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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Looking into the Abyss

20 April, 1999 - 00:00

Serhiy Holovaty's paper, "Ukraine at the Crossroads," is a
major event, not so much for its originality - Western scholars like Anders
Бslund (and, with all due modesty, in Ukraine this author) have been writing
many of the same things for some time - but for the fact that a prominent
political figure, former Cabinet member, and People's Deputy is saying
it. This means that the message is beginning to penetrate Ukraine's political
elite, or at least its best and brightest representatives. One only worries
whether it will penetrate far enough and fast enough to turn this country
around before it becomes too late. I find it difficult to share his optimism
about the chances for reformers and democrats to take over an already criminalized
Parliament three years from now.

Mr. Holovaty's accurate, if dismal, scenario of what would happen should
Ukraine select the Belarus option is especially frightening because, unlike
back in 1994 when I first wrote that Ukraine had the choice of taking the
route of either Poland or Belarus, today this country seems to have firmly
stepped on the road away from Europe and toward Eurasia. This has little
to do with the silly statements by Speaker Tkachenko and Comrade Symonenko
or even the lack of any public consensus on what kind of country Ukraine
ought to be. It has everything to do with the way the country works politically,
economically, and socially. Any given issue of this newspaper offers a
wealth of examples. Mr. Holovaty is not the only prominent person in Ukraine
who knows the problem. The trouble is, that except for a few like him (who
have been invariably marginalized once in office), those in a position
to change things have personal interests which keep them from doing so.
And Mr. Holovaty has done a great service both in opening up the issue
for public airing (this is still a place where people prefer to keep discreetly
silent until somebody shows them that one really can speak up) and in showing
us all where the road is leading.

One more thing, Mr. Holovaty is right that choosing between the criminalized
administration this country now has and the hard Left is like being given
the choice between being shot or hanged. Either way, Ukraine just would
not make it. Moreover, the soaring popularity of Progressive Socialist
Natalia Vitrenko, whose devotion to the values of democratic discourse
was so eloquently demonstrated when she and her party sidekick beat to
a pulp Pavlo Movchan on the floor of Parliament and sent him to the hospital,
means that more and more people are fed up with the way things are, and
they are perfectly willing to exchange them for the way things were. With
a few more outspoken figures like Holovaty, perhaps this country could
be turned toward yet another alternative: the way things could be.

 

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