In reading Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius’s letter of resignation, I was struck by the simplicity and dignity that turned his few words into an atomic bomb.
In those few short lines, the minister summed up the spirit of a nation.
In one word he said what millions have wanted to shout from the rooftops for years.
He said no, so quietly that it has already reverberated around the world.
In one word he illustrated what the Ukrainian people have all suspected for months, that the criminal ideal of power through corruption is still alive in Ukraine despite Maidan’s 1 and 2 and all the good work of those that have fought and died in the fight against it.
In many ways, Abromavicius, a 40-year-old banker from Lithuania, has set the stage for what could well be the final showdown.
On one side we have the old order of President Petro Poroshenko and his cohorts that are in reality and mentality little different from the Yanukovych Party of Regions clan he replaced and on the other we have a government of those that truly believe in Ukraine’s European future.
They are chalk and cheese, two incompatible armies now lining up for one final battle that will come to define this nation now and in the future.
The president’s team have finally unfurled their colors, the same blue as the past.
The evidence was hiding in plain sight. The president refused to sell his assets as required by law, preferring to maintain production in Russia, pay taxes in Russia, employ Russians and profit from sales in Russia whilst young Ukrainians die under Russian bullets and bombs in the east.
The president refused to reform the courts and prosecution service knowing all too well that the first to be prosecuted could be those from his own clan that support the ideal of greed through corruption.
His ministers in the coalition and his party in the parliament resisted some 28 calls for the privatization of state-owned enterprises, knowing that this would mean the end of the $5 billion annual theft through their engineered losses.
The president sought to undermine the elected government through what in PR terms can only be described as one of the most concerted political attacks in modern history even using his own media assets, which again he should have sold, to attack the government at every turn.
Not once has the president openly come out in public support of the coalition in which his party is a member.
Not once has he praised any minister for their considerable achievement.
Instead he appointed the noisy Mikheil Saakashvili to cause trouble as governor of Odesa Oblast and then did nothing to curb the antics that would have got any other governor fired even to the point of not supporting his government, when Saakashvili sought to publicly abuse a minister in his presence and on national television.
Even on Feb. 3, it took his team hours to issue his statement of platitudes in which he made little mention of serious action against the perpetrators.
Our president may say all the right things, but history does not judge by words, it judges by deeds.
On the other side, we have the government.
Is it an ideal government?
No, it is not.
It is a team hobbled by coalition, acting with one arm tied behind its back by coalition partners some of whom would rather play the charade of politics rather than work to move the country forwards and others who openly and plainly work to preserve the ways of the past.
Yet this government has actually achieved more to reform Ukraine than all the other governments put together.
Over 2,600 bills passed to parliament, almost 300 new laws enacted, major reforms achieved and all whilst staving off bankruptcy, fighting a war with Russia in the east and now it would seem also fighting a war within its very heart.
That by any standard is impressive and I believe that history will judge this government, and those who serve it, kindly.
But the war is not over.
Abromavicius has lifted the veil so that we can all see the true cause for the slow progress of reform and to him the nation should be for ever indebted.
His honesty and honour should be a beacon for all those that dream of a European future.
As to Ihor Kononenko, whose blind arrogance has become the tipping point for our tomorrow, he should be investigated and prosecuted for his attempt to coerce the elected government as should all those that supported him, even to the very top.
Perhaps it is also time for the nation to review the constitutional compromise that has enabled this situation in the first place. No family can have two fathers.
Yes, we need checks and balances, but not of a kind that enables one philosophy to undermine the other as the result will always be failure and that failure will be ours.
Martin Nunn is the chief executive officer of Whites Communication. He works with the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers on strategic communications.
