A “Banderaite” from… Pakistan

Bashir Syed came to Ukraine from Pakistan in the turbulent early 1990s. When he started his business in the Donbas, he experienced all the “charms” of those times but, as he emphasizes himself, never paid to racketeers. This is an instance when awareness of being a citizen is not a pompous incantation but a system of values that have not watered down into the dubious “rules of conduct” typical of eastern Ukraine’s underworld.

Bashir and I met in April past year on Luhansk’s Euromaidan. It was surprising that an ethnic Pakistani showed exceptional patriotism in his passionate speeches. Chechen militants robbed him of his business and housing in Sverdlovsk, Luhansk oblast, and he himself miraculously avoided a “dungeon.” Bashir Syed lives in Odesa now, where he had to start from scratch. His patriotic idealism is no longer formal romanticism – it has found a practical application.

RUSSIA IS NOT A GOOD “BROTHER”

Bashir, how come you found yourself in Ukraine?

“I received legal education in Pakistan. In 1994, my friends and I decided to go on month’s vacation before starting our legal practice. I came to Sloviansk, Ukraine, and remained behind forever. A month-long vacation thus turned into 20 years of living in this beautiful country. It has an incredible climate, very hardworking people, but an unjust system of government.”

Have you ever noticed that, in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainians do not exactly feel themselves as citizens of this country?

“When everything is good and people live in peace, basic problems are not visible. But when a conflict breaks out, it also exposes what was hidden. And then you must show who you are in reality. When I lived in the Donbas, I was learning Russian, not Ukrainian. Moreover, I could not tell Ukrainians from Russians, for there was no need to do so. But when Russia began to openly interfere into Ukraine’s affairs, when it began to send its armed people to Sverdlovsk, Luhansk oblast, where I lived at the time, a point-blank question, naturally, arose: why has my neighbor broken into my house? Who authorized him to do so and can he be called ‘brother’ in this case, as some suggest? Putin keeps on saying: ‘my fraternal Ukraine,’ ‘my fraternal Ukrainian people.’ But I am saying he is not a good brother. He is a hypocrite. This is how I became clearly aware of being a Ukrainian citizen.”

You, a Pakistani, became aware of being a Ukrainian citizen and saw through an enemy. Why do you think many ethnic Ukrainians have failed to do the same?

“Because everyone must be inculcated with patriotism as early as in childhood. My son was born in independent Ukraine, and he feels Ukrainian. But there is a generation that used to live in another country – the Soviet Union – and was exposed to certain propaganda there. They are now looking forward to Russia not because they love Russians but because they want to be back in the USSR, where they were born and raised. But in fact they just sold out their homeland in exchange for Russian pensions. You know that it is a growing self-identification, rather than weapons, that made India and Pakistan independent from Britain. The main weapon is influence on awareness. For this reason, Ukrainians should make an all-out effort to publish Ukrainian books and broadcast patriotic programs on the radio and television – starting with children’s cartoons and fairytales. I can see so far that Ukraine hasn’t solved this problem. Far from all understand that you came into and will go out of this world but the country your children are going to live in will remain. It is their home, which should be built by certain rules, where citizenship is the basic idea. Frankly speaking, for this reason, I love western Ukraine more than eastern because this understanding is more amply present there. They are more patriotic and faithful. But there is also another aspect. Russia has won the information war at this stage. Donbas people are not as pro-Russian as the media portray them. Yes, patriotism is not as high there as in western Ukraine but not to the extent it is cracked up to be. It is, above all, Russian propaganda that has projected this image of a pro-Russian eastern Ukraine, which the Ukrainian media and politicians are ‘falling for.’ Let me give you an example. My Luhansk friends asked me to leave Ukrainian souvenirs and flags because it is next to impossible to find some there. This means people are longing for Ukraine and Ukrainian symbols, but they are afraid and feel abandoned.”

“LUHANSK RESIDENTS THEMSELVES WOULD HAVE NEVER LET THE ENEMY IN”

But, maybe, Ukrainians, too, have not done all they can to improve things and have the necessary means to defend their territory? Let us not forget that as long ago as 1998 Luhansk oblast was given to Yefremov in exchange for votes for the then president Kuchma.

“The Ukrainian people have not lost this war. It is a temporary defeat, which the enemy inflicted on us because we had in fact neither the army, nor the police, nor the SBU. The governmental apparatus in the east hesitated and failed to show loyalty to statehood. Here is an example. A friend of mine, a colonel, was in a border guard unit that was defending Luhansk’s Myrny district. They were attacked in June past year. I’ve been friends with him for 15 years. I phoned him and asked about the situation. He answered: we are still here fighting off, there’s plenty of weapons and ammunition, but we need help. Four days later he called me to say that he was leaving Luhansk and suggested that we see each other. I came to his house and saw that he was upset very much. He said they were given one day to leave Luhansk forever. When they were surrounded, they had enough weapons to fight back for a least a week, and they were not going to surrender. They expected to receive help within this period. But their superior ordered them to surrender – and not just to surrender but to lay down their arms. Then my friend Ivan suggested to his superior that the building be at least mined and they run away through the fields. The chief strictly forbade this and ordered the border guards to surrender in exchange for being allowed to abandon the city within 24 hours. Then I asked my friend who their superior was. He says: a Russian. You see, all the executive positions in Luhansk were held by ethnic Russians whom Yanukovych had placed. They had grabbed everything, from top to bottom, well before the war began. They possessed power, weapons, and information. This means that if the leadership had not sold out and betrayed everything at the very outset, Luhansk residents would have never let the enemy in. My son put on a balaclava and took a baton, but what could he do against automatic rifles?”

