Helping Ukraine’s Democracy: Some Ideas

Mental Callisthenics with Vujko Ilko

By Oksana Bashuk Hepburn

“I’ve had a eureka moment,’ shouts Uncle Ilko into the telephone.  “Can you come over?”

It’s Christmas Eve and I’m in the midst of twelve dishes signifying the Apostles in the Christian era; earlier, the twelve months in the pagan era, and who knows what before that.  I’m to pick up Vujko in a few hours to join us in a lusty “Boh Predvichnyj” carol opening the magical feast. 

“Can this wait a few hours? I’ll be there after six to miss the traffic jam. ”

“If you insist.  It’s about Yulia.”

“Is the old lady dead?”

“Not the old church lady, silly.  Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s former Prime Minister; the one that’s in jail.”

Chopping onions, mushrooms, sauerkraut and garlic all day has a way of dulling the mind.

“Of course, Uncle. What’s up?’

“The oligarch mafiacrats have taken her to Kharkiv.  They’re isolating her.  Keeping her away from the political centre in Kyiv.”

Indeed, on New Year’s Eve, or shortly after midnight, she was driven some 500 km to a detention centre.  There was no warning; just a dire autocratic message: she’s in our custody; we do as we wish. 

“A horrible development, Vujku, but we’ve covered that already.  What’s the ‘eureka’?”

A few nights earlier, we had had a long session of mental callisthenics - the name Vujko gives to our discussions about things Ukrainian.  Callisthenics, he says, is an apt word, as politics in Ukraine is like running an obstacle course set out on a minefield.  Lack of mental agility can be catastrophic. We had mused at what could be done to extricate Tymoshenko from jail. 

“Yes, we did, but we were short on how to exert further pressure…  Now, I’ve got it. I’ll wait ‘til you pick me up.”

I add more spicing to the borsch, lower the oven temperature emitting the delightful holubtsi aroma, pour boiling water over the handful of dry mushrooms, pravdyvi!, brought from Ukraine on my last election observer mission, all the time wondering what the old man has come up with.  What a task! The free world is confounded about next steps to deal with the assault on democratic institutions in Ukraine that culminated in the arrests of political opposition members and Yulia’s seven-year sentence. Canada made a most credible intervention.  Prime Minister Harper’s personal letter was a direct message to President Yanukovych: let her go or there will be serious consequences.  Instead, she was sentenced to seven years and, now, removed from Kyiv; a clever out-of-sight, out-of-mind tactic. The time has come for ‘serious consequences’.  But what?

I cannot wait as we get into the car.

“Vujku, what have you got?”

He’s somewhat coy.

“On Yulia?”

“Yes, Uncle, yes.”

“Make her a universal symbol of a fighting democrat.  Just like Nelson Mandela; like Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, recently released from house arrest. You know, she will be a candidate in their April election.”

“Uncle, I don’t’ think our community knows how to do that.  Most people I talk to are confused.  Leaders of international and national organizations have issues letters condemning the judicial process, arrest and sentence, but now Yulia Tymoshenko is in jail and as former President Viktor Yushchenko says, it’s “irreversible.”

 “Don’t listen to him.  Word has it that he’s buying an estate in Chicago.  But who said it would be easy?  Helplessness stems from lack of experience: we’ve not had to do this before.  But cheer up, there’s no rehearsal for Motherhood either.  The Yulia situation can be addressed.”

“Okay.  How?”

“There are two things I’m putting forward, but there are many more.  Remember, the key is for democracies of the world to make an example of Ukraine.  If it doesn’t happen there, it can’t happen anywhere including the Arab Spring countries.  Ukraine’s democracy is a global issue!  That’s for starters.

Next, create a global buzz around the incarceration of opposition members.  Yulia has the greatest prominence; lead with her.  Shower her with honorary doctorates for championing democracy.  Convince Canadian universities - Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Winnipeg, Toronto - to do so. Don’t restrict the process to Ukrainian Studies departments.  Get History, Political Science and, most important, Women’s Studies involved.   The U.S. has good people at Rutgers, Harvard, and Columbia who can do this.  Europe too.”

“This is do-able Vujku.  Involve Asia, Australia and Africa.  I saw a YouTube video from Senegal where folks were protesting Yulia’s incarceration.  I never thought that Ukraine’s democratic backsliding would resonate there.”

“Indeed.  But more is needed.  It’s a shame no one thought of putting her name forward as Time’s Woman of the Year.”

“Wow!  Does the diaspora have the clout?”

“It doesn’t if it fails to try.  Remember, freedom of the opposition is critical to good government everywhere.  If Ukraine loses it, what hope is there for others?”

“You’re saying ‘dare to be brave’.”

“Yes.  And watch for the snowball effect.”