Ambassador Yuri Scherbak: Ukraine will overcome all obstacles (10/10/04)

CONFERENCE ADDRESSES: "Ukraine's Transition to a Stable Democracy"

Ambassador Yuri Scherbak: Ukraine will overcome all obstacles

Remarks by Ambassador Yuri Scherbak, advisor to the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, former ambassador to the United States and Canada, delivered on September 13 at "Roundtable V: Ukraine's Transition to a Stable Democracy."

Mr. Chairman, Dear Sponsors and Conference Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Thank you for the invitation and the opportunity to speak at the conference. It is a great honor for me to participate in the discussion about the state of democracy in Ukraine. As the chair of Roundtable Focus Session 1 [The State of Democracy in Ukraine], I would like to share with you a couple of my thoughts. I came back to Washington after six years of absence. The world has changed during this period, the U.S.A. and Ukraine are changed, all of us changed and I have also. Maybe we have become a little bit wiser.

Today, I do not represent here any political party, any group of influence - neither the authorities nor the opposition. I just represent myself, my own personal view on the Ukrainian situation, the view of a Ukrainian.

After coming back to Ukraine in 2003, I saw a new country, which, to a great extent, was alien to me. A country in which the people who were close to me have died or retired from the scene. A county in which capitalism had won but democracy had not. A country the population of which decreases each year by thousands of persons but where the bright, young, educated generation of Euro-Ukrainians grow. A country out of which oligarchs take dozens of billions of dollars abroad, while millions of Ukrainian immigrants who work in Italy, Portugal, Germany, Canada, Poland, etc. send $2.5 billion back to their homeland each year.

A country in which political cruelty and the informational elimination of adversaries becomes increasingly common, but in which, at the same time, the number of NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] defending the principles of the rule of law and human rights, showing mercy to the needy and sick, and performing other vital social functions has grown in number to 30,000.

I came back to a country in whose capital there are more expensive "cool" cars in the central city streets than in Ottawa and Washington, but where almost 20 millions citizens belong to the poor and miserable [one-half of the population].

The complete disbelief in communist authority is brought to present-day Ukraine, whose leaders have not managed to win the trust of the people: 82 percent of Ukrainian citizens do not feel like masters of an independent state, 80 percent are not satisfied with the socio-economic policy carried out by the state and 29 percent believe that the regime established in Ukraine is rather a dictatorship, in comparison to only 19 percent who think that we have a democracy.

The key words for today's Ukraine remain: (1) disbelief, (2) dissatisfaction and (3) the need for radical changes, as indicated by 77 percent of respondents.

I brought with me the complete text of the remarks by Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn in English given at the opening of the Sixth Session of the Verkhovna Rada and I draw your attention to this very interesting political document and recommend you read it.

Let me also inform you that recently a consultative body composed of representatives of several of the most respected Ukrainian NGOs was established by the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada. There have been three meetings of the council and the views and proposals of the NGOs on the current situation regarding the presidential election race in Ukraine were presented. That is an example of a new, small but important step toward the creation of a civil society in Ukraine.

I would like to stress that, according to several political analysts, the situation with regard to democracy in Ukraine is better than in Russia and other CIS countries. That is promising news against the dark background of some of the political processes found in my country.

All of this takes place at a time of dramatic economic progress, annual 13 percent GDP growth, a real construction boom and transition to market principles of economic activity, under which the share of the private sector equals 80 percent of industrial production and 93 percent in commerce.

At the same time, 6.5 million persons have received, free of charge, lands with a minimum value of $40 billion and about 18 million persons have become owners of housing that has a worth of more than $25 billion.

This is a country in which, on the one hand, basic human rights and freedoms are quite often violated, and, on the other hand, there is an active human rights commissioner in the Verkhovna Rada - a generous and brave woman whose name is Nina Karpachova.

I have the great honor to deliver to you, on her behalf, "The First Annual Report of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights on the State of Observance and Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in Ukraine." This is a very important document which shows that authoritarian practices do not go unnoticed, and that is the first necessary step towards the assertion of the rule of law.

Finally, we should take into consideration that in Ukraine a center of democracy has been formed in the Verkhovna Rada. As Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Lytvyn said in his remarks at the opening of the new parliamentary session on September 7, we should "abandon balancing our own interests and put our stake on the people and not be political serfs." The chairman stresses that the opposition may not be thrown out of social life and the shameful practice of dividing the people into friends and enemies should be rejected.

All this in Ukraine today, alien and native, rich - because it may feed 130 million persons with its lands - and poor - because it may not ensure an adequate living standard to its people.

This is a country of cynical politicians who carry on a ruthless struggle for power and not for the people's well-being, but this is a country of freedom-loving, talented young people who do not want to live in an authoritarian, quasi-monarchic state, but in a democratic, prosperous European country.

This is a county which we love and whose dark sides we hate, a country which should not be evaluated using binary, black-and-white categories, but instead all the inconsistency and complexity of the processes taking place here should be considered.

Dear friends - despite the diverse views of the situation in Ukraine that we will hear at this conference, I believe that we are united by a common high objective: to contribute to the democratic renaissance of my native land.

I am also deeply convinced that Ukraine will overcome all obstacles due to an objective law of history - the law of inexorable changes. This law is based on generational change, the rise of the middle class of owners in Ukraine, and the traditional freedom-loving nature and working individualism of Ukrainians, who increasingly perceive themselves as members of the European family.

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