Reform is not just about
changing laws and systems; it is mostly about changing the Soviet era mindset
that has been passed down from generation to generation where it is easier to say
‘No’ and do nothing than it is to take responsibility. All governments are bureaucratic but modern
government, especially in the west, is based upon decision-making and having
the systems in place to ensure that decisions taken at the highest level are
turned into action.
This is not the case in
Ukraine where the former Soviet administrative system evolved to ensure that no
official could be blamed for making decisions, where the bureaucratic machine itself
is more important than the result.
The policy of saying ‘no’
is still the system, when the decision-makers at the top have to rely on small-minded bureaucrats at the bottom to get things done then the “little people” have the power to stop everything from happening by either delaying signatures
or demanding a bribe. You can see it in
just about every walk of administrative life, where “little people” whose only
claim to fame and power is their bureaucratic signature, have the power to stop
progress of any kind.
Here is a comparison that
illustrates the desperate need for administrative reform. The British Army in Afghanistan realised that
their existing BMPs could not properly protect their soldiers from roadside
bombs. The decision on the new vehicle
took a couple of weeks. The decision on
the £60m worth of camera observation technology for the vehicle was taken by a
senior general in less than 24 hours. The
first new BMPs were on active service in Afghanistan within six weeks.
In Ukraine military
procurement orders authorised by the president are routinely altered or ignored
by officers in the Ministry of Defence and buying anything from tanks to toilet
paper can take months if not years simply because of the bureaucratic
process. Who stops the orders? Nobody
really knows… Why are they stopped? Because somebody either thinks he
personally knows better than the president and his military advisors or was “persuaded” to prevent the Ukrainian army from gaining any technical advantage. In the case of the military one person’s
power to say “no” actually costs lives.
Some will claim that they
are not paid enough salary to take difficult decisions but this is just another
excuse for saying “no.” Some use the
system to increase their salaries through bribes and back-hander’s simply by
the fact that they have the power to say “no,” thus administrative reform is
essential. If some in government use their position to slow the system down or
to extract favours then they deserve to be fired as the role of the civil
service today is to make reform happen and not to preserve the status quo or to
deliberately induce blockages.
Those who manned the
barricades of Maidan received nothing more than the occasional bowl of hot
soup. Those who fight on the eastern
front are paid a pittance. Both put
their lives in harms way for one reason and one reason only and that is to
protect the Ukrainian ideal. Those who
sit behind desks in the safety of administrations buildings and slow down the
process of governmental change and those who seek to make populist political
capital out of these very difficult times, are little more than traitors to the
cause of Ukrainian freedom.
The same sort of negative
attitude can be seen in the Ukrainian media albeit for very different
reasons. Whilst the government has been busy
changing the very foundations of the system they have sadly not been the
world’s best communicators. In their
defence the current government PR system was never formulated as a proactive
information and communications system designed to keep the public informed and
to make matters worse many in the media actively work against the information
flow.
Much of the media in
Ukraine are owned by forces and individuals that are opposed to the
reforms. It is not in their interests to
promote the progress of reform and we can see this nightly where TV channels
regularly attack the government but say little of what has been achieved whilst
the western media and western leaders are almost complimentary and even
impressed by the rate of fundamental change.
One has to ask what they know that the Ukrainian media does not…?
In reality, many of the
media owners are abusing their duty to the public in not reporting balanced
news. In Europe there are laws to
prevent such violations of public trust but in Ukraine the government simply
has to take it on the chin whilst the majority continue to live in manufactured
political confusion and ignorance.
The governmental history
of Ukraine is that the average life of a government is around nine months and
even though we are still four months away from the local elections the knives
are out for the government. Instead of
working together in the national interests many of the established politicians
prefer to play the populism game. In
many cases it seems that games are all they know as they don’t articulate
viable alternative solutions and blind criticism is easy.
Let us be clear: there is
no Harry Potter or magic wand that is going to save Ukraine and pushing the
elephant up the mountain would be a whole lot easier if the political forces and
the media started working in the national interest and stopped their petty
politics.