This is how they projected the image of the Donbas, which was allegedly striving to separate from Ukraine.

“You know, even if there still are many pro-Russian individuals on the occupied territory now, Kyiv should love them. There is no other way to protect your land and build up your country than to love your children. As a capital, as a father, Kyiv must be wiser and stronger than its children. The Donbas deserves a good attitude because there are very many people there, who love Ukraine very much but were left to the mercy of fate. Isolating them, we only play into the hands of Putin and help him achieve his occupational goals. On the one hand, this always projects the image of a separate Donbas nation, and, on the other, waters down the national identity of Ukrainians who are thus equated with Russians.”

“THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE, BUT THERE ARE NO MECHANISMS SO FAR TO IMPLEMENT IT”

The 70 years of Soviet power and 20 years of oligarchic rule have made themselves felt. For Ukraine in fact belongs to a few individuals and groups which think in categories totally different from those of the rest of the people. It is a different reality, where there are enormous fortunes and ways of incredible enrichment but there is no such thing as aspiration for national unity and strategic state-building, i.e., what a full-fledged state needs. And there have been very few, if any, changes in this field even after the second Maidan and the war. Has an alternative to the existing system of government and things in general been crystallized in Ukraine?

“I don’t think this country can endure a third Maidan. There is an alternative, but there are no mechanisms so far to implement it. This alternative is a group of people, but they should be organized very well in order not to fall into the hands of manipulators but to be able to come to power in peaceful and constructive way. Let us not forget that we lost Crimea and a part of the Donbas because we were not prepared for systemic struggle after the second Maidan. Therefore, we must be patient. It is difficult to be patient, but it is the main condition for peacefully clearing the way to construction. This should be done gradually by continuous and concerted efforts. It depends on the head whether an organization or a family is strong or weak. As Ukrainians say, a fish rots from the head down. Accordingly, the head of state must set an example. Otherwise, any stabilization is out of the question. An honest, tough, and restrained father is a guarantee of order in the family. If the father is a robber, a hysterical and weak man who brutalizes his wife, his family will run away. You say the Donbas is lecherous? But you show a difference! Show more kindness and tolerance. Show that you are successful in everything. Then the Donbas will no longer be lecherous. And don’t let others speak badly about the Donbas because I know many Donbas-born people who did and do pay taxes in Ukraine, which helps soldiers and settlers. If you let the Donbas be offended, you let them be offended, too. I am saying this, although I came here from another country and profess Islam. Every inch of Ukraine is my dear land. Even in my cell phone, all those who support our country are entered with the word ‘patriot’: patriot Sashko, patriot Olena… They are all taking a good attitude to Ukraine, and I love them for this.”

Russian bandits have robbed you of your business. Do you still bear a grudge against them?

“I got a call from Sverdlovsk on March 1 this year. The lady whom I had asked to run the store passed the phone to the armed Chechens. A man with a Chechen accent said: ‘Bashir, you have no more business, stores, or an apartment here.’ I asked: ‘What’s the reason?’ The Chechen Anwar answered: ‘The reason is ‘Glory to Ukraine!’ ‘But I am Ukrainian, so I have always been saying ‘Glory to Ukraine.’ And I was told: ‘So, stay behind in your Ukraine and don’t get back to Sverdlovsk because you are an enemy of the Fatherland.’ A Chechen is telling me where my Fatherland is… The militants threatened everybody with reprisals for contacting me. The relatives of my personnel told me that their phones were being tapped and their life would be in danger if they informed me of something. In reality, as I came to know later, it was my personnel that sold me because the bandits first of all dismantled video surveillance cameras in the store. They could not have done so unless the personnel had showed initiative. They took away the goods, the office equipment, and furniture worth three million. Only walls were left intact – the Chechens took everything, even shelves. They invited me to come back, but it is clear that once I return they will throw me into the dungeon – for they are nothing but a gang. And those who tipped off the band to plunder my business and my apartment will, naturally, be not glad that I’ve come back. I happened to be in Luhansk recently and accidentally bumped into a pretrial jail officer who knew me. Frankly speaking, I didn’t want him to see and recognize me, but we still met briefly. I asked him why he was not at work. He said there was nobody to guard because all the criminals had been freed and sent to battalions and checkpoints. This is the situation there. As for a grudge, I will say frankly that I am harboring one not against the Russian militants, who were bent on looting Ukraine at the very outset, but against my personnel for whom I did so much good, who called me their father, and… betrayed me. But believe me, I regret nothing. I believe in Allah and know that He never bestows trials just for the fun of it. He granted me wealth and took it away overnight only because I am taking a stand of my own. He did so to enable me to gain the experience I could never gain in a different situation. So now I am starting from scratch in Odesa, as I was doing 20 years ago, when I had just come to Ukraine and almost didn’t know the language. And I am ready to defend my stand, for I know in what I am right.”

But for this habit to “snitch,” the Donbas would not perhaps have returned to the Stalinist 1937.

“Maybe, it wouldn’t. Stalin was bad, but it is ordinary people who used to inform. Same thing now – it is ordinary people who began to draw up ‘hit lists.’ And I am sure that when Ukraine wins back the Donbas, these very people will be the first to come running and lay the blame at each other’s door. True patriots are essentially people with a totally different mentality. Patriots are more openhearted, modest, and emotionally healthy. Patriotism is a sign of human self-sufficiency and comprehension of life.”