COMMENTARY: Thirteen years of independence (09/12/04)

COMMENTARY

Thirteen years of independence

by Hryhoriy Tsipka

On August 23 less then half the population of Ukraine celebrated the 13th anniversary of the revival of an independent Ukrainian state. A poll taken by the Razumkov Center in Kyiv on the eve of the anniversary found that only 32 percent of the population believed that Ukraine was indeed independent.

How is this possible? Can similar results be found in any other country in Europe (with the possible exception of Belarus)?

The short answer is Leonid Kuchma.

"The russified son of a Chernihiv soldier" - these are the words that Mr. Kuchma used to describe himself at the gala Independence Day concert held in Kyiv's Palace of Culture. His speechwriter chose these words carefully. He meant to show that Mr. Kuchma was not unlike many of his countrymen, that somewhere inside him a national awareness was tucked away waiting to emerge and make itself known. The same could be said of others in Ukrainian history: Mazepa, Skoropadsky, Grigorenko and battalions of other "enko's." But, unlike Kuchma, they were honest men.

Unfortunately for the president of Ukraine, a more complete, unretouched portrait of him does exist - it can be heard on the recordings made by Maj. Mykola Melnychenko. And although millions of dollars have been spent by Mr. Kuchma's image makers in Kyiv and Moscow to try and denigrate these revealing conversations and the man who recorded them, the truth is out there for anyone to read and hear.

What emerges is the voice of a greedy, vicious and conniving "khakhol" speaking 90 percent of the time in Russian to his closest comrades: Yurii Kravchenko, the murderous head of the Internal Affairs Ministry; Leonid Derkach, the simple-minded and mildly deranged former head of the Security Service of Ukraine; Mykola Azarov, the cynical cover-up artist who is currently vice prime minister; and Ihor Bakai, a baby-faced shyster who is presently in charge of the property office in Mr. Kuchma's final administration.

The recordings preserve how the president switches to broken Ukrainian only when members of the opposition find it necessary to talk to him. This is now Mr. Kuchma the actor, performing, showing that he, too, is "Ukrainian." Speaking in Ukrainian has always been a calculated ploy for Mr. Kuchma. For those who do not know him, he comes across as a born-again "Banderivets" (a member of the Bandera faction of Ukrainian nationalists) from Dnipropetrovsk. Give him a guitar and 50 grams and tears begin rolling down his sentimental cheeks as he belts out the songs his Mama sang him when he was still a Russified child.

The words coming from the president's mouth speak for themselves: "Who needs that damn Jew (Surkis)?" "Take him (Gongadze) out, throw him to the Chechens," "How is it that any piece of (deleted) can write the Prosecutor General?" The recordings show the president of a nation and the head of his security service reading transcripts of illegally recorded telephone conversations between his opponents and giggling like two schoolgirls. The president is heard telling his underlings to break the law, to sell forbidden items to Iraq, and to give him more and more money for his election campaign, money which belongs to the nation.

With such a president is it any wonder that so many of his countrymen - both the russified variety and those with a developed national consciousness - think that they are not really living in an independent state?

Is it really important that President Kuchma was a Russified Ukrainian who one morning awoke to discover his true inner self? Some would argue that it might be better for Ukraine to have a president who was Irish and spoke Chinese but who acted on behalf of his countrymen, in the national interest of Ukraine and was honest.

Enough about Mr. Kuchma the man. It is his policies that make him dangerous. By agreeing to form the Single Economic Space (SEC) with Russia, the Ukrainian government (President Kuchma and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the ex-con running for president) became witting participants in a scam to subordinate Ukraine's economic potential to Russia. Ukraine stands to gain zilch from this arrangement and to lose very much.

By engaging in opaque and possibly criminal dealings, Mr. Kuchma condemned Ukraine to eternal (or as long as it lasts, whichever comes first) dependency upon Russia for oil by agreeing to Russian President Vladimir Putin's demand that the Odesa-Brody pipeline be sent in reverse - to pump Russian oil south and from there through the Bosphorus straits to their final destination. By rejecting offers of oil from the Caspian for this pipeline, he cynically stated that this was in Ukraine's interests and made the mind-boggling statement that there "was no oil in the Caspian anyway."

By his actions President Kuchma made it almost impossible for Ukraine to be considered for membership in the European Union. His blatant disregard for media freedoms, his persecution of journalists, his tolerance for money laundering, organized crime, theft of intellectual property, arms smuggling and a host of other activities placed Ukraine beyond the pale. At the same time, he artfully continues to beat his breast and swears that Ukraine "wants to be in Europe."

Of course Ukraine will always be in Europe and not in some low trajectory orbit, but so what? For all it matters, Ukraine could well be a province of Afghanistan given the way it has been governed for the past 10 years. If the current prime minister, Mr. Yanukovych, is elected president in a few months, and Mr. Kuchma's team is doing everything in their bag of crooked tricks to ensure his victory, then Ukraine will only sink deeper into this morass of corruption and criminality, and face rejection from the civilized world.

It is high time for the Ukrainian American community to wake up to the painful truth and reject the charlatan view that "at least we have independence" which some in their midst try to peddle like snake oil. Another five, or possibly 10 years of "kuchmanoids" ruling Ukraine will result in 100 percent of the population firmly believing that they are but a province of Russia.

If Viktor Yushchenko loses this year, in five years I intend to cast my vote for the Chinese-speaking Irishman.

Hryhoriy Tsipka is the pseudonym of a Ukrainian journalist living in Central Europe.

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