The resignation of Odesa Oblast Governor Mikheil Saakashvili on Nov. 7 is the latest reason to dispel the illusion that President Petro Poroshenko is a reformer.
Saakashvili said all of his efforts to reform public administration, customs and law enforcement had been blocked by Poroshenko and other officials.
The Georgian is one of the last top reformers to leave office. Earlier this year, about 20 top reformers did the same.
And his resignation is a sign that a political counter-revolution is in full swing.
After the EuroMaidan Revolution, which ousted fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014, officials believed they had to pay attention to society’s demands because they feared they might also suffer Yanukovych’s fate.
Not any more.
Poroshenko and other Ukrainian leaders behave contempuously towards civil society and, absent Western pressure, move slow or not at all on reforms. The slavish Soviet-style bureaucratic machine that served Yanukovych has been partially resurrected and now serves Poroshenko, who consistently uses corrupt Yanukovych-era cadres for his purposes.
Poroshenko needed Saakashvili and other reformers as smokescreens to cover up continued corruption, lawlessness and abuse of power in Ukraine. Whenever reformers attempted to go beyond token gestures and bring genuine change, they were fired or forced to resign.
Predictably, the most effective among them were replaced with loyal political hacks such as Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. Poroshenko is playing with fire and losing public support.
Antagonizing the Ukrainian public, civil society and the nation’s Western partners cost his predecessor the presidency. It could cost him his presidency as well.
