FACES AND PLACES: Give Ukraine a high five (09/01/96)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Give Ukraine a high five

Ukraine just celebrated its fifth birthday. All over the country, including Russified eastern Ukraine, there were parades, concerts, poetry readings, panel discussions and television shows to commemorate the occasion. Blue-and-yellow flags, posters and bunting were all over the place, even, I've been told, in the Crimea.

There was something for everybody. For those who still yearned for the "good old days" of Soviet rule, Ukrainian Television offered nostalgia film footage of the gulag, churches being destroyed, a few shots of the famine, live action shots of Vlad (like in Lenin), as well as President Roosevelt's old buddy "Uncle Joe" (like in Stalin) and Lazar Kaganovich, architect of the famine.

Some 450 leading lights of the North American diaspora were invited for the official festivities in Kyiv, which were conducted in the Ukrainian language.

There were a few missteps. Some goofy singer from Moscow sang a song tying Ukraine to "Mother Russia." Everybody waited politely until he finished and then booed him off the stage. Poor dope probably thought he was at a celebration of the Treaty of Pereyaslav.

Over all, there was much to celebrate. Ukraine has a Constitution that guarantees the right of private ownership - including land - an official language, a national flag and an official currency (hryvnia) that will be introduced this year at 1.77 to the dollar. Inflation is down, and the economy appears to be headed upward.

Ukraine's newly enacted foreign investment law (FIL) has given new hope to those who want to do business in Ukraine. According to law notes published by Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler, a New York law firm, FIL "provides the fundamental benefits and state guarantees for protection of foreign investment that have become traditionally expected.

"First, foreign investors are guaranteed 'national treatment,' that is, they will be treated the same as domestic businesses and not discriminated against because they are foreign. Second, the Ukrainian law explicitly acknowledges that preferences can be established for specific foreign investments on the case-by-case basis to develop 'priority sectors in the economy, social sphere and territories ... to help alleviate the country's energy dependency on Russia, Ukrainian authorities have identified oil and gas exploration and development as areas of special priority.' "

Other provisions of FIL "guarantee unhindered transfer of profits, revenues and other proceeds in foreign currency obtained legally ... as well as a 10-year 'guarantee against change in legislation,' albeit a restricted guarantee."

Although all of these developments point to a brighter future, there are still serious problems that need to be overcome.

Taxes, for example, are still confiscatory. As one American businessman told me, "it is hard for anyone to conduct a profitable business in Ukraine legally."

Commies in the Verkhovna Rada are still putting the brakes on meaningful change, and the next parliamentary elections don't take place until March 1998. A lot of mischief can be initiated between now and then.

Even more scary is the fact that the younger generation seems disinterested in politics. They're into "business," buying and selling products from Turkey and Poland. The older generation, on the other hand, is interested in politics because independence has brought few benefits. For many senior citizens the misery quotient has risen during the past five years. In their minds, payless pay days, devalued pensions, higher prices and other such dislocations are the result of independence. As bad as things were under the Soviets, pay checks came on time, and they could afford the basic necessities of life as well as the occasional luxury. Who can blame them for wanting the return of Soviet-like rule?

Ukraine's education system, from pre-school to graduate school, is another area of considerable concern. Teachers and professors are ill-paid. There is a great shortage of books at all levels, especially in the social sciences. University professors can't keep up with the latest developments in their chosen field of expertise. And although Ukrainian-language schools are multiplying, they are still too few to serve a generation in need of a new national identity. Older Ukrainians are of little help because they too are unsure of who they are.

Compounding problems facing Ukrainian youth is the lack of a viable extracurricular youth program following the demise of the Young Pioneers and Komsomol. Plast is growing but it's mostly in western Ukraine.

Corruption has not been stemmed, and gangsterism has infiltrated all aspects of Ukrainian life, even, it would seem, the American Embassy. There are people walking the streets of the United States who have purchased their visas illegally from racketeers who advertise their services openly in the Ukrainian press. The militia is poorly paid and either fearful of the mobsters or on the take itself. Trials of major criminals are rare.

And finally, there is little interest in prosecuting the criminals directly involved in the horrendous crimes of Bolshevism at a time when other formerly Communist states are not so reticent. The Washington Post reported on July 9 that Ethiopia has begun trying 46 top officials of the Marxist regime of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, who now lives luxuriously in Zimbabwe, the guest of President Mugabe. "Over the next several years," reports the Washington Post, as many as 3,000 former officials of Mengistu's regime could face trial, many on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity." It seems to me Ukraine could learn from Ethiopia.

Yes, there's good news and bad news coming from Ukraine. From where I sit, however, most of it is good news. A foundation for statehood has been laid in Ukraine, and the nation is slowly moving out of Moscow's long, dark shadow. Given the horrific devastation wrought by the Bolsheviks during their bloody reign; given the fact that Ukraine almost lost its history, its culture and its language; and given the lack of a professionally trained nationalist leadership and an unfamiliarity with the democratic process, the Ukrainian people have done extraordinarily well during their first five years on the world stage. That Ukraine is still around after five years is for many of us a miracle.

For this, if for nothing else, the people of Ukraine deserve one big high five from all of us.