The answer is not as
clear as some would like to believe, for instance that “she is divisive and
controversial.”
Ignored in such pontifications is the glaring fact that Ukraine
itself if culturally and politically divided along the lines consistently shown
close to 50-50 in election results in the last 20 years.Tymoshenko has
been a clear choice of the national democratic camp.
It may or may not be a dark secret that being a woman has
not helped her politically. This truth may be
unpleasant, but plausible. It consists of two
parts. Part one is that she is a woman who was wronged by corrupt authoritarian
regime and thereby lost some shine in
the eyes of multitudes accustomed to be losers.
With such a mentality they have not been eager to see the moral angle,
much less go to the barricades for someone who was unjustly convicted. Part two is that her support among women is
lower than could be reasonably expected – but again, absurdly, because she herself
is a woman.
If such reasoning appears somewhat unconventional, how can
it be explained that in patriotic Ukrainian diaspora in North America (a
proverbial microcosm), attitudes among women towards Tymoshenko have always
been, at best, lukewarm? Loud aspersions at dinner table have not been
uncommon, with words like “she is a crook” and worse. Forgive me for thinking
that some of these dames are plain jealous.
The most striking evidence of under-the-surface
anti-feminist tradition in Ukraine is also the most obvious. In the 2010
run-off elections, Viktor Yanukovych should have been a goner when, a few days
before balloting, he famously expounded that a woman’s place is in the kitchen
instead of running for president.
What would have been a fatal faux pas in Europe was not a mistake
in Ukraine, because in the ex- Soviet republic, women-demeaning blabber still makes a pleasing sound for the multitude
of male machos, and for women with an abundantly low self- respect.
Here are some of the more commonly displayed bias that
doesn’t hold water:
The most often repeated nonsense is linking Tymoshenko with
ravenous oligarchs who plundered the country since the 1990s. But there is no
proof she had done anything outrageous. If President Viktor Yanukovych’s crew had any evidence
of her wrongdoing it would have been placed on center stage and used as the
goods for convicting her. But in the absence of any such evidence, trumped up
political charges were used to put her away.
An interesting rundown on the lack of incriminating evidence
against Tymoshenko was shown in an op-ed in the Kyiv Post last year, which
overviewed the time span of her presence in the government of PrimeMminister Pavlo Lazarenko, who had run afoul in a major money-laundering scandal that brought
his conviction and jail time in the United States after he fled Ukraine.
Tymoshenko’s popularity was at its peak as the hero of
the Orange Revolution that nullified the rigged election of Yanukovych
as president in 2004 and brought Viktor Yushchenko to power. Despite fractious
relationship, as prime minister, with Yushchenko, she was judged by
foreign observers as the most capable, head-above-shoulders leader in Ukraine.
In fairness, since the EuroMaidan Revolution this winter,
several other leaders proved their mettle, at least until now, notably Arseniy Yatseniuk
as the interim prime minister and
Olexandr Turchynov, interim chair of the parliament and president. Turchynov
has been a long-time key adviser and mover in Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna Party.
And she has already tapped Yatseniuk to continue in his job if she becomes
president.
A commonly critical view of Tymoshenko appeared
recently in an interview with Stephen Sestanovich, J.F. Kennan Senior Fellow
for Russian and European Studies, published by the Council on Foreign Relations
(“Is Ukraine on a long road to rupture?”, April 22):
“The polls have tended to show Petro Poroshenko in the lead.
He was an important figure in the Orange revolution. Yulia Tymoshenko is a more
divisive figure whose main asset in the minds of many is that she might be able
to deal effectively with the Russians. She is thought to have Putin’s respect.
But her credibility in most of Ukraine is low.”
Low credibility? Sestanovich has got to be kidding. He knows
better than that. Poroshenko, who had been around on all sides, was a marginal
rather than an important figure. Recall
a testy comment from a group of Polish parliamentarians who traveled to Kyiv at
the time (“The Orange Revolution could have happened without Poroshenko, but
not without Tymoshenko”).
And more from Sestanovich: “She is, by the way, from the
east, and is a Russian speaker whose Ukrainian is thought not to be particularly
good…” Sestanovich probably forgot to
ask some literate Ukrainians how good is her language. He stands closer to
commercial sphere.
One of Tymoshenko’s hallmarks is that she continues to be a
fierce critic of Ukraine’s oligarchic elite that has consistently robbed
Ukraine and off-shored the proceeds. The Euromaidan Revolution this winter is
to a large extent a revolt of the people against the elite. Despite
Poroshenko’s visitations at Maidan, he certainly does not represent the people
who shed their blood in the snow. He very quickly sought an endorsement for
president this spring from Dmytro Firtash, best known for his gas syndicate
connections — the most poisonous of all bindings to Moscow.
An interesting look at Poroshenko’s political meanderings in
the last fifteen years, including his activism as a founding member of the
Party of the Regions, is shown in Taras Kuzio’s op-ed in the Kyiv Post (“Euromaidan
and Ukraine’s 2014 Presidential Elections,” April 13, 2014).
The most valid prediction of the direction of Poroshenko’s
politics relative to Russia and the West if he becomes president is that it is unpredictable.
But it is certain that his election would be a good-bye to any attempt at
reforming Ukraine’s Byzantine economy and the corrupt judiciary and business
culture.
It is amazing that quite a few respectable figures,
including Vitali Klitschko, have jumped
on his bandwagon within hours, yes hours after the announcement of his
candidacy, and have advised Tymoshenko to gracefully disappear. Never
seen anything like that. Have they not learned from the Orange Revolution
experience how not to jump blindly? The heroes of the EuroMaidan Revolution deserved
better than that. Their sacrifice must not be in vain.
Boris Danik is a retired Ukrainian-American living in North Caldwell, New Jersey.
