Kyiv Post: Take the Sunday Stroll
02/23/2001 | Broker
Take the Sunday stroll
Editorial
To hear international media tell it, you'd think there were hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets of Kyiv clamoring for the resignation of a wobbly, discredited president busted for betraying the nation.
Those of us who are here know the situation is far from that.
True, President Leonid Kuchma, despite recent tough talk, is a wobbly leader. His clumsy attempts to distance himself from the scandal and discredit the opposition make one wonder how someone so inarticulate and unimaginative could survive for a day as a politician, much less get elected president of Europe's second-largest country.
Yet Kuchma remains firmly entrenched in power because the protest movement, strong at the political level, has not caught on at the street level. The most recent organized protest, on Feb. 11, drew 5,000 people at most. There were almost as many ignorant bystanders looking on in bovine wonder at the candle-lighting ceremony on Instytutska as there were participants in the protest itself.
The lack of interest shown by the general population is a sad, sorry spectacle that speaks volumes about why the country spent so many centuries as a Russian province. We realize that such a statement will not be popular with our Ukrainian readers. But it's time to stop worrying about being politically correct and start finding ways to make a difference.
Frankly, the jittery protest efforts prove that few Ukrainians, including the vast majority of our young local readership, care enough about themselves, their families or future generations of Ukrainians to right the blatant wrongs being committed by the highest powers in the land. By being too lethargic, selfish or – even worse – cynical to participate in the anti-presidential protests, Ukrainians are proving that perhaps they don't deserve democracy – and that they do deserve Kuchma.
To be sure, the state's propaganda campaign has brainwashed many Ukrainians, especially in the regions, out of the protest movement. Many others, brought up on a Soviet diet of fear, sympathize with the anti-presidential movement but are plain scared to show their faces.
That fear is unjustified today. Ukraine has thankfully made enough progress in building democracy that people need not fear getting beaten up for participating in peaceful protests. They should get over that fear before Kuchma starts rolling back what little progress he hasn't rolled back already.
Kuchma has called the Gongadze scandal an attempt to embarrass Ukraine internationally. But it is not the scandal that has embarrassed Ukraine, but the people's carefree, cynical attitude toward the scandal. If you are comfortable with that, great. Go play volleyball or cards on Feb. 25. On the other hand, if you are hopeful of one day living in a truly democratic Ukraine, put aside your plans on Sunday, Feb. 25, go to Khreshchatyk and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with your brethren. You'll feel better on Monday.
Editorial
To hear international media tell it, you'd think there were hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets of Kyiv clamoring for the resignation of a wobbly, discredited president busted for betraying the nation.
Those of us who are here know the situation is far from that.
True, President Leonid Kuchma, despite recent tough talk, is a wobbly leader. His clumsy attempts to distance himself from the scandal and discredit the opposition make one wonder how someone so inarticulate and unimaginative could survive for a day as a politician, much less get elected president of Europe's second-largest country.
Yet Kuchma remains firmly entrenched in power because the protest movement, strong at the political level, has not caught on at the street level. The most recent organized protest, on Feb. 11, drew 5,000 people at most. There were almost as many ignorant bystanders looking on in bovine wonder at the candle-lighting ceremony on Instytutska as there were participants in the protest itself.
The lack of interest shown by the general population is a sad, sorry spectacle that speaks volumes about why the country spent so many centuries as a Russian province. We realize that such a statement will not be popular with our Ukrainian readers. But it's time to stop worrying about being politically correct and start finding ways to make a difference.
Frankly, the jittery protest efforts prove that few Ukrainians, including the vast majority of our young local readership, care enough about themselves, their families or future generations of Ukrainians to right the blatant wrongs being committed by the highest powers in the land. By being too lethargic, selfish or – even worse – cynical to participate in the anti-presidential protests, Ukrainians are proving that perhaps they don't deserve democracy – and that they do deserve Kuchma.
To be sure, the state's propaganda campaign has brainwashed many Ukrainians, especially in the regions, out of the protest movement. Many others, brought up on a Soviet diet of fear, sympathize with the anti-presidential movement but are plain scared to show their faces.
That fear is unjustified today. Ukraine has thankfully made enough progress in building democracy that people need not fear getting beaten up for participating in peaceful protests. They should get over that fear before Kuchma starts rolling back what little progress he hasn't rolled back already.
Kuchma has called the Gongadze scandal an attempt to embarrass Ukraine internationally. But it is not the scandal that has embarrassed Ukraine, but the people's carefree, cynical attitude toward the scandal. If you are comfortable with that, great. Go play volleyball or cards on Feb. 25. On the other hand, if you are hopeful of one day living in a truly democratic Ukraine, put aside your plans on Sunday, Feb. 25, go to Khreshchatyk and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with your brethren. You'll feel better on Monday.