The Mirror Weekly is for Ukrainian politics the same as Forbes is for the world’s business elite. If the policymaker’s name does not appear in this paper for a very long time, people start to think that something has gone wrong him.
At the end of the last year, I tried to provide an overview of the political year in Mirror Weekly. This year Ukrainian politics is so unpredictable that I would like to give an overview of the results of the outgoing period earlier than at the end of the year because current events might be forgotten and loose their importance by winter.
I’ve decided to start my overview now. I just need to choose a style. Analysis? Comments? Forecasts? I suppose that Mirror journalists Yulia Mostova and Serhiy Rakhmanin are good for that. As for me, there are a lot of fantastic forecasts in Ukrainian political journalism and a few essays. It is easy to speak about what is going to happen in the future and much harder to mention what has already happened. Ukrainian political history for the last half year is not a history of facts, events and positions. It’s a history of emotions, feelings and actions which, in fact, form the so-called present day. It will be hard to recall today’s emotions in few years. That’s why today I would like to half-open the doors to our “political kitchen” and tell about things that usually don’t get into the TV news or periodicals.
Sonya Koshkina mocks: “The BYuT is urgently changing its slogan before the upcoming fall elections: instead of Spring will win they are going to use Fall will triumph!” No, Sonya, we are not changing our slogans. Our spring will win in the fall too. Especially considering that September 30, the day of upcoming parliament elections, is the day when all Christians will celebrate the holiday of Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophie – martyrs that suffered for their religious beliefs in ancient Rome.
I think that it is symbolic that political Ukraine is going to enter a new era (there is no doubt that there is going to be a new era) under the flag of these beautiful names. Our country should find faith, hope and love instead of today’s intrigues, plots and machinations. It is important that this fully complies with BYuT’s primary slogans.
Yuschenko has come back!
It all started very dramatically. After it became clear that those long, wearisome and, at the same time, confusing negotiation talks between leaders of the coalition, opposition and the President were not going to lead anywhere, Oleksandr Moroz left the negotiation room and headed for parliament to call an extraordinary, urgent (or whatever) session. And Viktor Yuschenko went to the room from which his announcements to the nation are broadcasted. The Secretariat’s workers started to bet: which of them would win the race – either Moroz would put on agenda the question on impeachment of the President or Viktor Yuschenko would dissolve the Verkhovna Rada. It was a matter of several minutes: who would reach the TV viewers first. Seizing the opportunity, I would like to thank our journalists. They are the ones that make the political events known to the whole nation. As Americans say, the war has not started until they show it on CNN. The same is true in Ukraine: political events are nothing until they tell about it in the mass media. That day Viktor Yushenko could get in front of the TV cameras faster than Moroz. On April 2 the President made the announcement: “I have just signed the Decree on early dissolution of Verkhovna Rada.” The effect of his announcement was almost the same as Theodore Roosevelt’s words when, to draw attention to his dozing colleagues during once meeting, he said: “I have just killed my grandmother this morning”. I watched that day’s parliament session on TV. Suddenly one hundred and fifty mobile telephones started to ring in the session room. Coalition deputies’ assistants were telling their chiefs that the parliament had been dissolved. And it became clear that the Verkhovna Rada was not going to work any longer. On the whole, the nation was pleased with that. The President, for whom people had stood on Maidan, was back. And he was the same as he used to be on Maidan– confident, strong-willed and determined.
That night Viktor Yanukovych remembered the day when he had called the President a “Leopold cat”. Perhaps the President did act like a cartoon Leopold cat, but this time the “cat” had drunken some “brutalizing” drink. The President understood that Ukrainian reality was like in the cartoon film about Leopold cat where foul rats wished to live peacefully only after they had been backed against the wall. I had not seen such a resolute President for quite a long time. I had to play the unusual role, for me, of the “dove of peace” at further meetings of the main participants in the conflict in order to moderate the position of the President just a little bit.
