NEWS AND VIEWS: Ukraine and the world (09/12/04)

NEWS AND VIEWS

Ukraine and the world

by Genyia Palij-Moore

Ukraine is fighting for its very political life. Ukraine's October elections will determine freedom's victory (svoboda) over the old-Soviet style slavery.

Ukraine's future as a democratic nation hangs in the balance. Today 99 percent of Ukraine's populace are not democratically represented by President Leonid Kuchma's Russian-influenced government.

Mr. Kuchma's government has permitted Vladimir Putin's Russians of the Cold War mentality to creepy-crawl into Ukraine and Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada and its various ministries. This alone is treason and reason enough to boot him and his ilk out of Ukraine as persona non-grata within 24 hours' notice.

How dare he allow President Putin as a guest in Istanbul to speak on what is good for Ukraine's domestic policies? Unless these two amigos had this pre-planned beforehand, knowing full well that Russia cannot survive without Ukraine: a democratically strong Ukraine is in the No. 1 position in ensuring world peace and, therefore, world support for Ukraine nixes their plans.

These two envision slave and sweatshop status for the people in order to engorge their own private interests and that of their bloated gangster dames, who keep on shopping for perfumes in Paris and New York while the children and old grandmas of Ukraine go foraging for berries and kindle wood in the forests during winter.

The people of Ukraine historically have suffered nightmarish horrors under Moscow's dominance, as no other nation on the face of this earth has sufferred.

Yet this history of terror perpetrated on Ukrainians did not frighten or deter them from voting as one voice for freedom and sovereignty in December 1991. These valiant people are our people, and Ukraine is our ancestral birthplace.

Old Stalinist "temnyky" directives, authorized and written by Viktor Medvechuk's gang to gag local media, do not fly due to the thousands of Westerners already in Ukraine eyewitnessing everything.

So Mr. Kuchma has drawn-up an archiac Soviet list of dos and don'ts in Cold War rhetoric for anyone who poses a challenge to him. According to Ihor Ostash, vice-chairman of the Verkhovna Rada's Foreign Relations Committee, this is a desperate silver bullet for the regime.

The Ukrainian-friendly world media and other Westerners have put Ukraine on an alert list to bring to the world's attention the Cold-War claw marks that are showing up: from Kuchma-invited Russian techies running interference with electronic media to Cold War Russian businessmen setting up Potemkin companies in order to siphon off Ukraine's futures.

One of the many alerts came in July when Ukraine was taken off the list for membership in NATO and the European Union. Not good, but this was due to Ukraine's failure to implement democratic changes - e.g., rule of law, freedom of the press, an electoral-friendly environment leading up to free and fair elections in October - and its refusal to disavow old Communist Russian-style tendencies toward restoring the Russian empire.

The U.S. Senate, the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, NATO, NGOs, human rights groups and Ukraine-friendly media from various countries are seriously active on behalf of the Ukrainian populace.

What commitment is there from the Canadian government, the Canadian Senate, NGOs and the Canadian business community? Very little in fact. Only 25 observers-scrutineers will be sent into Ukraine at their own expense. This would barely cover a small oblast in Ukraine.

After six generations of Ukrainians in Canada, totalling almost 2 million taxpayers and voters, where is our outrage at the pathetic crumbs Ottawa has thrown our way at this crucial time. We, the people must demand that Ottawa wake up. It's not too late.

Where is all the concerted action from our Ukrainian Canadian organizations? It is merely nominal. Silence is not leadership.

So, here's a "to do" list: call, e-mail or fax the Prime Minister's Office, the Cabinet, the Senate, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ambassador to Ukraine, Inter-Governmental Affairs, all your MPs and MPPs, and your local media.

Remember the words of Taras Shevchenko: "Wretched is the fettered captive, dying and a slave,/But, more wretched he that living sleeps as in a grave,/Till, he falls asleep forever, leaving not a sign that there faded into darkness/Something once Divine."

Genyia Palij-Moore is an international human rights activist, a journalist, media consultant liaison and immediate past-president of the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association of Montreal.

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