Once again, on Sept. 9, the Kyiv Post editorial board (“Bad choice”) has demonstrated their Pavlovian response to the name “Yushchenko” by penning a graduate school-like diatribe criticizing a recent award received by former President Viktor Yushchenko.
The Kyiv Post editorial board refers to the decision by the University of Kansas Senator Robert Dole Institute of Politics to award Viktor Yushchenko with its annual “Leadership Prize” as “puzzling” and a “bad choice.”
The editorial attempts to make the case that since Yushchenko was a one-term president (just like Lech Walesa in Poland), that he is not deserving of the award.
The editorial goes on to cite the areas of governance, corruption, and improving people’s lives as evidence of their case. Rhetoric aside, the realities speak quite differently. For example, in terms of governance and freedoms, it was only under Yushchenko that Freedom House moved Ukraine from the “partially free” to the “free” category for the first time in the country’s history.
With regard to the Kyiv Post’s charge that “corruption flourished under (Yushchenko’s) tenure,” the facts are otherwise as well. Transparency International’s “Corruption Perception Index” showed Ukraine improving from 128th place under the final year of President Leonid Kuchma to 117th just two years later under Yushchenko, a gradual but noted improvement.
Finally, with regard to improving people’s lives, the Kyiv Post editorial board would do well to ask average Ukrainians: “Are you better off today than you were seven years ago?” The answer from Lviv to Luhansk would be a resounding “yes.” Much remains to be done and the current situation is challenging – but nonetheless, Ukraine in 2011 is not the Ukraine of 2004 – and that is for the better.
Unfortunately, while the Kyiv Post plays an important role in defending free speech, democracy and Western values in Ukraine, the editorial board has an irrational response every time the name “Yushchenko” is uttered. The Kyiv Post editorial board has resorted to a full “blame Yushchenko” mentality. World economic crisis? Blame Yushchenko. Global warming? Blame Yushchenko.
Violence in the Middle East? Blame Yushchenko. It remains simply a matter of time before the Kyiv Post editorial board will accuse Yushchenko of conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination.
The University of Kansas Senator Bob Dole Institute of Politics has made a prudent choice to award Viktor Yushchenko with its annual leadership award to mark the 20th anniversary of the defeat of the Soviet Union.
As one remembers the great career of Senator Robert Dole — wounded World War II veteran who lost the use of his right arm, 1996 Republican presidential candidate, brilliant parliamentarian and longtime Senate majority leader – three important values come to mind: civility, moderation and forgiveness.
Say what one will about Yushchenko, but the same values of civility, moderation and forgiveness are exemplified in him (in a part of the world where such values are virtually non-existent).
I applaud the foresight of the University of Kansas, Dole Institute of Politics and encourage my friends at the Kyiv Post to put petty personal differences aside to celebrate this anniversary of triumph over Soviet Union.
Brian Mefford is a political and business consultant who has lived and worked in Ukraine since 1999. His clients included ex-President Viktor Yushchenko.
