Fair comment
I would like to both agree and disagree with Mr. Jaroslav Koshiw's opinion piece published on Aug. 7. He is absolutely correct in his description of corruption in Ukraine. At the same time I would have to state that every politician in Ukraine, whether of the left, the center or the right is tainted by alliances with even more corrupt partners. The speaker of the Verkhovna Rada is by definition tainted by all members of the Rada since he has to work with all the parties present in the Rada. Politics is after all the art of the possible.
His observations about the style of Mr. Oleksandr Moroz are right on target. In April 1991, Mr. Moroz along with ten or so of the most popular politicians in Ukraine were on a junket to Washington, DC courtesy of the United States Information Agency. The group which included Mr. Plyusch, Mr. Chornovil and his wife, the brothers Horyn, Mr. Ivan Drach, Mr. Dmytro Pavlychko, Ivan Zayets, Ms.Larissa Skoryk and others attended a dinner in their honor in a Ukrainian church hall. I was fortunate enough to be in Washington at the time and was able to attend.
Each of these politicians was given five minutes or so to give their vision of Ukraine. Only Mr. Moroz realized that he was speaking to a foreign audience (which was hostile to him personally) and with his humor he was able to disarm his listeners and present his arguments. While Larissa Skoryk was able to portray the moral bankruptcy and hypocrisy of many of those present for now aligning themselves with nationalistic causes, Mr. Moroz (in impeccable Ukrainian) convincingly outlined the problems coming with independence. He spoke with elegant compassion and understanding for the difficulties that might lie ahead. The others simply beat the patriotic drums and Mr. Chornovil said that Ukraine simply must forget its past relations with Russia, turn to the west and walk out of the Soviet Union. Something which seemed unrealistic then and which still has not happened fully.
I do not know intimately the relations of Mr. Moroz to Hromada. But rather than blame Mr. Moroz for the corruption perpetrated by Mr. Lazarenko and Hromada, Mr. Koshiw should take on Mr. Lazarenko and Hromada itself as Mr. Moroz correctly implied. I think that the attack on Mr. Moroz is based more on his (somewhat evolved) socialist politics (anathema to the often arch conservative elements of the Diaspora) than on his corruption. Corruption in Ukraine is much too serious an issue to be cast into the role of partisan politics.
Until the free market reformers in Ukraine realize that economic reforms so far have been nothing more than the fleecing of the general population by a post-Communist and not so post-Communist oligarchy, often with the help of unpaid loans and contracts from the West, then economic reforms in Ukraine will go nowhere.
I ask only that Mr. Koshiw compare Mr. Moroz to the previous and future Verkhovna Rada speakers fairly.
Bohdan Oryshkevich
New York City
