Despite the Orange ‘Vaccine,’ Ukraine Diagnosed with Post Revolutionary Syndrome

About two and a half years have gone by now since the days a few brave Ukrainians gathered on the capital square and spawned the Orange Revolution in December 2004. What has been the outcome of their decisive actions and where the winning party led this Eastern European nation? Put in a few words: the mount gave birth to mice.

The main conflict of the December 2004 events was the attempt of then governing corrupt regime of Yanukovich and his party to rig the presidential elections. The people of Ukraine, infuriated by such open audacity, took their fate in their own hands, went on the streets of the capital, and used their right to exercise their power directly as is written in the constitution. They insisted on rerunning the election and democratic candidate, Victor Yuschenko actually won. At the time, Ukrainians were very optimistic about the changes in their country’s government and the bright future they thought would come as a result of those changes.

So what has happened in the last two and a half years in Ukraine, lead by new president? To put it bluntly, Yuschenko did nothing. As far as his promise or prosecuting criminals and brining prosperity, Yuschenko might as well have promised to end world poverty and stop global warming. Things turned downhill for Yushenko when he swapped prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko (his former running mate and perhaps the most popular politician in Ukraine) with a member of his “dear friends”, a group of oligarchs, who bet on Yuschenko and paid for his election campaign. The “Orange party” split even more during the parliamentary elections, where the plan was for Yuschenko, Yulia, and the socialist party to form a majority and thus the governing coalition. But Yushenko backed out of this deal in fear of Yulia’s rising popularity. The coalition that did form was between Yanukovich’s party (the party farthest to the right in Ukraine) and the socialist party (farthest to the left). Why did the socialists join Yannukovich? Simple: money! Well grounded rumors say that Yanoukovich’s party paid Moroz (leader of the socialists) $300 millions for his treason!

The mess in parliament goes on and on, to show that politics in Ukraine are indeed back to normal: corrupt beyond belief! This is perhaps the first time in history, of any nation, that the far right and radical left of the nation cooperate.

As most Ukrainians are, I’m disgusted at the so called leaders of my homeland, but also feel stupid for believing that Ukrainian corruption might soon dissolve. If there’s one thing the Orange revolution taught us, it’s that we should never believe the politicians, because they always lie. You can not trust them: lying to the public and giving false promises is their job. But leaving in democracy we have to elect those who govern us. Vote for whom? Here is the recipe: always vote for the opposition, even if they are ideologically your polar opposite – they will never keep their promise anyway, once in power. Your job as a voter is rather to make sure no one party or politician gets too much power, because if they do, they’ll become corrupt.

So am I saying that Ukraine is back to where it was before the Orange revolution? Yes, and maybe even worse. The only positive outcome of this whole ordeal is that the people experienced that they have the power to change events and hopefully they will stand up against corrupt politics again with the help of the press and media, which became somewhat freer after the revolution.