LETTER TO THE EDITOR (08/04/02)

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Tough love is good medicine for Ukraine

Dear Editor:

The discussion over three letters in The Ukrainian Weekly (June 23, July 7 and 14) over the correct manner in which to respond to problems in Ukraine is timely and necessary. The Ukrainian Weekly should be congratulated for providing space for such a discussion.

Firstly, let me state that the problems raised by Roman Kupchinsky and Orest Deychakiwsky over the diaspora's confusion as to whether to adopt a critical stance vis-à-vis Ukraine is far more common than we imagine. I have encountered it on many occasions. Here are just a few examples.

Dr. Roman Solchanyk, a consultant at the Rand Corporation, argued along some of the same lines as Askold Lozynskyj at a panel I attended which was organized by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta in December 2001.

Interviewed by The Ukrainian Weekly last August on the 10th anniversary of Ukrainian independence, Prof. Roman Szporluk, director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI), claimed corruption today was no worse than that found in the Soviet era. In a surprising example of a lack of academic tolerance, HURI refused to allow a panel on the "Kuchmagate" scandal held at the annual convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities at Columbia University in April 2001 to be also held at HURI. The panel included Profs. Olha Andriewska and Marta Dyczok, Mr. Kupchinsky and the editor of Ukrainska Pravda, Olena Prytula (a close associate of murdered journalist Heorhii Gongadze). Longtime benefactor for Ukrainian studies Petro Jacyk, now deceased, also defended President Leonid Kuchma in the Canadian Ukrainian media and in person to this writer on many occasions.

The reasons for this are not too difficult to find. Ukraine has lost its independence so often that many Ukrainians are afraid it will lose it again if we push its leaders too hard. Both the Banderits and Melnykite branches of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) also never dwelled very long on a domestic program for Ukraine after independence was achieved. Mr. Deychakiwsky is correct to say this is partly generational and a view common within both the OUN(B) and OUN(M). In my academic work I have also tended to notice that historians seem more willing than political scientists to provide historical comparisons and reasons to gloss over Ukraine's problems.

Mr. Lozynskyj's letter is replete with misconceptions and an anti-Americanism that I thought existed only among the left. Accusing both Mr. Kupchinsky and Mr. Deychakiwsky of hiding their U.S. government links, he fails to come clean on his own. Mr. Lozynskyj is not only president of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) but he is also, reportedly, a member of OUN(B). Is Mr. Lozynskyj's letter a personal viewpoint or that of the UWC? This is not merely an academic question.

Prof. Yurko Darewych, also a high-ranking member of the UWC with responsibilities for human rights issues, has views very different from those of the president, judging by his debate with Ukraine's Ambassador to Canada Yuri Shcherbak and Mr. Jacyk on the Kontakt television program in August of last year. If Mr. Lozynskyj's letter was agreed upon with the UWC he has every right to claim to speak on behalf of the Ukrainian community. If it was not, then he does not have that right.

In a similar vein to Dr. Solchanyk, Mr. Lozynskyj believes that Ukraine cannot be faulted if we compare it to other CIS states. Really? Even in comparison to the CIS, only Tajikistan's economic collapse was worse than Ukraine's (and that country had a civil war that claimed 300,000 lives). The World Bank has calculated that Ukraine has one of the highest rates of "state capture" by corrupt oligarchs in the CIS. If we do not accept the dubious need to compare Ukraine only with the CIS then we can see that other post-Communist laggards, such as Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and increasingly, even, Serbia are pulling ahead of Ukraine. For a comparison of these countries see the annual "Nations in Transit" report on www.freedomhouse.org, which shows that since the late 1990s Ukraine has stagnated. Serbia is at least putting on trial officers accused of "crimes against humanity," unlike Ukraine which refuses to put anybody on trial for the crimes unveiled on the Melnychenko tapes.

Nobody denies that corruption exists in the West. But, to compare this to Ukraine is rather spurious. In the West people do go on trial and go to prison for corruption (look at Conservatives Jonathan Aitken and Jeffrey Archer in my country, the United Kingdom). The only trials of corrupt Ukrainian leaders take place in the West (for example, the trial of Pavlo Lazarenko in San Francisco).

Mr. Lozynskyj is, of course, correct to say that international politics is full of double standards. But, the point to be made here is twofold. Firstly, standards are higher for countries lying within, and aspiring to rejoin Europe, who are members of the Council of Europe. It is true that Russia is the exception to the rule as it gets away with war crimes in Chechnya. But, that's because it has nuclear weapons. Secondly, Ukraine's leaders are undermining their own professed goal of "rejoining Europe" through their domestic policies. The answer is simple. If you want to be part of Europe then play by European rules and get rid of your "homo Sovieticus" doublespeak of saying one thing and doing another.

The struggle for Ukraine always was twofold. The first stage, independence, has been won. The second, what kind of Ukraine we are to have, is still being fought and the 2004 presidential elections will have a large impact upon how this will pan out. Those who refuse to criticize President Kuchma should bear in mind his presiding over a Ukraine that is going to commemorate the 1654 Pereiaslav Treaty and Ukrainian Communist Volodymyr Shcherbytsky's 85th anniversary, while continuing to refuse to honor the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) as genuine veterans and freedom fighters. Does the Ukrainian diaspora wish to support this kind of Ukraine which is being subjected to what Ukrainian scholars are increasingly describing as the country's "Little Russianization?"

Dr. Taras Kuzio
Toronto

P.S. I have no U.K., Canadian, American or Italian governmental connection.

The letter-writer is resident fellow at the Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Toronto.

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