Maidan: What we are fighting for
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These are not just ordinary elections.
What is going on now in Ukraine is a cold war conducted against the nation by the corrupt government. We are far from considering Yushchenko a Messiah, but in Yanukovychs doings we have ALREADY seen and felt the breath of state gangsterism.
We are proud of our country, our people and our place in the history. Ukrainians are used to democratic ways from the remotest times: monarchy and dictatorship never easily took roots on the banks of the Dnipro river. Our grandfathers defeated fascism, our fathers defeated communism, and we will defeat kuchmism, a feudal oligarchic system of rule shaped during the 10 years of Leonid Kuchmas presidency.
We are not divided into West and East, into leftists and rightists. The watershed passes elsewhere: the incumbent regime and a handful of its servants that want to remain in power to serve their own needs AGAINST ordinary citizens eager to change the establishment to make it serve themselves.
Here is what we are fighting for:
We are fighting to make the administration apply the laws it adopted before. We want to be sure that a police truncheon or a piece of information discrediting a judge does not weigh more than weighs the law or the presumption of innocence.
We are fighting to make the government (including the coming one) understand that it should not consider itself a self-sufficient clan, but a temporary employee serving the people.
We are fighting for the freedom of speech. We are eager to have access to diversified information not only in the Internet, but also on TV. But the most important mass media are now property of a handful of oligarchs that wont tolerate other players in the market.
We are fighting for a real economical stability, instead of a stable survival offered to us by Kuchmists.
We are fighting for becoming a country respected by others, instead of remaining a supplier of raw materials, sex slaves, and cheap work force for subsidiary work.
We are fighting to have a government composed of true professionals able to secure the stability of national currency, to guarantee the efficiency of armed forces, to provide for the financing of education and scientific research.
We are fighting to have a powerful opposition able to keep an eye on establishments moves whoever is in power.
We are fighting for honest and transparent elections, while the establishment is trying to rig them and to defend the rigged results with armored vehicles and riot police.
We are fighting for Yushchenko's victory because all this is included into his election program. After he wins, we are going to urge him, in the same straight-out way, to fulfill his promises.
This is what we are fighting for. About the principles our struggle is based upon you can read here: http://maidanua.org/static/enews/1098814787.html .
We are persecuted, beaten up, assassinated and slung with mud in the state controlled mass media, our families are harassed, we find unlawful stuff in our apartments, but we do not surrender. We disseminate underground printed materials, organize direct actions, avoid police ambushes using various subterfuges, we learn to win by lawful methods and teach others to do so.
We are supported by honest people in the Armed Forces and among the judiciary, we are backed up by main political forces including Yushchenko himself, we are encouraged by sportsmen and musicians, students and pensioners, businessmen and medical doctors, workers and farmers, by East and West of Ukraine. We are supported by many Russians, from ordinary people to important political forces. We are supported by Byelorussians and Georgians: whole former USSR is watching Ukraine with hope if it holds out, the gloomy and hopeless rule of bureaucrats will stop covering whole area of CIS countries giving way to a real independence and freedom.
However, we know little about the rest of the world. Do others support us? We hear statements made by top officials, but we hardly know what ordinary people, journalists, activists think.
Support us! We are very close to you! Write an article about us, come to visit us, urge your governments to backup us. In the next days Ukraine is going to need your support and encouragement.
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Since I've been reading the British press surrounding our election, I'm reluctant to take sides on this one. If one follows the NYT and reads many columnists, one might think that GWB was destroying not only America but the rest of the world and that he had "stolen" the election. Often these days, one even sees the word "election" surrounded by quotes. I don't know enough about Ukrainian politics to know what is right. I noted that the city of Donetsk is supporting the current leader and is not protesting. It is a major city.
That's the first useful explanation I've seen; thanks.