A Ukrainian perception of democracy
In the minds of Ukrainians, or at least those who participated in the recent research project of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the Razumkov Centre, Ukraine is stuck in the gap between dictatorship and democracy. Participants blame this dictatorial shift largely on the current regime. The research shows that since the Orange Revolution of 2004, which overturned a rigged presidential election, democracy has been the marginally preferred system of governance for Ukraine. Support for democracy peaked in 2006 and 2010 (52 percent) and dropped briefly in 2009 (36 percent) when 30 percent of the population favored authoritarianism. Close to half of Ukrainians (48 percent) agree that the politically repressive policies of the current regime have halted the development of democracy.
The international political community recognizes the weakness of Ukrainian democracy and the risks for the country should it slide into authoritarianism. Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament, stressed that Kyiv should stick to democracy in his speech on Ukraine’s 20 years independence. The EU offers many positive incentives: market reforms, visa regime liberalisation and the Association Agreement on the free trade area.
The international political community recognizes the weakness of Ukrainian democracy and the risks for the country should it slide into authoritarianism. Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament, stressed that Kyiv should stick to democracy in his speech on Ukraine’s 20 years independence. The EU offers many positive incentives: market reforms, visa regime liberalisation and the Association Agreement on the free trade area.
However, economic incentives may prove not to be strong enough leverage if Brussels is serious about putting a stop to the rollback of democracy by the current Ukrainian government.
People First Comment: How can you expect a nation that has never experienced real democracy to fully understand its principles, methodologies and intrinsic benefits? For 350 years Ukrainians have been under somebody else’s boot. For the past 20 years they have seen what they thought was democracy hijacked by self serving politicians who have abused the democratic systems of elections to ensure that they remain in power and free to rob the exchequer for as long as they choose. Of course the results of the research are going to show a 50-50 split between the past and the belief in a new future because societies in general are made up in equal proportions of optimists and pessimists.
How can Ukraine become a fully functioning democracy when democracy is not taught, even to the new generations let alone the current population? Are Ukrainians supposed to simply absorb democracy by osmosis? The EU leadership may espouse fine words and aspirations but these simply don’t match reality. It is much harder for Ukrainians to get European visas today that at any time over the past 20 years. The free trade agreement can only work effectively and in the interests of the people if there is a functioning small-and-medium enterprise sector with which to trade otherwise it will simply enable the bandits at the top to trade more easily. Europe does not seem to have a policy toward Ukraine perhaps because the politicians here keep changing the rules of the game. Europe needs to start recognising the economic reality of Ukraine and start laying down some hard-and-fast rules that will work in the interests of the people. The time for polite speeches is over.
Celebration of independence betrays weakness, apathy
Opposition parties in Ukraine have decided to celebrate the 20th anniversary of independence by uniting into a committee for resistance against dictatorship. On Aug. 24, between 3,000 and 10,000 supporters gathered in Taras Shevchenko Park and attempted to march on central Kyiv. These attempts proved futile as law enforcement officers mobilized to block exit roads from the park under the Kyiv City Administration petition which designated the park as the only allowed protest area. Through legislative and physical means the authorities directly restricted the free movement of the citizens of Ukraine in the nation’s capital on the day of independence. Kyiv was not the only city to experience this violation of human rights with similar cases in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Odesa. The massive concentration of militia officers betrays the low confidence of the ruling party; media sources identified up to 50 busloads of special militia units in Kyiv alone.
Opposition acts were also undermined from within, due to lack of coordination or a uniform strategy for resistance to government forces leaving the opposition looking somewhat helpless in the eyes of Ukrainian citizens. It is evident that confidence in politicians has now been entirely replaced by political apathy instead. If the opposition fails to re-inspire faith in politics as a whole the topic of running against the government is out of the question. The governing party risks, in their turn, losing the very democratic structures that provide them their authority, both nationally and in the eyes of the international community.
In the intensifying battle between government and opposition, the final word still rests with the Ukrainian people, for now.
