Tut I Tam:  “Man of La Mancha”

By Dr. Myron Kuropas

If Broadway shows are your thing, then you’re familiar with Man of La Mancha, the 1965 musical adaptation of Cervantes’s Don Quixote. “The Impossible Dream”, the lead song, is a classic. I remembered that melody as I sat listening to President Viktor Yushchenko address members of our community at the Ukrainian Museum in New York City on September 22.

Mr. Yushchenko is not a dynamic speaker. His delivery is slow, almost somnambulistic.  What he said, however, is far more important than how he said it.  Mr. Yuschenko spoke from the heart, recalling Ukraine’s 350 year-old dream of national independence.  He thanked our community for its unswerving commitment to that dream during all the years Ukraine was enslaved. 

“We must continue Ukraine’s national narrative”, the President said, and “the Ukrainian language is key. It’s what identifies us a people.”   Russian language books and newspapers outnumber Ukrainian language publications and this remains a huge problem, he explained.  But progress is being made.  All candidates for higher degrees in Ukraine today, for example, must now pass a proficiency exam in the Ukrainian language, Mr. Yushchenko proudly declared. 

A familiarity with our history is also important.  “How can we know where we are going if we don’t know where we’ve been?” the President asked.    We need our own history, written by our own people, not by others, especially others who are hostile to our nation.

Healing is equally important. President Yushchenko mentioned his efforts to reconcile UPA veterans with Soviet Red Army veterans.  They all fought Ukraine’s enemies, he explained.  Polish veterans who fought in armies directed either from London or from Moscow during World War II have reconciled, extending their hands in Polish brotherhood.  Ukrainians need to do the same.

Amazingly, Mr. Yushchenko addressed higher education in Ukraine, one of my pet peeves.  I believe it contemptible that Ukrainian professors who complete their doctorates at Oxford or Princeton are only recognized as “Kandytaty Nauk” in Ukraine.   The “kandytat” degree is a holdover from Soviet times.  Fr. Boris Gudziak, rector of Lviv’s Ukrainian Catholic University, and holder of a Harvard Ph.D., is only recognized as a “kandydat” by the Ministry of Education.   President Yushchenko pointed out that Ukrainian educators have signed on to the so-called “Bologna Process”, making it possible for Ukraine’s universities to develop a system of mutual academic recognition with foreign universities.   It is hoped that the Soviet system will be discarded, and that the traditional three-tier classification - bachelor, master, doctor – will be adopted.    

President Yushchenko blamed the present political standoff on the peculiar parliamentary system which dominates the Ukrainian governmental process.  Ukraine’s Parliament, Verkhovna Rada, makes most of the significant decisions and dominates the judiciary.  No one is accountable because parliamentarians are elected by political party list. Everyone knows who heads the list, but few people know who number 24 is, or number 5 for that matter. In the United States, we know who represents us in Congress and we can call them if the need arises. Ukrainians can’t do that. 

Ukrainian Canadians love their parliamentary system and rightfully so.  But in Canada as in the U.S.A, a system of checks and balances exists and corruption, once exposed, is punished.  My home state of Illinois, for example, has the dubious distinction of having sent three governors to prison already, and our last governor, recently impeached, appears to be on the way. Corruption is rampant in the Verkhovna Rada but laws are in place which make parliamentarians immune from prosecution. 

So, dear reader, is Mr. Yushchenko our Ukrainian “Don Quixote”, the man who squandered political capital garnered during the Orange Revolution and is now saddled with single-digit approval ratings?  Given present realities, is his dream of continuing the Ukrainian narrative impossible?

If not Yushchenko, then who will?  In a recent Noviy Shliakh article, David Marples suggested that Viktor Yanukovych is the unbeatable candidate in the upcoming January 2010 Presidential Elections.  Taras Kuzio disagreed, arguing that Yulia Tymoshenko could beat Yanukovych in a runoff.  

There is a dark horse candidate, Arseniy Yatseniuk, who appears to have gained, then lost traction in recent months.  With successful experience in various government positions, Mr. Yatseniuk is young, fluent in English, a pragmatist, and from Western Ukraine, all good qualifications. 

Here’s my assessment, “my two cents” as it were, regarding all four candidates and the Ukrainian narrative.  Yanukovich is a “Little Russian”, someone who, if elected, would end the narrative, pushing Ukraine back to square one.  Yulia is tough, experienced, focused, determined, and an opportunist whose narrative is titled “all about me”.   Yatseniuk is a multiculturalist with all national narratives equal in importance.   That leaves Yushchenko, “The Man of La Mancha” and his “impossible dream”.  Tough call?  Not for me. January is a long way off, so hang tight.  It’s not over ‘til Yulia sings.