Masochists’ Dictation
Just days before that our faction, with almost all our members, was writing a “dictation”. It was probably the most amazing dictation in the history of Ukraine. BYuT deputies were writing their voluntary resignations from parliament. With it, we intended to give the President an additional legal basis for the parliament’s dissolution. I dictated the text of the resignation as I stood in front of the deputies like a teacher. From the juridical point of view – it was a perfect dictation. The deputies were drawing the letters carefully, raising their hands and asking to dictate more slowly. It’s a pity that there were no TV cameras there. One of the deputies said: “A masochists’ dictation!” Later on, after the president’s decree, when the deputies of our faction went to the parliament’s secretariat to support their signatures and ensure Moroz that they had written the resignations with a sound mind and good mental health referred to themselves as “masochists-recidivists”.
But not all of the BYuT’s deputies took down that dictation. During last half of the year of being in opposition, we lost 26 deputies. I am often accused of that: they say we should have accepted only honest people to our bloc. But it is impossible to check a person’s honesty in the future without a time-machine. Oleg Antipov used to be one of our deputies. He was a veteran of our party, a leader of a BYuT district organization. He spent many years struggling as an opposition member. Why shouldn’t we believe him? However, at some point (or rather for particular sum of money), people like him break their principles. And there is nothing we can do about it. At the same time Oleg Lyashko, the deputy that never missed any opportunity to argue with me, is staying with our party. The old checked-by-time party-members started to travel across parliament searching for the big money when Feldman, Gubsky and Abdulin, which had always been called Kuchma’s men, were fighting for the honesty and fairness of Constitutional Court’s judges with OMON.
Fortunately only few deputies betrayed us. It is hard to imagine how tempting the sums of money offered were to those that didn’t betray our party. Three, five and then seven and even more millions were probably not offered only to me and Turchinov. That’s why I really appreciate my colleagues that didn’t give up.
By the way, one of my colleagues had a private conversation with the “betrayer” and called him a nasty name. But the “betrayer” didn’t get confused and said that Leonardo De Vinci and Tchaikovsky also had the same drawbacks. “Leonardo De Vinci wrote “Jockonda”, Tchaikovsky – “The Swan Lake”, and you – just a hand receipt confirming the receipt of compensation from the Party of Regions” – said our deputy.
New Policy –New Technologies
I suppose I could represent Ukraine at the world championship for SMSing that took place in Southern Korea last week. I haven’t had an opportunity to talk on the phone easily for several months because I’ve been spending practically all the time at conferences and meetings. And the only way for me to keep in contact with the external world has been by writing SMS. Perhaps it could be possible to write the political history of Ukraine with the means of short text messages from my mobile phone. But confusion with using SMS also happens. For instance, I received an SMS with this text: “Yuschenko and Yanukovych are having dinner together…” just five minutes before a press-conference. And then at the press conference I told journalists that according to my sources of information the President and Prime Minister were having dinner and were negotiating about something at that moment. And after the conference I realized with horror that that SMS actually was the first part of the anecdote, the ending of which arrived with another later SMS. But it was too late. That night every TV channel referred to Tymoshenko’s words and mentioned that Yuschenko and Yanukovych were holding the negotiation talks. Sometimes it happens in politics…
To Achieve the Goal
Moroz said that parliament’s dissolution is one lady’s doing. I am not going to argue or deny it. Although parliament actually sentenced itself to dissolution on July 7 of last year. That was a day of betrayal. The day when Oleksandr Oleksandrovych betrayed. He was elected as speaker on July 7. It was unfair and mean. At the time when the Socialist Party was still negotiating about its quotas in a democratic coalition, the service department of the Party of Regions had already ordered the flowers to congratulate the socialist leader at night. And it became clear that the only way this parliament would choose was the way of corruption, bribery and endless deputies’ migration to the majority.
