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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

We are Not "One of Our Own"

6 October, 1998 - 00:00

In every country air defense operators ask all passing planes, "Are
you one of ours?" Our plane with no doubt is not identified as "one of
theirs" in the European sky. We took offense to this and did it quite loudly
until becoming plagued by a natural calamity called an economic crisis
which had been predicted as long coming. Of course, the economic crisis
in itself will not move us closer to the door of that European house where
we would like to occupy a decent "apartment."

All possible international consequences are just ahead. How successful
we are in combating this crisis which is making us look so awful and being
adequately accepted abroad can be judged from two facts.

The Transparency International organization, known by its studies in
the area of state corruption, has published a list of 85 most corrupt,
as it were, world countries. The "old democracies" and Northern countries,
as it had to be expected, are close to null by this indicator. Cameroon
places last, not much of a surprise, either. Ukraine holds 69th position
while only Russia ranks higher. There should be no doubt that this data
will influence both the evaluation of Ukraine's chances to play various
European games and possibilities to receive assistance from the more or
less developed West, and, after all, a general image of the state. Kyiv
officials are pretending that there was no such report, reactions are kept
to a minimum and the President and Government are reporting only on the
current situation of the state and its ability to repay its foreign debts
and not robbing foreign creditors and investors - a practice which is now
taking place in Russia.

The ability of a state leadership to manage its own problems and uniting
the best forces of society for the proper purpose instead of "getting rid
of" its competitors is also a factor in determining who is "one of us"
in the world that we, for some reason, consider to be normal. However,
the ability to accumulate debts in order to proclaim later a country whose
leaders any time can and do use those debts to put merciless pressure on
a strategic partner is an important factor as well.

Only so-called oligarchs in Ukraine and Russia have a chance to be "one
of us", but only among themselves. We will not become "one of them" - the
civilized world, that is - it will simply block us out with a new wall.
The Russian crisis would have made us learn that a model of state governance
based on clans and nomenklatura relationships inadvertently leads to a
collapse of the entire system, along with its puppeteers who often are
such welcome visitors in Kyiv. As a matter of fact, the Transparency International
Report makes the same hint.

The only thing that can calm us down, to some extent, is the fact that
our possible total collapse is unlikely to influence the global situation
on the same scale as Russia's and Asia's. Thus, not everybody is indifferent
to us, i.e., we must be "one of somebody".

 

 

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