Is Our Ukraine Really the Only Patriotic Force in Ukraine?
December 1, 2008 – 1:59 pmThe president told Our Ukraine at its congress last weekend that it is the only patriotic political force in Ukraine. Yushchenko said that Our Ukraine is the only political force that works consistently on formulating national priorities.
What then of the pro-presidential United Centre party? Does the president not consider it to be a patriotic party? If this is the case how can the president continue to maintain in place a non-patriot at the head of the secretariat if he has strong links to United Centre?
And what of the other 8 parties in the Our Ukraine-Peoples Self Defence bloc? Are they not patriotic? And, if they aren’t, why did Our Ukraine agree to enter into an electoral bloc with parties allegedly lacking patriotic qualities?
What about other orange forces that no longer agree with the president? Are they also not patriotic?
And what of Ukrainian voters? Are only the Ukrainians who vote for Our Ukraine “patriotic”?
If the presidents rationale is accepted then the number of “true patriots” in Ukraine is relatively small as Our Ukraine is only supported by 2% of Ukrainians. How could a state continue to remain independent if it is indeed constructed on such a small group of “patriots”?
Is it really the case that the two most popular political forces in Ukraine (Party of Regions and the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc [BYuT]) are not patriotic? Then why has Our Ukraine ever entered into coalitions with BYuT and Yuriy Yekhanurov when head of Our Ukraine negotiated a coalition with Regions?
Making a claim that only 1 of over 100 political parties in Ukraine is patriotic is patently irrational and intellectually misguided. In every country there are many different types of patriotism and nationalism operating through different ideologies on the right, centre and left.
When a political leader attempts to monopolise patriotism it is a sign of his or hers megalomania and in Ukraine’s case an outgrowth of misguided messianism. Ukrainians no longer believe in messiahs, a fact seen in the withdrawal of their support from the president.
It would be more appropriate for the president and Our Ukraine to stop searching for external enemies upon whom to blame their own and Ukraine’s misfortunes. Ukrainian politics needs politicians who can finally take responsibility for their actions and have the intellectual depth to appreciate the reasons why Ukrainian voters turn away from them.
Attempts to monopolise patriotism while blaming external enemies is a sign of political immaturity, nothing more, nothing less.
2 Responses to “Is Our Ukraine Really the Only Patriotic Force in Ukraine?”
Nationalism is a very dangerous element in politics and the same goes for the highly subjective use of words such as patriot. Is a protest of the Vietnam War in the 1960-70’s a Patriot or a not? Or is that only reserved for those that blindly fought for their country in a war that was not just and served no humanitarian cause.
The same goes for the use of the stereotype Pro West versus Pro Russia. Are the two diametrically opposed? Had not the cold war ended 17 years ago?
Ids it not possible to be pro west and pro Russia at the same time? And why is the word Pro west used as opposed to the word Pro USA. In most cases Pro West is the alternative for USA Foreign policy. They use the word pro west when they want to give the impression that the West is of one mind or one nation. Both are false statements.
The same applies to the concept of Patriotism. It is the sort of rhetoric that politicians use when they have no policies of merit or need to try and distibish them from us.
By Patriot or Not on Dec 27, 2008
Unfortunately, president Yuszczenko is very chaotic in his speeches. This is IMHO is his president’s biggest issue. Being so honest and truly respect deserving man he can’t convert it to his benefit or, what even worse, to benefit of Ukrainian society. He even can’t learn English even promised it four years ago… Personally to me it is a pain to listen his chaotic speeches.
By Stanislav on Jan 20, 2009