No, these are not lines from a Martin Scorsese film revealing the inner workings of Sicily’s Mafia. As the Kyiv Post’s Yuliya Popova exposes on this week’s front page, conversations like these could be going on in the halls of government.
Cronyism is the favored style of rule by the nation’s elite. They don’t love the nation. They see Ukraine as a personal piggybank whose treasures they acquire for material benefits they show off to each other – from trinkets like $4,000 cufflinks to mansions and yachts.
Understanding how these caves of vampires work is key to explaining why the nation’s bureaucracy is never tamed, corruption is never fought, laws are rarely obeyed and national interests are never served. It is why the highest goals are never achieved and why the trash from the lowliest bins is infrequently collected.
When the most qualified don’t get jobs, consequences are severe.
The powerbrokers spreading patronage to relatives and bootlickers are caught up in an endless and exhausting game of conquest and plunder. Living by such a bankrupt moral code, in which wealth is brandished as most citizens suffer, Ukraine’s elite daily show their inadequacies and moral bankruptcy as human beings.
Blame also lies with ordinary citizens. Less than 3 percent of registered voters belong to political parties, so whose interest do the corrupted elite represent? Certainly not the interests of most Ukrainians, who are still shut out of governing their nation despite superficially democratic elections.
Like in the West, many Ukrainians are currently disgusted by politics and have tuned out. But they will tune in again, because – like all decent people – they want better lives for their children and grandchildren. Hopefuly, the elite will tumble or change, sooner or later. It is only a matter of time.
