Accountability

By Volodymyr Kish

Since Victor Yanukovych got elected President of Ukraine, he has lost no time in making his pro-Russian sympathies known.  From extending the Russian lease on the naval base in Sevastopol by another twenty five years, to negotiating the possible “merger” of Ukraine’s national energy company Naftohaz with Russia’s Gazprom, to threatening to revoke former President Yushchenko’s designation of Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych as national heroes, he has infuriated Ukraine’s current opposition parties as well as much of the Diaspora with such overtly biased and anti-Ukrainian moves.

Although most progressive Ukrainian forces have no great love for Yanukovych, his relative restraint during the Presidential campaign had caused many to hope that he had learned some lessons in recent years and would refrain from engaging in any actions that might polarize the Ukrainian majority in the country. There was even actual speculation that he would strive to maintain a middle ground and try to widen his political base among the Ukrainian population.  Alas, it seems that the arrogance of power is causing him to believe that he has won the war rather than just the latest political battle, and he seems intent to restore Russian dominance in Ukrainian affairs.

Most Ukrainian organizations in the U.S. and Canada have reacted as expected with the usual flurry of open letters and petitions against Yanukovych and his government.  They are full of anger, condemnation and demands for him to reverse his recent actions.  Although they undoubtedly give great satisfaction to their authors and enable them to vent their spleen, they are frankly a waste of time - as if President Yanukovych would actually pay any attention to their rants when he doesn’t pay the slightest heed to Ukrainians in his own country. 

Such missives make me shake my head in dismay.  Aside from being ineffectual, they fail to take to task the real individuals and forces that enabled Yanukovych to come to power and do what he is doing.  I am speaking of course of all the so-called progressive and reformist Ukrainian nationalist parties who failed to find the necessary compromises to create an effective coalition against Yanukovych and the pro-Russian Party of Regions. 

Let’s face it, Yanukovych was handed the Presidency on a platter while his Ukrainian opponents bickered, insulted, sabotaged and fought each other.  It was as disgraceful a display as Ukrainian history has ever seen and the main participants in this debacle – Yushchenko, Tymoshenko, Yatsenyuk, Lytwyn, Hrytsenko, Kostenko and many others have much to be ashamed about.  These are the folks that should be held accountable for this current sorry state of affairs.  These are the people that the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the Ukrainian World Congress and all those other nationalist organizations that care so much for the future of Ukraine should go after.  We should hold their feet to the fire and demand that they get their act together in a common front if they really care about Ukraine.

Sending angry letters to President Yanukovych will accomplish nothing.  Sending angry letters to Yushchenko, Tymoshenko, Yatsenyuk and the others who still have some political influence and future ambitions might, on the other hand, actually have some impact.  We should make it clear to them that if they expect any kind of support or help from diaspora Ukrainians, they better find a way to put their petty differences behind them and start behaving like true Ukrainian nationalists and patriots.  Putting a halt to the direction that President Yanukovych has started taking Ukraine will require a level of unity and cooperation that has been sadly lacking in Ukrainian politics since the Orange Revolution.

For better or for worse, Yanukovych was elected President in a fair election.  He has earned the right to govern for the next five years.  The primary thrust of the opposition parties in Ukraine should now be to ensure that his power does not go unchecked, that Ukraine does not lose the hard won independence, rights and freedoms that it has gained during the past two decades.  As for Ukrainian organizations in the Diaspora, they should focus all their efforts not on lambasting Yanukovych, but on pressuring the opposition parties to do their duty.