A proposal from Ukraine’s voters
The highest echelons of power have created such a brilliant creative atmosphere in the country that practically every Ukrainian is trying to analyze what has happened in the leadership and to forecast the future, and most importantly — to seek a way out of the political crisis. In other countries professional politicians do this as a matter of course, but unraveling the Ukrainian social Gordian knot should obviously involve the total intellectual potential of the nation.
Even Alexander the Great would hardly be successful (he was the one who cut King Gordius’s knot with a sword). So every Ukrainian should consider it his sacred civic duty not only to stand, freeze, and shout on the country’s eastern and western Maidans, but also to consider a way out of the situation, especially since our politicians are busy with other important things, looking for grey propaganda in their information war against each other and inveterately throwing such information back and forth, like a volleyball. This is done instead of analyzing, comparing, and discussing potential ways out of the crisis.
When Aristotle was seeking the best state organization in the world, he analyzed the structures of 158 countries of the known world. The ancient Greek philosopher was convinced that the division of society into the poor and the rich has a negative impact on any state’s existence; in particular, he cites with distaste the oath taken by rich people in many countries when they came to power: “I will treat ordinary people like enemies and conceive the worst things against them!” Developing the idea of Plato, his teacher, Aristotle arrived at the conclusion: if extreme polarization leads to a split in a country, a healthy society should obviously have a considerable stratum of middle citizens — neither rich nor wealthy. (This was formulated almost 2,500 years ago.)
According to Aristotle, the very concept of a middle class (the way we would call it now) is the foundation of any country’s stability. Today this concept is brilliantly working in the developed countries of the world. The reason is that middle-class citizens do not have the same shortcomings that both the poor and the rich have. According to Aristotle, insolent fellows and big scoundrels come out of the wealthy milieu, and rascals and small scoundrels come out of the poor one. He also recommends the necessary proportions of the middle class for prosperous countries: “Only those states where the middle citizens are stronger than the rich and the poor put together, or at least separately, have a good state organization.”
Taking into consideration Ukraine’s complex but — alas! — by no means new — political circumstances (let’s not forget the events after 1917) I dare not only express my personal point of view, but contradict Aristotle to a certain extent.
I will start from the root of evil — the “deviations” (let me put it this way) from all the democratic and moral norms that are characteristic for the most part of Ukrainian parliamentarians at each level. These deviations are comprised specifically of both political and criminal offences. In general, when the majority of our deputies come to power, they immediately start to “improve” — to use a polite term -their own financial and property situation. Everything is put on the “altar” — convictions, patriotism, friendly relationships, obligations to voters, and the solemn oath taken on the Bible, not to mention such a trivial point as their reputation. Take a look at the parliamentarian “villages,” which will soon cover all of Ukraine: soon there won’t be any place left to sow.
Among the many other destructive results of such a “policy’ is that the Verkhovna Rada is considerably smaller in number than the number of “working” Members of Parliament than we think. Most parliamentarians are as prepared to engage in high politics as to teach the theory of relativity to students. Judging from the results of our elected officials’ activity and the state of the country, the slogan of their activity may become a refashioned aphorism: “Let the whole state go to hell, but I will take what is mine!”
This program is being successfully realized by the country’s many parliamentarians — each on his own level. This seems to be the only thing they know how to do; they only thing they are able to do and are doing. Otherwise, there would not be such chaos in the country today. To take real care of the state, its urgent necessities, we should long ago have elected our MPs for a 10-year term to save voters’ money. This would have been a great savings and not just the cost of the pre-election campaign.
I often ask myself: what are most parliamentarians doing in the Verkhovna Rada? How many of them are truly capable of leading the state’s activity, and to what extent are they ready for this? How is it possible that during sessions of the Verkhovna Rada — during the practically permanent crisis in the country — half of the seats are empty? For how many years can we “struggle” against voting “by correspondence”?
One more thing: readers should remember how many of our parliamentarians they know through their speeches in the mass media. Today the same cast of characters constantly “appears before the people” in the press and on TV. Obviously, their numbers do not exceed 10 percent (and that’s an overestimation) of the entire parliamentary body. The others are incapable of doing this. What will happen to our political show when the Symonenkos, Chornovils, Vitrenkos, and their ilk leave the stage?
I have already mentioned that Aristotle considered the power of oligarchs destructive for any state. However, it seems that this wise ancient Greek thought this way only because he was not acquainted with the specific features of Ukraine’s political life. (Ukraine was not on the 158-country list in his day.) Therefore, I will take the liberty of offering a new scheme of forming the supreme organs of power in our country: all plenary authority should be transferred to the Ukrainian oligarchs, with the expectation that really wealthy people will somehow restrain themselves from further robbing our country and its people.
I don’t suggest this because they have more virtues than all the other politicians or parties — not at all. But the problem is that the richest Ukrainians have long had all that an oligarch’s heart could desire, and they can allow themselves the privilege of being honest. Or are they not interested in this?
