EDITORIAL: Ukraine's 12th (08/24/03)

EDITORIAL

Ukraine's 12th

People who said back in the halcyon days of 1991, after Ukraine declared independence and threw off Moscow's heavy hand, that a democratic, free market European Ukraine would exist within a dozen years, were wrong. That's obvious today. Ukraine is still not anything like France, or even Poland for that matter, although it is moving in that direction ever so slowly.

Those who said it would take a generation may be on the mark, for while change is taking place, its progress is excruciatingly slow. It is not only that the power elites in Kyiv do not know how to or simply have no compunction to bring about dynamic change, but that too many individuals at all levels of society simply do not know how to change.

There remains a deep belief - a remnant of Soviet conditioning, which worked astonishingly well - that change must take place at the top. Couple this with the residual fear of authority instilled by the same system and you have paralysis. Sure, people will attend roundtables and seminars on grassroots organizing, civic society and activism. They will nod their heads in full agreement with what is said, but nonetheless they will not change.

With the presidential election season beginning in September, it is this Ukrainian passivity that must be shucked off. Ukrainians must stop doing things reflexively or with uncertainty and trepidation. They need to understand that prosperity and free will are not beyond their ability. They must learn to take the initiative, to elect the best person to lead this country.

Nonetheless, there is reason for hope because pessimism is in decline. People today are more ready to admit that things have improved, to acknowledge that reforms are beginning to work, the economy is growing and they have more money.

They must now understand that their destiny to a large degree is in their hands and that democracy is not simply the act of checking a box on a ballot at a polling station. It is about demanding accountability and transparency from elected officials, along with moral decency and honesty.

Today people talk openly of being betrayed by their lawmakers. In a recent poll only 28 percent of Ukrainians said they approved of the officials they elected in the last parliamentary election. To some degree, electors can only blame themselves for making poor or forced decisions.

And because we are in the Independence Day season, we'll cite another poll, which shows just how far Ukraine still has to go to reach full democratic maturity. A survey by the UNIAN news agency determined that more than 53 percent of Kyivans believe that less than half of all Ukrainians are patriotic. More than a quarter of them explained that they did not consider August 24 a holiday at all and do not celebrate.

Those of us who felt some 12 years ago that it would take more than a dozen years for Ukraine to look like Europe still have hope. A lot of work lies ahead, but it is doable.

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