Posted on 01/02/2006 3:05:18 PM PST by jb6
Sergiy Kostiuk, for UP
Response to President Yushchenko’s article, published in Financial Times, December 22, 2005
Over a half of Ukraine’s population thinks that the country moves in a wrong direction
Last year, when Christmas and New Year’s celebration was in full swing in Europe, millions of Ukrainians rebelled against marred regime of Kuchma-Yanukovych. Those events became known as Orange Revolution.
Peaceful protest against fraudulent elections ended on December 26th. People of Ukraine chose European democratic values and elected Yushchenko the third President of independent Ukraine.
As the year nears its end, Europe celebrates again, but the Ukrainians call the passing year a year of lost opportunities for their country, country where European democratic values didn’t take on. There are few reasons to celebrate.
Faith in Orange Revolution’s ability to change Ukrainian society diminishes with each populist claim of the former allies: each one of them has its own orange “maidan” – their campaign headquarters.
Over a half of Ukraine’s population thinks that the country moves in a wrong direction. The Ukrainians give negative opinions when asked about changes in the country during Yushchenko’s presidency.
Approval ratings remain pretty low for the President of Ukraine, the Parliament and the Government. Yushchenko’s approval ratings are close to the half of what they used to be a year ago.
Against people’s expectations “people’s power” not only failed to fulfill the promises given at Maidan, but also failed to extinguish the rudiments of Kuchmism.
Moreover, people are turning back to using well-established Presidential elements of Kuchma’s epoque, such as “retinue” and “regime”. Yanukovych Block leads in election polls.
Today’s political map of Ukraine is crowded with parties, alliances and blocks. All of them are ready to fulfill hopes, values and ideals of the Ukrainians. Who would doubt?!
Ukrainian population continues to diminish quickly, and, according to the prognosis of the State Bureau of Statistics, it will shrink to 46,908,000 by January 1, 2006. (At the end of 2004 Ukraine’s population was 47,280,000, in 2003 – 47,620,000 and in 2002 – over 48,000,000.)
With the minor exceptions, the reforms promised a year ago weren’t implemented, therefore, there are no noticeable results in the most areas of Ukrainian life.
First of all, most of the media still forced to disregard the opinions of their own teams, and is controlled by the owners, whose tastes are shaped by political situation.
Creation of public television has failed. Although Pora leader Kaskiv was appointed as President’s Counselor, this action alone doesn’t mean that political dialogue was established with public stakeholders.
After all experts from Razumkov Center migrated to state and party jobs, the country has lost a powerful public organization, able to create alternatives to the government decisions.
Tymoshenko declared that administrative resource is being used again, and Moroz is afraid it will be used in the next parliamentary elections.
If the leaders of Maidan openly lamented it, than Yanukovych and his company are out of question. After all, they signed Memorandum for Mutual Understanding.
Second , corruption has not been weeded out, and slogan “Prisons for criminals!” has been replaced with “Parliament for criminals!” According to Transparency International corruption index, in 2005 Ukraine occupied 107th place among 158 countries.
Ukraine’s score of 2.6 out of 10.0 (the lower index indicates higher lever of corruption) puts us in the second hundred, among Nicaragua, Palestine, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
According to the List of Volatile Countries of the World, prepared in December 2005 by The Fund for Peace and Carnegie Endowment Fund, Ukraine shares 38th spot with Syria, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Paraguay, Egypt and Peru.
When compiling the list, 12 criteria crucial for country’s stability were considered, such as demographic, economic, political and military.
In the post-revolutionary times leaders of Ukrainian financial and manufacturing conglomerates demonstrated their extraordinary talents in spheres other than entrepreneurial.
Pinchuk, for example, wrote his own Capital, - superbly thought through and logical – almost a perfect example of case study!
Third, the problem of poverty remains paramount in Ukraine. Only 30% of Ukrainian citizens could afford goods other than food and clothes in 2005.
According to UN statistics, over half of Ukrainian citizens are below the poverty line. Over 7 million Ukrainians work abroad.
However, the country learned about Andriy Yushchenko’s BMW M6, that costs 800,000 hryvnias and mobile phone that costs 40,000.
Fourth, Ukraine is still awaiting for the economic boom, but almost all doors remain closed for the foreign investors. Unclear and incomprehensive for the average Ukrainian remains the plan to use 4,8 billion USD that the state has received from the sale of Kryvorizhstal.
The country finishes the year with negative trade balance.
Fifth, the police, customs and tax departments of Ukraine still lag far behind their European counterparts. Quality of state avia- and auto transport, as well as that of railroads, deteriorated – from the ticket purchasing process to quality of service and pricing.
Not a single case against former state officials suspected in fabricating the elections was transferred to the court.
