Elitist Vain Games
Watching Ukraine’s political developments, one can’t help wondering to what extent the current political elite are sane. Are they capable of distinguishing priorities from pure hype, which might help some politicians score points in their games, but, at the very least, is not beneficial to the country?
Provided that Russian channels’ broadcasting in Ukraine hasn’t undermined the Ukrainian sovereignty in the previous 17 years, why is it so important to ban them now? Why is it now vital to find out whether Kiev supplied Georgia with arms, stating that it “was detrimental to Ukraine’s defense capacity”? Maybe it is happening because Ukraine’s political elite have neither courage nor responsibility to face an impending tragedy.
There is little doubt that the country will have to counter economic challenges it hasn’t experienced since the early 1990s. It is high time politicians considered averting large-scale uprisings. Macro-economic stability (even if the IMF gives Kiev a $16.5 loan) is hard to achieve; several companies will inevitably go bankrupt, leaving their staff jobless. The country’s financial system was inflation-ridden even before the global economic crunch: in a year foodstuff prices have grown threefold, and at the same time the anti-crisis package, adopted by the Government, envisions freezing the minimum wage. After New Year Russian gas prices will increase, and metal prices – Ukraine’s major exports – are likely to fall. It is happening against the background of aggravating corruption (Ukraine ranks 134th in Transparency International rating, compared with the 107th place three years ago), and people’s habit to live on credit, which is hard to deny.
It is not that top politicians were unaware of it. They just have different priorities. Victor Yushchenko wants to topple Yuliya Tymoshenko, whatever the cost. The latter defends herself with all possible means. Key opposition leader Victor Yanukovich is in no hurry to head the crisis-ridden country.
Electoral mess sends a clear message to the entire system, and only aggravates the situation. If no voting is scheduled in the near future, politicians will keep on with their tough line. But they don’t have the heart to tell it to people, who are going to cast their ballots in a few months, or sponsors, who are supposed to allocate funds for electoral campaigns.
In fact, common people appear wiser than their leaders. Polls show that Ukrainians are against new elections, which have really no sense this time. Because it is not elite that have to pay the price for their inability to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Arkady Moshes, Russian Programme Director with the Finnish Institute of International Affairs
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 05, 2008
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