short pop quiz on Ukrainian current affairs. Identify the speakers of the following quotes:
'Privatization opens up the investment door. If we don't have investment, we won't survive as a country.' And, 'Let's better wait for another year or two – we can survive that – instead of having reform for the sake of reform. We'll wait for the real investors to come instead of selling everything into the hands of shadow capital.' If you guessed that the latter quote came from the lips of nation's 'reformist' president and the former from a member in good standing of Ukraine's 'leftist' and 'anti-reform' Parliament, go to the head of the class.
If you didn't, you're as puzzled as the rest of us. Actually, this is one puzzle that is easily solved. The MP (and chairman of the Rada's Committee on Privatization) was speaking to a Reuters reporter in New York. He knows what members of a responsible opposition should say when visiting the decedent (and gullible) West. The president was speaking at a Kyiv press-conference intended largely for domestic consumption. He knows what mediocre politicians should say to their bitter (and perhaps not-so-gullible) constituents when the Communists are leading in the polls.
This was one of several recent Kuchma pronouncements telling Westerners, in essence, to buzz off. Thus on ownership of medium-range missiles: 'Ukraine shall have them, regardless of the opinion of this or that country.' This, of course, is nothing next to the rhetoric Kuchma's opponents have been using on the campaign trail. Socialist Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Moroz, a smart man who should know better, blames the International Monetary Fund for 'bringing whole industries to a halt.' The Communists' chieftain, Petro Symonenko warns that 'so long as a representative of foreign countries sits inside every ministry, so long as the budget cannot be approved until it is confirmed by the IMF and [economist Jeffrey] Sachs kicks open the door to the president's office to insist that his economic program be implemented in Ukraine, the decline of economy will continue.'
This is, to be sure, merely campaign demagoguery. Whoever comes to power in Kyiv in the near future is likely to discover that Ukraine cannot make ends meet without Western loans and aid, not to mention privatization proceeds. But it is disconcerting that Moroz could plausibly replace the floundering Kuchma as this country's president next year, while Symonenko is sure to lead the largest faction in the next Parliament.
Even more worrisome, though, is Kuchma's apparent willingness to echo the pseudo-nationalist rhetoric of his opponents. Even a president with atrophied political instincts can sense which way the wind is blowing. This newspaper has long argued that America, the IMF and Ukraine's other friends in the West have done this country no favors. Of course, unlike Kuchma, Moroz and Co., we've maintained that Westerners have not been tough enough in tying aid and loans to progress on reforms. Now that foreigners have started to ask for things in return for continued aid, a xenophobic chorus has begun to gather strength. What happens when Ukraine is asked to fully live up to its promises?
