenko for making this possible.)
Holovaty was the only Orange deputy who publicly denounced the presidential act that was setting a dangerous precedent. As you know, in Ukrainian politics any dissent is not tolerated as lieutenants are judged exclusively by their loyalty to generals rather than by professional or moral credentials. This equally applies to all major political forces in Ukraine. Thus, Holovaty who refused to support such an utter disregard to the constitution was shown the door which in Ukraine largely equals political death since no politician has any chance of getting through a national election without support of the oligarchs or 2-3 influential politicians, which all are given at a price.
In order to remain in politics, Holovaty’s only chance was to switch, that he did, an act not unusual in US politics either (Bloomberg, Lieberman, Specter, etc). In fact, I am not quite sure, how Hrytsenko would have acted when he found himself in a similar position of disgust towards the political leader had he not already have secured himself a parliamentary seat for the next 5 years. I hope I am wrong as Hrytsenko seems to me a relatively sincere, for a politician, guy.
But you can’t blame Holovaty for doing something that is widely done by all politicians world-wide, particularly in the US, without giving a context of the particular event, the unconstitutional dissolution of the parliament, that prompted his morally questionable step.
By Burachek on Aug 25, 2009
Burachek, yes I and we can and do blame Holovaty and other Ukrainian politicians for changing sides.
And, contrary to the jaundiced view that most Ukrainians have, the West is NOT the “same as” Ukraine.
Lieberman did not switch swides – he declared himself an “independent.”
When was the last time you saw that in Ukrainian politics?
Spector switched sides NOT because of a bribe, but because he was close to the Democrats anyway.
Contrast that with Kinakh and others in Ukraine, who happily switched sides for money.
Contrast that with Lozinsky, who came over to BYuT – and declared himself “master of his domain” and killed a poor, unemployed 53-year old Ukrainian citizen who lived with his mother.
And this brings out a further very important point, whic you yourself touched on – Ukraine does not have a representative government, as is true in most democracies.
Ukraine’s government is composed of oligarchs, and represents only oligarchs.
Which is due to the factors you noted (money, among others), as well as the fact that the whole system is based on party lists.
Which, as you noted, fosters loyalty to oligarchs, rather than loyalty and accountability to constituents-voters.
Tymoshenko has recently taken steps to take away the property illegally grabbed by Yanukovych – the huge mansion called “Mezhihirya”, obtained with Yushchenko’s help – and Firtash’s chemical factory, which Firtash “obtained” under Kuchma.
Tihipko now whines that this is causing lack of “confidence” in the government – and “upsetting the economy.”
Yes – it’s upsetting the “economy” of Ukraine, but it is, in large measure, what led to Ukraine’s economic crisis – the robbing and pillaging of Ukraine by oligarchs, who spent the money on yachts and jets and offshore accounts, rather than improving roads in Ukraine, public utilities (Kyiv has not had hot water for weeks now), airports, and re-investment in banks and businesses.
Tymoshenko has taken steps in the right direction – but they don’t change a fundamentally flawed system – which contains, in part, flaws which you have pointed out.
By elmer on Aug 27, 2009