Poor judgment

The best speakers of the Ukrainian language, winners of the Petro Yatsyk International Competition, received their awards on May 26 on stage of the Franko Theater. This competition is important for many reasons. One of them is it being a continuation of a noble tradition which has seen philanthropists investing in such projects rather than in estates or entertainment. Yatsyk was neither a linguist nor even a teacher of Ukrainian. However, realizing the importance of this competition, he founded it. The League of Ukrainian Philanthropists, led by Mykhailo Slaboshpytsky, is continuing this tradition. For the first time in its history, the ceremony was attended by        the president of Ukraine. It has certainly brought the competition to a new level. But...

Den has supported the project for many years. As usual, we published an article about the history of the competition and its achievements on May 26, and wanted the newspaper to reach every participant. It did not, though...

Mykola Hrytsenko, president of the Charitable Foundation in Support of the Newspaper Den’s Initiatives said: “For the first time, probably, in this most popular language competition’s history, the president of our nation honored it with his presence. A landmark detail, is not it?! For the first time ever, the ceremony attracted presence of (and therefore coverage by) dozens of TV cameras! Would they come there in the absence of the president? There is something to think about here as well.”

“However, throughout its history (including Dmytro Tabachnyk’s stint at the helm of the Education Ministry, when they ignored and even attempted to ban the competition), a few media outlets have remained with us, covering this unique linguistic contest not out of political opportunism, but as a patriotic duty. Among them, a special place has belonged to Den, extending to its role in presenting books to winners as well. Moreover, copies of its issues with full-page articles about the event were distributed to all present at the award ceremonies held in recent years. Is it a minute detail?! Yes. But we have another such detail for you: protocol officials from the Presidential Administration did not allow Den’s copies to be brought to the pit of the Franko Theater, in spite of the organizers’ earnest requests!” we heard from Mykola Hrytsenko, president of the Charitable Foundation in Support of the Newspaper Den’s Initiatives. “Their reasons were twofold: firstly, the sound of the newspaper rustling in the hands of the audience could interfere with them listening to the presidential greetings; secondly, the front page of the issue in question featured a somewhat awkward (according to the protocol department) photo of the president ‘coming out of the shadows...’ [We wonder who and when instructed the presidential bodyguards or protocol officials in assessing the quality of photos! – Editors]. I am absolutely sure that the president has no idea of the incident! So, please, do not make it into an occasion for ‘anti-presidential rumor making.’ On the other hand, though, we have a special president who leads the state in a special time. Therefore, this detail is of special importance as well!”

Poor judgment demonstrated by the Presidential Administration’s officials looked out of place beside the high spirit of the competition. This important project, supported for years by conscientious sponsors and attracting thousands of participants from over 30 countries, was suddenly put into a “protocol framework” left to Ukraine as a legacy of its less fortunate eras. We hope it was an unfortunate accident rather than the new “rules” in action.

COMMENTARY

Mykhailo SLABOSHPYTSKY, author, literary critic, executive director of the League of Ukrainian Philanthropists:

“I am terribly outraged. First, Poroshenko’s security officers would not allow packets with Den’s copies into the premises. They thought that the front page picture of the president was somehow not right, and feared him disliking it. I reasoned with them to the best of my ability, pointed out that even the infamous Russian Imperial secret police of the Alexander von Benckendorff era would not go so far, and neither would their predecessors under Viktor Yanukovych, that it was a clear case of the administrative idiocy. It all was in vain. They summoned a protocol department official. On hearing my arguments, she said that the president would be offended to see the event’s visitors browsing through the newspaper. By the way, she never revealed her name, only her position. I explained to her that we had been bringing periodicals to the award ceremony venues throughout the 14 years of the competition’s existence. And still, the newspapers were ‘seized’ and hidden away. Only after the ceremony, we were able to distribute them to the participants. This is a case of hopeless idiocy. I told that lady at once that she should be dismissed, as she was clearly out of her depth and usurped the right to decide on issues definitely out of her remit. Should our country ever fall, it would be due to just such unfortunate bureaucrats. In fact, they have let the president down, because I am sure that he had no idea of that story. I even threatened to hold a press conference and make a scandal, warned them that they were doing a disservice to the president. I am now forced to publicly say that he has a lame team that has no situational awareness. I believe that to remain silent would be wrong in this case...”