Kivalov still heads Odessa National Judiciary Academy; Bodelan, Bilokin and Bakay successfully work in Moscow. The rest are preparing to become parliamentarians.
The court trial of people who ordered and executed murder of Georgiy Gongadze, promised by the President before the end of the year, is not going to happen. In fact, the poisoning case of the President himself is swelling with the increasing number of unanswered questions.
Finally, it is too early to consider Ukraine as an upcoming democratic player at the regional arena or as a constructive partner in international relationships.
EU countries, as well as the United Stated had to be involved into gas dispute with Russia, yet the outcome is still not clear.
Ukraine has failed to be accepted to World Trade Organization (WTO). Jackson-Venick Amendment has not been cancelled. Average Ukrainian has difficulties obtaining even Schengen visa!
Lines of people outside of Portuguese, Greek, Italian and Spanish Embassies haven’t become any shorter. Instead, people keep on hearing from Tarasiuk and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about plans to apply to the EU membership. Are we ready yet?
Elements of constitutional reform that were agreed upon during Orange Revolution do not satisfy many players in the Ukrainian establishment; as a result, a campaign to redesign some of the elements has begun.
Tymoshenko even argues for adoption of new Constitution after the elections.
If one chooses to believe Yushchenko’s view that the Parliament is “a center of destabilization” in our country, then there is a high risk that époque of volatility will continue even after parliamentary elections.
In March people will elect new government. After Yushchenko’s prolonged deliberation, he won’t appear on the election list of the “ruling party”.
However, family ties in the Parliament are preserved by the President’s brother, Petro Yushchenko and his nephew, Yaroslav Yushchenko, assistant to the head of Kharkiv Region Administration, as well as godfather and godmother of Viktor Yushchenko’s children, Poroshenko and Bilozir.
Everyone who made an “extraordinary progress” in his area last year, such as Tretyakov, Bezsmertnyi, Martynenko, Jvania and others can be found in the election list. Exactly in accordance with third chapter of Nasha Ukraina election program: “Connect establishment with people”.
Sergiy Kostiuk, PhD student at Saskatchewan University (Canada), PhD in Political Science, Executive Director of Institute of Social Capital (Ukraine) – exclusively for UP
Accomplishments of the Third Way Socialists the Oranges. Least we forget the finger they showed us on Iraq too. But shortly their apologists will be along to defend their clintonian buddies (who now use Clinton's spin doctors for their upcoming elections). This should be fun to watch.
I forget, how did St. Putin help us in Iraq?
Don't worry - Yush is going to come out smelling like a rose.
Here - You can vote for a winner for a change - he leads the Financial Times vote for Man of the Year with 64%
http://news.ft.com/cms/24fd0a56-72fc-11da-8b42-0000779e2340.html
BWAHAHAHAHA
Silly you he carted saddams wmd off with the speznaz and is now arming Iran and syria to the teeth. Pootie Poot loves the US! /sarcasm
However, the issue here is the "pro-West" aka pro-Germany/France/Spain Yushchenko on whom we spent taxpayer cash and political credit. The "enemy" Kuchma sent troops to help us in Iraq and our "friend" Yushchi started making plans to withdraw them in the first month he was in power, while busily raising taxes to pay for his new 90% welfare er minimal wage increses and other socialist taxes.
I went over three times last year to see if investments were a good opportunity...It the most corrupt country I have ever seen...from the politicians to the mob...to bad...they have quite an opportunity to become a great country...
Can you believe that Gazprom actually admits to pirating gas that Ukraine purchased from Turkmenistan. Don't you think that is an act of war?
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/dc62cb2c-7bc6-11da-ab8e-0000779e2340.html
What's your first language, Russian?
jb6
I think if you have been advizing Putin, he is going to want his money back.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550795/posts
Second , corruption has not been weeded out, and slogan “Prisons for criminals!” has been replaced with “Parliament for criminals!” According to Transparency International corruption index, in 2005 Ukraine occupied 107th place among 158 countries. Ukraine’s score of 2.6 out of 10.0 (the lower index indicates higher lever of corruption) puts us in the second hundred, among Nicaragua, Palestine, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe. According to the List of Volatile Countries of the World, prepared in December 2005 by The Fund for Peace and Carnegie Endowment Fund, Ukraine shares 38th spot with Syria, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Paraguay, Egypt and Peru.
I guess the truth hurts you Lizol that your boys in Yushchenko's regime are an abject failure, especially when one of their biggest cheerleaders, the Ukrainian Pravda has turned against them. The only ones left is Union and even they have posted critical articles lately. Face it, Yushchenko is an abject failure.
(My Bold)
Do a google search on Tranparency International and the Soros Foundation.
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