People First Comment: Empty barrels make most noise or so the saying goes and at present there is nothing more empty than the Ukrainian opposition. The government may not be the best at communicating their policies but at least they are getting things done. The international community may stare aghast at what is going on in the central Kyiv court house, as it really is possibly the worst-managed show trial in history. But what is equally astounding to them is the level of Ukrainian public support or lack of it for the Gas Princess, ex-Prime Minister Tymoshenko.
Looking at her history, Tymoshenko is hardly a people’s politician; populist yes, but only to serve her party’s interests. Much of the blame for the current state of the nation and even the election of President Viktor Yanukovych is leveled at her door and is seen as a direct result of the five years of ego-based infighting between her and Yushchenko. She, like most Ukrainian politicians, including Yanukovych, promised the earth and delivered virtually nothing of value to the people. It may be argued that this had much to do with Yushchenko but that is semantics as it is not he that is on trial.
Unfortunately, whilst many might sympathize with her plight, few are going to raise a finger in her support simply because she has not looked after the people’s interests. This should be a lesson to all of Ukraine’s politicians. If you don’t serve the interests of those who elected you, it is unreasonable to expect their support and loyalty in your own time of need. As to the population’s fear of what is happening in the courts, it is in reality little different from how it was in Soviet times, thus the message of “I saw nothing, my house is on the other side of the village” returns.
Ukraine is bullied by ‘big brother’ Russia
Russian influence in Ukrainian affairs has led ‘Freedom House’ – an independent watchdog organisation, to conclude that Ukraine’s ‘big brother’ has played a frequently negative role in the state’s democratic development. In their recent report “Promise and Reversal: The Post-Soviet Landscape Twenty Years On”(3), Freedom House cite current Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the principle agitator of nationalistic friction among the former Soviet states, Ukraine included. In addition to nationalistic meddling in Poland, the Baltic states and Ukraine, the report suggests that Russian governors have repeatedly used gas price threats to manipulate their neighbours in Moscow’s interest. This raises questions on the additional issues for Ukraine should Vladimir Putin be re-elected to the Russian presidency in 2012.
The leader of the Russian Communist party, Gennady Zyuganov, is supposedly intending to build a new Soviet Union starting with the Ukrainian region of Donetsk. The action plan entitled ‘The Revived Union – The Way to Saving Fraternal Peoples’ was recently propagated in Donetsk, where Zyganov believes that the Soviet cultural ties embedded in Donbas industrial history make the region the prime location for a Soviet revival. The west may not however stand idly by, Roman Popadyuk – first US Ambassador to Ukraine, has stated that the US will not sacrifice Ukraine for the benefit of relations with Russia; potentially raising the profile of Ukrainian subjection in the eyes of Brussels and Washington.
Regardless of who takes the presidency, Russia will always attempt to paternalise Ukraine, however, if Ukraine is successful in establishing a stable democracy, perhaps these norms may filter back Russia as well.
People First Comment: One has to ask why the Russian prime minister is so insecure that he has to concentrate all his efforts on bullying the neighbors. Is the strong man of Russia really so weak that the best he can do is threaten to jack up the gas prices yet again. What is his ambition, his intent and what does he hope to achieve? As a result of the last round of gas bullying Europe has diversified its supply chain to the extent that Russian gas supplies could well fall from 80 percent to 30 percent over the next years… that’s really good politics. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has also set a target of a three-fold reduction in Russian gas dependency and a concentration around Ukrainian coal. In reality, Putin — just as many in the Russian old guard — is suffering from post-imperial delusions of grandeur. Not satisfied with the mismanagement of his own camp, he seems intent, by bullying on mismanaging those of the neighbours who have the misfortune to share a common border with Russia. Bullying seems to be a hereditary failing of the Russian elite. At the end of World War II, Stalin wanted to demonstrate Russian prowess by building the biggest battle tanks the world had ever seen. In the nuclear age not content with a nuclear arsenal that could obliterate their perceived enemies they built one that could obliterate the planet several times over and today it’s gas. One has to ask just how much longer the Russian political elite are going to remain locked in their quasi-1950’s time warp. Perhaps it’s time for them to recognise that being a supportive good neighbour has far more benefits than being the local thug.
