At the bottom of mistrust was a strong notion
that “they” care only for own benefit and enrichment. “They” were — and still are to a large extent — the self-perpetuating elite including the
oligarchs and just about everybody else connected to government trough as
employees or as predatory business raiders with ties to regulatory agencies “po
blatu” (by cronyism) and through bribery channels.
Among the most visible was corruption in
traffic police, who could stop car drivers on the street in Kyiv for no valid
reason and nonchalantly expect some money, as if it was a toll highway.
High-level entrenched government employees — the
root of systemic corruption — typically
keep their jobs under any regime by wearing chameleonic colors with refined
skills of opportunism ready to adjust and serve any form or shape of government
in power. They seem to know how to pose like real converts and impress the new
top boss with their credentials. That’s how it looks now. It is becoming a
source of mounting dissatisfaction and demand for visible vetting of government
agencies and judicial structures.
Vladimir Lenin, the father of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 held a sharp view that revolution cannot succeed without a
firing squad. However, the Russian Communist October 1917 revolution could also
be characterized by an allegory “Only the flies have changed, while the compost
stayed the same”. Autocracy and imperialism forever. The Russian spring of the
early 1990s faded away quickly.
A democratic revolution may sound like an
oxymoron when it cannot advocate and practice extreme measures. It can be
hailed as a bloodless achievement as was the Orange revolution, but for the
same reason It can also carry the seeds of disappointment, little of real
change, and failure down the road.
By contrast, the EuroMaidan Revolution is
a real victory of the people power, not a behind-the-curtain deal. It brought a
momentous political change in Ukraine and liberation from foreign hegemony, even
if it failed thus far to purge the herd of opportunistic appointees in government
that have a unique ability to jump from one ruling party into another, despite
all the sacrifices made by the rank-and-file citizens.
Petro Poroshenko’s new Solidarity party,
coming out of nowhere, was and still is susceptible to an invasion of new
converts of questionable background, even if his own image at the Maidan that
carried him to presidency is largely unscathed.
But it has been somewhat strained by revelations of the same misconduct
in high circles that has been habitually in high gear for a long time. That’s
why so much now depends on the president’s stated commitment to the lustration law
presently massaged in the parliament, and on whether or not it will have teeth.
A Kyiv Post editorial (“Politicians and trash,” Oct. 2) summed up what needs to be done but is not done — like
investigations of criminal activities in high places that are never completed.
Ukraine can no longer afford to let the
scoundrels come on top again, as they had done after the Orange Revolution. Do
we need vigilantes to make sure it doesn’t happen? Something is needed to keep
politicians honest, when the courts and prosecutors have been perforated by a
crippling disease of systemic corruption. It is encouraging to see the Right
Sector alive and well. It should be seen as the force for normalization, not
radicalization as painted by politically correct sideliners.
Poroshenko is an astute leader
who probably understands that the force which tipped the outcome at Maidan into
victory for Ukraine is also capable of forcing some sweeping changes in the present
government, if the push and shove becomes the only way to get results. Yes, it
is probably held back by the existing state of war in the east.
But now, as it was during the Orange Revolution, the people expect real change in the way the country is governed,
despite the ongoing fight in the east as an excuse (by some) for not rocking
the boat loaded with opportunists. Patience can become thin, and the apples may
start rolling.
Boris Danik is a retired Ukrainian-American living in North Caldwell, New Jersey.
