It should have been easy

By Aussiegirl

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Ukraine: Freedom Cannot Be Stopped
By John Radzilowski

December 2, 2004

It should have been an easy election victory.

After all, the ruling government party in Ukraine had everything it needed. They had support from the country's powerful oligarchs whose fat bank accounts and desire for a pliable government that would allow them to continue to pillage the economy made them eager supporters of Viktor Yanukovych, the thuggish favorite of outgoing president Leonid Kuchma. They had all the major media in their pockets along with the armed forces, security apparatus, and police. Opposition and neutral media were shut down or suddenly charged with "tax fraud" by government authorities. They were backed by Moscow which sent untold millions in additional campaign donations for the candidate who dances to the Kremlin's tune.

On election day last Sunday, everything went just as planned. . .

. . .And then it all went very wrong.

As it became clear the election was being stolen, the Ukrainian people, supposedly numbed by years of Soviet rule, political corruption, and powerlessness, said no. Thousands poured into the streets to protest. Then tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands. Members of the militia began to join the demonstrators. The government, not the people, acted as if they were the mindless, numbed ones. The people bypassed the media and organized themselves with cell phones, blogs, email, and text messages.

Most amazing of all were the testimonies of ordinary Ukrainians from all walks of life. Isolated by the post-Soviet totalitarian mindset, they have found they are not so alone. Millions of their fellow citizens share a desire for democracy and end to corruption:

One farmer said: "I am just a little Ukrainian. But the whole pyramid of Ukraine is built on top of little people like me. I should be home working in the soil, but instead I'm here in the (Independence) Square. And I'm not leaving until we have real democracy."

A woman from Kyiv wrote: "Quite recently I didn't believe that my people [were] able to resist to violence and humiliation. 2 months ago I guessed that I live in the worst country in the world. I was oppressed when I could not see a dignity in my fellow citizens. I hated that strong negative feeling rising inside me every time when I saw alcoholics or drug addicts urinating at a doorway, when I saw students who are [too] timid to reject extortion of their corrupted professors, when I saw animal obedience of journalists and governmental administrators toward their masters who even don't pay them enough. . . . [But on] November 22 I started to be really proud of my co-citizens. Now I can see that they are not passive mammals who want just to dig comfortable burrow. Ukrainians, I am happy that I was so wrong about you before!" (www.tulipgirl.com)

Authoritarian and totalitarian governments have a thousand ways to maintain power through any combination of force, corruption, or lies. Yet, these become meaningless when the people cease to be afraid and cease to believe the propaganda.
This is what has ended scores of totalitarian regimes over the past two decades. . .

. . .Ukraine's future is of vital concern to the United States. Under the Kuchma regime, it was deeply implicated in supplying arms to Saddam Hussein and other Middle Eastern despots. It has not only been a source of arms but also a transshipment point for weapons from other countries. The nation's mafia-like economic elite with their big offshore bank accounts represent a threat in the world of illegal money laundering, be it from traffickers in drugs and prostitutes or from international terrorists.

A free, stable Ukraine is a potential ally in the fight against terrorism and will certainly not contribute to the kind of instability on which terrorists and their backers thrive. Democracy in Ukraine will be a major setback to Russian President Vladimir Putin's effort to return his country to authoritarian, single party rule.

Perhaps most importantly, it will send again the powerful message that freedom may be delayed but never stopped.

This message will resound from Kyiv to the Sunni triangle, to Havana, to Pyongyang.

John Radzilowski, Ph.D., is senior fellow at Piast Institute (www.piastinstitute.org) and author or co-author of eleven books. He lives in Minneapolis and can be contacted at jradzilow@aol.com.