As the recent e-declarations reveal, Ukraine is dominated by a governing society of selfish swine, a clan of self-seeking, greedy and egotistic thieves, who, like pigs in a trough consume anything within their reach. Yes, they are politicians, but they are also prosecutors, judges, doctors, educators, military men, administrators and government bureaucrats.
And of course, there are others, but nonetheless, all in Ukraine, and in Western capitals, should know who they are, and regardless of the constant rhetoric of public relations practitioners, the major challenge three years after the Maidan remains how to get rid of this class and the odor that continues to permeate Ukrainian civic life because of their lasting presence.
Though some of the faces have changed, the concept of a ruling clan controlling the state of Ukraine’s affairs remains the same. Ukraine is not governed by any elected or politically appointed bodies which are accountable to the public, but rather Ukraine is meticulously controlled by the “clan of the selfish”.
They are the true children of Ayn Rand and the grandchildren of Soviet communism. They are the unchallenged practitioners of the virtue of selfishness.
They are the entitled, practitioners of power who lord over those who they see as weak. They project an aura of the powerful, but actually, they are players of the privilege of place, who take what they will, unafraid of any consequences because of the lack of any efficacious moral authorities, be they legal or religious. Nonetheless, they remain, regardless of their European fashions, pretentious and artificial Ukrainian John Galts, gauche, callow vulgarians, drunk with entitlement, lacking in self-restraint, and devoid of respect for any form of objective moral constraint.
And so, after almost three years, they remain in their places of governance, blinded by their egocentric myopia that prevents them from even planning, let alone implementing a comprehensive governing and reform plan that would act as a guide for a better future for all Ukrainians. But why don’t they do this? Well, why make any type of investments when you can steal?
This clan does not care not for the poor, the afflicted or the sick because they don’t have empathy or the ability to care. They forsake the task and responsibility of structuring and erecting an economic model that would lead to a “just” economy and encourage enterprise and creativity because they already have “theirs”, with continuing access to more.
But truthfully what they “have” and what they have declared, is not theirs, but rather, in most instances, they are only in possession of the proceeds of crimes they have committed against the commonwealth.
What it is that they fundamentally misunderstand is that “your” wealth is only yours when you have earned it or when you have created it, when you have risked your own capital to make a profit. And then, having worked hard in providing a product or service, and having paid your fair share of taxes, you are then entitled to enjoy your profit in the form of the fruits of your labor.
These are the principles of a free market, expressed in the most rudimentary way. This clan has no concept of what this means, for they preside over an economy that is dominated by oligarchs and cronies, all members of the clan, and it is neither, in its essence, capitalistic or free. It certainly is not democratic. Wealth is not yours when you have stolen it.
Yet it is this egotistic and venal individuality and selfish pursuit that prevents the development and establishment of a governing ethic that would inform the building of an effective, responsible and accountable democratic system.
Selfishness in Ukraine is a continuing and constricting philosophical gulag of its Marxist materialistic past. It is this genetic inheritance that continues to retard the development of a set of values that would inform the building of a democratic society.
Democratic institutions are not built by selfish empire builders who steal from the budget and who continually rape the land. Lasting, national institutions, conceived, built, and informed by the transcendent dignity of individuals, are a result of a selfless common agreement by the many, who despite differences, have learned to control their individual desires and who are prepared to sacrifice for the greater common good in the form of a social contract that would benefit all. Most importantly, democratic institutions are built by those who apply the rule of law to govern their “agreements” with their fellow citizens.
A man carries a inflatable doll with portrait of President Viktor Yanukovych during a rally in support of Ukraine’s European integration course in central Kyiv on Dec. 8, 2013. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
The greatest mistake made in post-Maidan Ukraine, was the assumption that what took place was a revolution. The Maidan was not a political revolution, but rather, and at best, it was an existential rebellion against the immoral governing ethic and ruling order of the governing clan in that moment.
The tragedy in Ukraine today is that, in a very short time, the moral gains of the Maidan were effectively stolen by the politically ambitious, and the clarion call for societal transformation was replaced by a compromised language of political reform.
This theft continues, for just as Ukraine’s “commonwealth” continues to be stolen, the moral legacy of the Maidan, exemplified by the work and blood of common Ukrainian men on the Square, continues to be pilfered and his blood dishonored. For what has been forgotten, by those now in leadership in Ukraine, and in Western capitals, is that it was not the political class that tilled the ground for societal transformation, but by those who will be forever called the “Maidan Generation”.
For it was this generation that rejected the fear of authoritarian rule and violence and it was they who had the courage to morally judge the status quo, prepared to make the sacrifices on the streets of Kyiv and in the steppes and towns of eastern Ukraine against Muscovite expansion.
Now compare the sacrifice of the Maidan Generation with the selfishness of the clan and ask who it is that is entitled to govern modern Ukraine?
Yuri Polakiwsky is a writer who lives in Toronto and Kyiv. He is author of the book, “Ukraine- A Lament of a Promise.”
