Hryts
on Leadership
By Walter Kish
Confused as ever by the incomprehensible shenanigans of
contemporary Ukrainian politics, I recently turned to my favourite political
analyst for some insight as to what is going on. I speak of course of Hryts, my elderly,
self-taught and curmudgeonly cousin from the languid, pastoral little
In any case, of late, I had become particularly
dismayed by Yushchenko’s continual undermining of Prime Minister Tymoshenko’s
efforts at radically changing the corrupt and self-serving status quo. It seems like he was far more interested in
making accommodations with the oligarchs and the Party of Regions than
implementing the long promised and overdue reforms touted during the Orange
Revolution.
Hryts only chuckled when I related these musings
to him.
“My, my you are naпve. I think you must be adding to much low-fat
sour cream to your borshcht!”
“What do you mean?” I inquired.
“Yushchenko can’t spell orange in any of the
languages he speaks! It’s not in his
vocabulary.”
“I don’t understand” I continued puzzled as ever
by his rustic insight. “He’s the leader
of the country. He promised reform. He
made commitments.”
“Leader!?” Hryts began laughing derisively. “Do you know what Yushchenko was before he
became President?”
“I think he was a banker” I replied.
“Correct.
A banker and before that he was an accountant. So my little smarkach, you with the
university education – how many great leaders throughout history do you know of
who have been accountants or bankers?”
I could almost see the smirk on his face despite
the fact that we were talking by telephone.
But he was right, as much as I thought about it,
I couldn’t think of a single example!
“Look at the real leaders that we have had in
Ukrainian history,” he continued.
“Khmelnytskyj and Mazepa studied philosophy and
fine arts in Jesuit colleges. Petliura studied to be a priest. Bandera studied agriculture. Shukhevych was a civil engineer. Konovalets
was a lawyer and Melnyk was a soldier.
Chornovil was a journalist. Even
Kuchma was a rocket engineer. All of
them had backgrounds that gave them some understanding of either how the real
world works or how ideas make people do the things they do. Yushchenko is an accountant to the core and
the only thing he understands is how numbers work. If I had money, I would hire him to manage it,
but asking him to run a country is like asking my better half Yevdokia to take
a vow of silence! It’s just unnatural.”
“I think I see what you mean.” I said, while at
the same time knowing that Yevdokia, who managed to overhear everything said
under her roof would undoubtedly have her pound of revenge over that last
comment.
“One, last question, Hrytsiu” I continued, “By
your line of reasoning how would you then assess Yulia Tymoshenko as a leader?”
When he stopped laughing, I heard Hryts exclaim –
“Why she has a perfect background to be a leader. She made her first fortune running a video
rental business. She learned very
quickly what people want to see and hear!”
As usual, Hryts had the last word. There was nothing I could add.