Brave New World
November 29, 2008 – 7:08 pmViktor Yushchenko was elected head of Our Ukraine replacing the ineffectual and intellectually challenged Vyacheslav Kyrylenko. This is like deciding to jump from dry land onto the sinking Titanic.
What does President Yushchenko expect to gain by becoming head of Our Ukraine?
Our Ukraine has 2 percent popularity, only slightly less than the president himself. The biggest parties in the Our Ukraine-Peoples Self Defence bloc (NUNS), Rukh and Self Defence, have defected to the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc (BYuT). Lutsenko’s Self Defence was literally pushed into the BYuT camp by the orchestrated campaign against Davyd Zhvannia (my father received Ukrainian citizenship a year before he did).
Added to this long list of strategic blunders is the removal of Arseniy Yatseniuk from the position of parliamentary speaker. Yatseniuk will no longer be in the top five candidates of the proposed ‘Viktor Yushchenko bloc’ (if pre-term elections ever take place).
Polls remind us that the ‘Viktor Yushchenko bloc’s popularity would be higher if Yatseniuk was included in its top 5. More recent polls tell us that a Yatseniuk bloc would receive more votes than the ‘Viktor Yushchenko bloc’ while Yatseniuk would receive more votes than Yushchenko in a second round presidential election contest.
Ukraine is feeling the effects of the global financial crisis and yet neither the president nor his party have any strategy. Our Ukraine refuses to join ANY coalition, orange or grand. Yushchenko is blocking the creation of a revived coalition which has the support of BYuT, Volodymyr Lytvyn and half of NUNS. The speaker is removed after the presidents chief of staff gives ten crucial votes. The president says his removal was a mistake but still keeps Viktor Baloga in his position.
The Presidents decision to head Our Ukraine fails to resolve Yushchenko’s multi-vector dilemma that has plagued him since he was pushed against his will into politics seven years ago. He is still stuck with a confusing multi-vector approach to his allies and coalition partners, BYuT (orange) or the Party of Regions (grand). Our Ukraine refuses to have a coalition with the Party of Regions whereas United Centre salivates at the mouth in the hope that it will eventually come about.
This is worse than George Orwell’s newspeak and more akin to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
Ukraine has no functioning parliament, no coalition, an incapacitated government, a presidential chief of staff whose Byzantine intrigues make him the reincarnation of Viktor Medvedchuk and a president who is more comfortable dealing with Ukraine’s tragic past while being oblivious to the present day.
In a Sunday interview on ICTV, Baloga advises the Prime Minister to not think about a coalition ‘but how to adopt legislative acts to deal with the crisis situation in society’. Does Baloga not understand that parliament cannot adopt legislation without a speaker and that it has no speaker because his ten loyalists supported Yatseniuk’s ouster? This is pure Medvedchuk!
How does Ukraine escape from this Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World?
Against my better judgment I have to agree with Yuriy Lutsenko and say that the only way out is a temporary coalition of national unity between BYuT and the Party of Regions that should remain in place during the crisis. After the crisis pre-term elections should be held and Ukraine would receive a new coalition and government.
The only two alternatives to this step are either a continued Yushchenko favoured paralysis resembling Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World or the holding of pre-term elections in the middle of the crisis.
3 Responses to “Brave New World”
The mail is not running in Ukraine. Just try to send a letter to Ukraine, and see if it gets delivered. If you try to send an overnight package by a private express service, it gets held up – in Ukraine, while assorted government “workers” fill out forms, and look for official stamps.
The people in Ukraine have learned to get along without, and DESPITE, the government, which still consists of a bunch of oligarchs trying to steal everything in sight, either themselves, like Akhmetov, or through frontmen, like Yanukovych’s son, who, disturbingly and amazingly, is a member of Parliament.
There is no way to describe it other than as you have – you can’t make this SHIT up.
People in Texas used to say – “hide your women and children and booze – the legislators are in town.” And Texas, by law, has only a very limited period of legislative sessions – to keep the legislators from doing too much harm.
In Ukraine, which needs to transform itself from a sovok remnant into a democracry, to make systemic changes, the Parliament and the government are actually doing harm.
Yushchenko’s behavior is nothing short of bizarre – it’s not intentional, it’s sheer incompetence, with reliance on a thug – Baloha – to boot.
Not only that, he was trying to buddy up to the Party of Regions and Akhmetov, which has no interest whatsoever in reform or democracy.
Ronald Reagan got around Congress by going directly to the people – and it worked. Yushchenko had the majority of the people in the palm of his hands to start out, and if he had stuck with the PEOPLE, instead of trying to kiss Akhmetov’s ass, had he stuck to what he promised, he would have had been successful.
Yushchenko seems to be following a motto that says: “when in doubt, do nothing.”
If he had any cojones whatsoever, if he had the principles that he espoused during the Orange Revolution, for the sake of the country, he would re-form the Orange Coalition.
Or he should explain clearly and coherently – why not.
But in Ukraine, where the “political elite” don’t seem to know how to think, except when it comes to figuring out ways to steal, and where the people/sheeple can’t seem to figure out what to do about it except vote for the same old thugs – that may be asking too much.
By elmer on Nov 30, 2008
The President should represent all of Ukraine and not just 4%.
Yushchenko’s “leadership” role and membership of Our Ukraine appears to be at odds with Ukraine’s constitution and long standing principles associated with a head of state.
A Head of State should be a statesman not a politician.
Yushchenko fails to understand this important distinction between Stateman and Politican let alone the role of a President.
The Presidential system has failed Ukraine.
Yushchenko has failed Ukraine.
In all respects he has failed the Ukrainian people and its comes as little surprise that he will not be re-elected to a second term of office. With less then 4% support he will not make it to the second round of voting.
If anything Yushchenko and his party should be considering their support for alternative candidates. Someone who has respect of the majority of Ukraine. Someone who truly values democracy and rule of law. Someone who will not betray or breach their trust. Someone who can reach out and unit the country, Someone who can represent all of Ukraine.
All Yushchenko has done is divide Ukraine and in the process lose the trust of those who elected him.
Ukraine’s Constitution Article 103 states…
The President of Ukraine shall not have another representative mandate, hold office in bodies of state power or in associations of citizens, and also perform any other paid or entrepreneurial activity, or be a member of an administrative body or board of supervisors of an enterprise that is aimed at making profit.
By Time to find a new leader (Hetman) on Dec 27, 2008