… A good documentary “Animals are excellent people” by Jamie Wise was translated on Animal Planet channel recently. Do you know how do African bushmen catch monkeys? They put sweet seeds from tropical fruits in the middle of a dried melon (they do that so the monkeys can see it clearly) and they make a small hole in the melon. This hole is so small that only one monkey’s paw can fit in it. After the monkey pushes its paw into the melon and grabs the seeds it can’t take its fist out. And it doesn’t enter into poor animal’s mind to let go of the seeds and let itself free. So the animal stays with its paw in the melon until it gets caught. The same situation is true for Moroz. Only the hole for his hand was made in Yanukovych’s cabinet. He has clutched onto the speaker’s seat so firmly that he has not been able to think over the probable scenarios of events… It looks like even today he does not believe that the parliament does not exist anymore. As far as the parliament’s dissolution is concerned, it has truly transformed from my plans into reality. I can say with full responsibility that there are no unrealizable plans in politics. Even if the first look it is absolutely impossible. You just need to remember that along with the everyday efforts, there are super-efforts… Everybody has their own way to achieve their goals.
Temptations and the Burden of Power
The absence of power does not provide for an opportunity to do anything for the country. At the same time power is limiting and oppressing by itself. Perhaps I have never been so limited in my actions as I was when I was Prime Minister. And I have been assured of the limited function of power once again while watching my colleague Oleksandr Turchinov. Turchinov is a radical politician. Radicalism has become part of his political image. When he was nominated first deputy secretary of National Security and Defense Council some in the media wrote: “The war will start soon!” But there was no war. I watched Turvhinov then. It was a totally different Turchinov. His radicalism had been replaced by responsibility. He was a careful and moderate policymaker that was aware of possible consequences for the whole country that could be caused by his accidental word or careless command. I think that every opposition-man should work in state bodies of power at least for some time to understand what it is like.
What is the Future Like?
Someway or another, we are choosing our own way. Ukraine will never be the same as it was before 2004. We are moving forward. There are still many questions that none of our present politicians can give the answers to. What are the guarantees of the victory of democratic forces? Wouldn’t a coalition between Our Ukraine and Regions Party be created once again? Is Yuschenko going to get rid of Tymoshenko and Yanukovych with the help of Baloha and Akhmetov? But I think that we have almost put an end to the era that could bring up these questions. We are almost done with intrigues, unfair agreements, plots and murky games. Almost. We just need to take one or two steps away from that.
We will give morality to our society after the upcoming elections. Mankind finished with cannibalism and slavery years ago and we should be done with political betrayal now. Everything will be different then. On April 2 the President of Ukraine not only signed the Decree on the Dissolution of Verkhovan Rada. He also put an end to the Soviet type political system of that day. That’s why his decree should be included in the history books; it changes not only deputies, but the whole nation, offering a new direction of progress. I hope that better times will come.
Unfortunately, our opponents do not understand anything. It was absolutely in vain that Viktor Yuschenko asked political forces to at least co-exist, if not to live in peace and love. They don’t want and don’t know how to co-exist. Half an hour after Moroz announced that Tymoshenko was not a deputy anymore Vasyl Kyselev said: “Let’s put her in jail”. No, they didn’t learn anything. They cannot understand that it is impossible to live in a society limited by vengeance, fear and the instinct of self-preservation. And it is sad that you can’t teach them; you can’t infuse them with a moral code or common sense…
… You know, before Europeans came to North America, there was a big colony of so-called wandering pigeons. And after Europeans inhabited a new continent, these birds became a part of their diet. And then they suddenly disappeared. According to modern scientists, the birds flew away to nowhere. They flew to the ocean in order not to come back anymore. A whole biological classification self-destructed in protest against human cruelty. There are birds that are not able to live in confinement. And fortunately there are political forces that don’t want to accept lies, insincerity and immorality in Ukraine. These forces choose freedom. There are only two ways to reach peace in our country: either give up or win. We have chosen the victorious path. The country will choose freedom.