Visa restrictions limit Ukrainians exposure to functioning democracy
European visa regimes are potentially depriving Ukrainian citizens of exposure to examples of true democracy. The Embassy of Switzerland, for example, requires every Ukrainian applicant to provide their work record book; failing to observe that these documents are the property of an individual’s employer and are only released when the employee is fired, quits or retires. Obtaining these documents during the period of employment is technically illegal and with visa granting for the unemployed being unlikely in the extreme, Ukrainians are left between a rock and a hard place regarding trips to Europe. With these obstacles the Ukrainian middle class are encouraged to holiday in non-European locations reducing the inflow of experience of functioning democratic systems back into Ukraine.
European visa regimes are potentially depriving Ukrainian citizens of exposure to examples of true democracy. The Embassy of Switzerland, for example, requires every Ukrainian applicant to provide their work record book; failing to observe that these documents are the property of an individual’s employer and are only released when the employee is fired, quits or retires. Obtaining these documents during the period of employment is technically illegal and with visa granting for the unemployed being unlikely in the extreme, Ukrainians are left between a rock and a hard place regarding trips to Europe. With these obstacles the Ukrainian middle class are encouraged to holiday in non-European locations reducing the inflow of experience of functioning democratic systems back into Ukraine.
However there are some remediative initiatives under way. Talk of visa liberalisation between Kyiv and Brussels has been on the table for some time and has become a principle target of Euro-Ukrainian negotiations. An action of the Parliamentary Club ‘Ukraine – EU’ entitled ‘Ukraine and the EU: Building the Future Together’ involves a using a newly launched website (www.uafriends.eu) to crowd-source the cataloguing of unmotivated visa denials to Ukrainian citizens by EU consulates. European Parliamentarians mentioned at a recent forum that they intend to minimise the influence of intermediary agencies on visa processes as well as expressing their hope and support for Ukraine to implement the first stage of the Action Plan for visa liberalisation by the end of 2011.
These are some of the foremost hopes for the development of Ukrainian democracy. With the second stage of the Action Plan will come not only a simplified visa application procedure but also a enshrinement of Ukraine’s commitment to European Integration.
People First Comment: There was a time when the world believed that the home of bureaucracy was the former Soviet Union. With the dismantling of the Berlin Wall the West envisaged that their brand of liberal democracy would sweep across the Steppe lands and a new freedom would be born. They were right, but what nobody predicted was that the laws of physics would apply… where every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Today the West and in particular the European Union has become so bogged down in red tape that it is a wonder anything works at all and visa applications are probably just about as fine a bureaucratic example as you can get.
To apply for a Ukrainian visa a British citizen may have the inconvenience of having to go to London but the application form is only 4 pages long and can be completed whilst waiting in the consular office. They need two photographs and a letter of invitation. They file the papers with staff who are invariably courteous and two days later… or the next day if they are prepared to pay a little more… they have their visa in hand. The process could not be easier.
For a Ukrainian to apply for a UK visa, the form is over 50 pages long, they need details of both parents, bank statements, employers confirmations of earnings, copies of the applicants work book, invitation letters, flight tickets, return confirmations, dependents in Ukraine and a whole mass of supportive documentation which is then shipped off to the UK for processing, entrapping their passport for nearly a month. They then need to be biometrically photographed and have their finger prints taken and then be interviewed by an less than friendly member of the British bureaucracy to see if they are worthy of entry to the hallowed isle. It is a harrowing, belittling and shameful procedure that has got totally out of control as bureaucrats dictate where logic should apply. If the Ukrainian is unfortunate enough to be denied a British visa their passport is boldly stamped ‘rejected’, potentially in breach of international law, which may well influence any further visa applications to other countries thereby relegating the applicant to 2nd class citizenship.
Of course, there are a great many people who would like to lose themselves in the UK and the authorities have to take steps to protect the country but there are limits — limits that currently are close to be verging on the infringement of European standards of civil rights and certainly on human dignity.
Viktor Tkachuk is chief executive of the People First Foundation, a politically independent democracy foundation. He is a former deputy secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, a former senior adviser to three presidents and a former member of the Ukrainian parliament.
