NEWS ANALYSIS: Ukraine as a labyrinth of mirrors
by Roman Kupchinsky
Explaining the reasons why recent events in Ukraine took the direction they did is a tricky task. Ukrainian politics, as many have discovered, is a labyrinth of mirrors that can deceive, distort and disorient anyone who steps inside.
The short explanation is that the Orange coalition fell apart and the opposition stepped in to replace them. This is not unusual and is something which happens often in societies with longer and more developed democratic traditions.
There was no Latin American coup d'état in Kyiv, with pompous generals, their hats brimming with chicken feathers, running around proclaiming themselves the new masters.
Ukraine did not disband itself as an independent nation, nor did it apply to join the Russian Federation. It did not throw the Ukrainian language out with the Orange dishwater, neither did it abandon its perpetual pipedream of joining the European Union. It merely underwent a change of government.
Pavlo Tychyna's maidan
The reason most often cited for the swap of governments, however, was that the Orange leaders were incompetent and disinterested and most pursued their own agendas. The voters saw this and booted them out.
In retrospect, the supporters of the Orange Revolution were, by and large, more honest and firm in their convictions than their leaders. This is popularly known as "being taken for a ride."
And were they ever! The followers of the Orange coalition became victims of the "hall of mirrors" factor. They came to believe in a distorted image. The men and women who cynically won their support did so by hiring rock bands to sing a jingle that their snake oil was far superior to the snake oil peddled by Leonid Kuchma and his mob. And in some respects, such as press freedom, it was. But it was not the panacea for Ukraine they claimed it to be.
Most Ukrainian politicians are very polished and articulate orators. They know how to coin a phrase and convince the most cynical crowd into believing that they are now a revolutionary vanguard.
Take Yulia Tymoshenko for example. Her Trotskyite style of demagoguery was so astonishing, so brilliant, that nobody bothered to listen to the actual meaning of her words. In the euphoria of revolution, with music and lyrics proclaiming that "we are many, we cannot be defeated," Ms. Tymoshenko played the role of Evita Peron and Joan of Arc rolled into one and dominated the crowds.
Needless to say, she was able to create the illusion that the Orange leadership was as pure as the driven snow that covered the maidan. Her comrades - Viktor Yushchenko, Oleksander Moroz, Petro Poroshenko, Yevhen Chervonenko and others - were merely a sideshow, the "bearded ladies" of the Orange Revolution. It was Yulia's show from the very beginning.
The loud calls for justice and fair play that filled the maidan during the dramatic events of the winter of 2004 were indeed touching and inspiring. A new Ukraine was being born! Right in the very heart of Kyiv! It was Pavlo Tychyna's legendary "Maidan by the Church" come to life, as the old corrupt regime of Mr. Kuchma and his gang was being thrown onto the "garbage heap of history" by people power.
Russian political technologists, brought in to manipulate and obfuscate the issues and discredit Ms. Tymoshenko and Mr. Yushchenko ran for deep cover.
Western NGOs rejoiced in the knowledge that they had contributed to a rebirth of democracy in a land that had become a pariah. Suddenly Ukraine was no longer "half free" or two-thirds free - it was ready to join NATO, the EU, the WTO and God knows what else.
The revolution on the maidan, in hindsight, was the ultimate Steven Spielberg production; it was a Ukrainian fairy tale that finally came true.
In the center stood Mr. Yushchenko, the once handsome, eternal hero, the silent strong Knight Templar defending his land. His face disfigured from a poisoning attempt by unknown sinister agents, he was now the official darling of the West, while his brutish opponents sulked in the shadows of Donetsk slums along with Vladimir Putin and other emissaries of the evil one.
His American wife and cute children beside him on the stage, the Yushchenkos were surrounded by a pretty lady with braided hair and hundreds of stalwart youths, the new Red Guards, standing ready to protect the leader of the reborn nation. The Great Ukrainian Proletarian Cultural Revolution had finally triumphed!
It was a scene straight out of a Maoist revolutionary poster! Western democracy had, at long last, managed to find a personality, a real Marlboro Man, who could spruce up democracy's fading image, and replace the popular perception of democratic leaders as being dismal, lackluster little men who could not impress a kindergarten class.
But anyone who cared to take a closer look at the stage set up on the maidan, soon begin to wonder why was it filled with so many people of dubious character, and even more dubious sources of income. And while it was gratifying, although somewhat suspicious, to see members of the hated Kuchma entourage standing on stage, bedecked in orange ribbons yelling "Bandits belong in prison," passions generated by the scent of victory close at hand did not allow doubts to creep in.
If the Orange Revolution was to be a popular uprising, then everyone would be allowed to join - regardless of class origins or Interpol warrants issued for their arrest. History was being made and the dismal past was being swept away by the revolutionary Ukrainian masses.
The revolution was an equal opportunity employer, built on the premise that the Orange locomotive of history did not discriminate against the engineers who drove it. It was Lenin's old adage come to life again: "We are building a society where any housemaid could become president!"
Orange reality
Finally, with the help of the Almighty and good PR, the Orangepeople took power. One year later they were openly at each other's throats.
The government of Ms. Tymoshenko lay in ruins, its ministers discredited for their lack of valid diplomas and their even more appalling lack of competency. The energy sector of the country was in ruins, destroyed by singularly bungling managers whose only qualifications were that they headed the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists.
No crooks had been arrested; no people were punished for their past misdeeds. No promises had been kept. Mr. Kuchma, the wily old fox, sat in his lair and laughed as he gave interviews to the press. These interviews were not given from a jail cell which the Orange crowds wanted him to rot in - but from a richly furnished, elegant old mansion in the center of Kyiv which he bought for his "cultural fund."
After the March parliamentary elections, where the Our Ukraine bloc suffered a bloody nose, and the Party of the Regions of Ukraine won, the country seemed to tumble into what western Ukrainians see as a dangerous phenomena, and which the eastern Ukrainians seem to accept more readily -- Makhnivschyna, or anarchy.
But, despite the screams of agony from the president's men, the lack of a functioning government and a president who seemed detached from reality, a miracle of sorts was in the works.
Suddenly, the economy took advantage of anarchy and began rapidly growing again. The saying that "the government which governs least, governs best" unexpectedly kicked in. In Ukraine, where government - Orange or otherwise - did not exist and therefore could not hinder economic growth, life began improving. The Ukrainian Hall of Mirrors once again came through in a big way.
"We survived collectivization and we shall survive democratization" is a recently coined proverb in Ukraine. It is aptly applied to the unusual set of post-Soviet rules governing the Ukrainian body politic where mirrors distort what little truth is left. It is a wise proverb and should not be laughed at.
For this reason, my conclusions are as follows:
Roman Kupchinsky is the former director of the Ukrainian Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Comments can be sent to him at Kupchinskyr@gmail.com.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, August 20, 2006, No. 34, Vol. LXXIV
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