PERSPECTIVES: New Year's reflections (01/01/06)

PERSPECTIVES

by Andrew Fedynsky

New Year's reflections

2005 was a good year for Ukraine. Predictably, President Viktor Yushchenko dominated, collecting many awards in the process: Time Magazine named him one of the most significant people of 2004; in April, he received the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award; in September, the Philadelphia Liberty Award; in October, Britain's Queen Elizabeth presented him with the first Chatham House Prize; in November, the European Union (EU) recognized him as European Citizen of the Year; he was a finalist for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Confirming that ours is an era where distance has been annihilated, I saw Mr. Yushchenko several times in 2005. I was at St. Pokrova in Parma, Ohio, in January when he took the oath as president of Ukraine, his voice resounding at the Rada in Kyiv and then a nano-second later, it boomed from speakers mounted on either side of a big-screen television on the ballroom wall. With my wife, children, friends and nearly a thousand others, I saw eight heads of state in attendance, as well as Secretary of State Colin Powell, NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, First Lady Kateryna Chumachenko-Yushchenko, etc. Every now and then, the camera peeked discretely at outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, sitting silently, his face pale, eyes sad as death.

In April, I was in Washington and saw Mr. Yushchenko address a Joint Session of Congress. In 216 years, only 93 foreigners have done so, including the Marquis de LaFayette, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Lech Walesa, Yitzak Rabin.

America's leading political professionals rose to their feet to welcome Ukraine's president. Understandably: they know how hard it is to build a crowd and as politicians who worry about their re-election every moment of the day, they're aware of how rare political courage really is. They were honoring a fellow practitioner who had survived assassination and then, desperately ill, organized a crowd of a million people, maintaining tens of thousands of them at Independence Square for the better part of a month in the dead of winter, while negotiating a rerun of the election that had been stolen from him. His astonishing triumph, achieved under the constant glare of television cameras, gave him a rock star's aura and the mystique of historic inevitability.

Two days later, back home in Cleveland, watching the broadcast of Pope John Paul II's funeral in Rome, I again saw Mr. Yushchenko, the TV cameras still zooming in on him.

Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko also had a significant international impact. Even though she's no longer in power, Forbes Magazine's listing of the World's 100 most powerful women ranks her third. Glamorous, and politically savvy, Ms. Tymoshenko also appeared in Elle Magazine, Playboy (fully clothed, to be sure) and plenty of news publications. For her part, First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko appeared in Harper's Bazaar, television news shows like 60 Minutes, at university forums in the U.S., etc.

Still, it's not about personality; it's where the country stands. After all, Mr. Yushchenko promised to lead Ukraine away from Moscow, toward Europe; away from corruption and political manipulation to democracy and market economics. Those are the goals against which he will be measured, not the personal honors he and others have won.

A year into a five-year term, there can be no definitive judgment, but so far the Yushchenko administration is making good progress. Reversing last year's rigged "privatization" that delivered Kryvorizhstal to President Kuchma's son-in-law for a mere $800 million, President Yushchenko conducted a televised auction that brought in $4.8 billion from Mittal, the world's largest steel company. Now plans are under way to privatize Ukrtelekom, the country's largest telecom company. Mr. Yushchenko also eliminated more than 4,000 regulations that restricted business registration, clamped down on tax evasion, increased tax revenues, balanced the budget and paid off Ukraine's deficit. Freedom House reports that Mr. Yushchenko's government made significant progress in press freedoms, civil society, and judicial reform. Visa requirements for visitors from the EU and North America were eliminated. Working to reclaim Ukraine's history, he honored the veterans of UPA and the Red Army, publicly mourned the victims of the Holodomor while condemning the communist rule which implemented the Famine-Genocide. At the commemoration of Auschwitz's liberation, he lit a candle for the victims and noted that many Ukrainians had been inmates there, including his own father.

Europe took note of all this. In October, NATO conducted four-day maneuvers in Western Ukraine. Soon after, the secretary general declared that Ukraine's transition to NATO's Membership Action Plan was a likely prospect. At a conference in Kyiv, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that the EU recognizes Ukraine as a Market Economy and supports her entry into the World Trade Organization.

There were also grave problems in 2005. In a government crisis, Mr. Yushchenko dismissed the popular Yulia Tymoshenko. He had to address embarrassing questions about his son's shady business deals. Most ominously, an increasingly dictatorial Russia continues to meddle in Ukraine's internal affairs, seeking to sabotage her nascent democracy. These Kremlin policies are an affront and challenge to the whole world and it's why Ukraine will continue to be in the news - every step toward democracy or away, anywhere, is measured against the Orange Revolution.

Today, energy issues dominate in Ukraine. In March, there will be parliamentary elections. In June, Ukraine meets Spain in the World Cup soccer tournament. The world is sure to focus on those. Throughout 2006, Mr. Yushchenko will remain at the center of things, which is good. He's a courageous, decisive leader who thinks on his feet and grows with every challenge. He's a player.

I was in Kyiv in August on Ukraine's Independence Day when I encountered Mr. Yushchenko yet again, this time at the Maidan. I remember his speech, above all for this memorable line: the new Ukraine, he said, is being shaped by millions of hands. Well said. Everyone who cares for Ukraine, who appreciates the critical role her independence plays in a dangerous world, should rally to President Yushchenko's call and lend a hand, whether at a summer camp, a chorus, church hall, museum, Saturday school or building a bridge to Ukraine. 2005 was a good year; no less challenging than last. 2006 is already a work in progress.

Andrew Fedynsky's e-mail address is: [email protected].

| Home Page |