NEWS AND VIEWS

'European Choice': the illusion and the reality

by Ihor Lysyj

In his address to Ukraine's newly elected Parliament, President Leonid Kuchma inaugurated a pro-Western policy of "European choice." The proposal received broad public and political support. This should not be a surprise. Given the choice of being a part of a prosperous family of European nations, or belonging to an impoverished coalition of bedraggled ex-Soviet republics under Russian management, the choice is obvious. The surprise is that it took so long for the Ukrainian political establishment to realize that fact. Every other country in post-Communist Eastern Europe knew this instinctively.

The new policy replaces the "multi-vector" strategy that had been a hallmark of President Kuchma's foreign policy. In essence, the multi-vector strategy was nothing more then constant opportunistic vacillation between the West and Russia. The end to this strategy came rather quickly when neither the West nor Russia took seriously any of Mr. Kuchma's pronouncements of political intentions.

The government of Ukraine reacted to this change in political landscape with remarkable dispatch. The initial reaction was from Yevhen Marchuk, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC). The secretary stated that the multi-vector foreign policy is no longer in the Ukrainian national interest, and that there is no future for non-aligned countries in the new political configuration of the world. After more then a decade of existence in the vacuum of non-alignment, the NSDC proposed that Ukraine immediately apply for full membership in NATO. This desire became Ukraine's official policy on July 9 when President Kuchma signed a decree to that effect.

The reaction of political leaders of the European Union and NATO to Mr. Kuchma's "European Choice" was reserved and guarded at best. They pointed out that an applicant interested in joining Euro-Atlantic alliances must share European values. Such values include a democratic form of governance, supremacy of the rule of law, respect for human rights, and freedom of press and expression.

During his recent visit to Ukraine, NATO Secretary General George Robertson was blunt: "It is imperative that Ukraine continues to demonstrate a sustained commitment to the implementation of political, economic and defense reforms, for respect for human rights, the rule of law and full freedom for the press." A similar message was repeated a few weeks later by the U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill during his visit to Ukraine.

The political establishment, or "vlasti," in Ukraine responded to this challenge by intensifying efforts to polish their tarnished image abroad. A civic organization known as "Ukraine - Recognized Mission" was assigned to do the job. One of the first acts of this organization was to commission two Austrian companies to conduct a survey of Western political, business and media leadership regarding the international image of Ukraine. The survey was conducted in 19 countries, 15 of which are members of European Union. The other four were United States, Canada, Switzerland and Norway. In all, 1,500 prominent Western leaders were surveyed. The results of the survey were grim, with 79 percent of respondents considering Ukraine's international image to be negative, and 77 percent feeling that Ukraine does very little to improve its image.

The survey results prompted the head of the sponsoring organization, Leonid Kravchuk, to action. Addressing the second congress of Ukraine - Recognized Mission he proclaimed: "Ukraine has a negative image on the international scene and all bodies of power, non-government organizations and political forces should work to remedy the situation." (Ukrainska Pravda, July 8)

His call to arms was picked up by President Kuchma who called on the Ukrainian diaspora to help in promoting a positive Ukrainian image abroad in foreign lands. The presidential appeal was made during a meeting in Kyiv with the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church Cardinal Lubomyr Husar and a worldwide group of hierarchs of that Church. The diaspora should be helping Ukraine, said Mr. Kuchma, rather than just talking about what is happening there - a strange statement, since one may reasonably assume that the best way of helping the country is to provide honest and true information about it.

The image-cleansing effort, in any case, was doomed to failure. In this day and age of instant communication it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to create a good image out of bad reality. The Soviet Union tried to do so for many years, without much success. And, chances of the Ukrainian political establishment doing so are not much better.

While trying to clean their image abroad, the authorities continued honing dirty "election technologies" in preparation for the presidential election of 2004. The test opportunities for such "technologies" were found in supplementary elections for national deputies in three contested electoral districts on July 14. The most notable test case was electoral district No. 35 in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. It is from this oblast - still a preserve of the old Soviet order - that Mr. Kuchma rose to power. The leading candidate for re-election was Oleksander Zhyr, the former prominent national deputy from the same district - a vocal critic of President Kuchma, and a former head of the parliamentary commission charged with investigating the murder of Heorhii Gongadze. He was a leading candidate in the regular elections on March 31, but the results of that election were nullified as a result of numerous irregularities in ballot counting, causing officials to order a repeat of elections.

Mr. Zhyr ran for re-election on the Our Ukraine bloc platform. During his second election campaign the vlasti managed to violate every election rule in the book in favor of their candidate, an official of the local police force. There is no need to repeat here the litany of all such violations. Suffice it to mention that in the end the authorities prohibited national deputies of the Our Ukraine bloc from campaigning in support of their party candidate. When it become apparent that the full and brutal use of "administrative resources" was not enough to stop the re-election of Mr. Zhyr, the election board of the district simply removed his name from the list of candidates on the ballot under made-up and unproved allegations. Yes, things like that are done in Ukraine, and they were done a few minutes before 5 p.m. on the eve of the election in order to preclude any possibility of appeal.

The new "election technology" of simply removing the name of leading candidate from the ballot on the eve of elections was proven to be successful, and a policeman was appointed by the vlasti to represent the district. This successful dirty "election technology" will be, no doubt, used in the forthcoming presidential election.

The political coordinator of the Our Ukraine bloc, Roman Bezsmertnyi, concluded that, as a result of such super-cynical falsification of the electoral results, the change of government by constitutional means is no longer possible in Ukraine. His pronouncements dispel any lingering illusions about democracy in Ukraine. The events of the past few weeks demonstrated that opposition forces, in spite of overwhelming popular support, are no match for the all-powerful vlasti.

The backsliding of Ukraine is not limited to the election processes, there is also a reality of abuse of human rights and freedom of the press. Take for example the case of investigative reporter Volodymyr Boiko. The reporter was investigating corruption and the lawlessness of the government tax agency in the Donbas region, and for his efforts was promptly arrested by the tax police. Next, he was incarcerated barefoot in an "isolator" cell infested by bedbugs. When he appeared three days later in court his legs were swollen from insect bites and lacerations. At least, unlike Heorhii Gongadze, he was still alive.

Violations of human rights, suppression of freedom of the press, disrespect for the rule of law, abuse of the electoral process, corruption and crime are not acceptable attributes of behavior in the framework of Euro-Atlantic alliances. And until fundamental reforms take place, the prospect for Ukraine's integration into the European community remains rather slim.

Ihor Lysyj is a consulting environmental engineer and a free-lance writer who lives in Austin, Texas.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, August 11, 2002, No. 32, Vol. LXX

| Home Page |