Ukrainian Best & Worst List 2012

10th Anniversary Edition

By Oksana Bashuk Hepburn

Almost everyone has favorite lists this time of year-- best movies, books, persons… For the10th year, here is my annual list of the BEST and WORST issues, events and personae that have had impact on the global Ukrainian community in 2012. 

BEST LIST

•     Ukraine’s opposition leaders --for agreeing back in January 22, 2012 --Ukraine’s historic day of unification-- to offer a single list of candidates in the October parliamentary elections.   It worked!

•     Ukrainian diaspora  women’s organizations --for catching fire after Rada Speaker Mykola Lytvyn opined that women are on a lower rung of development than men.  He cited Christian teachings as a basis for this ‘fact’ on the eve of International Women’s Day, the ‘holy’ day of Communism, a system that oppresses women but mouths equality.

•     Government of Canada --for continuing to demonstrate Canada’s friendship for Ukraine while taking a tough stand on its government’s disregard for democracy.  

•     The people of Mykolajiv, Ukraine --for their rage and protest against government inaction when sons of justice and government officials beat up and burned Oksana Makar.  She has since died.

•     The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church leadership; its Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shewchuk) -- for welcoming Ukrainian Orthodox believers refusing to worship in churches under the direction of the Moscow Patriarch and his questioning of Ukraine’s legislation favouring the allocation of church properties to Moscow affiliates thus posing “a clear threat to the interdenominational peace and agreement”;  and Cardinal Lubomyr Hussar--for his thoughtful and ethical writings in support of justice and democracy in Ukraine . 

•     Rock diva Madonna--for supporting Ukraine’s incarcerated political opposition leader during a 100 thousand plus concert in Kyiv; and Johanna Frndn, the foremost EURO 2012 broadcasts face of Swedish TV--for sporting a braided hairstyle “to show solidarity to Yulia Tymoshenko”.

•     Luba Goy, Canada’s premier comedienne --for her outstanding one-woman show “Just Luba” depicting life in Canada of the traumatized post WWII immigrants.

•     Ukraine’s media: journalists--for mounting a strike to oppose owner-directed editorial content; TVi-for not buckling to government intimidations to cease existing as one of the last vestiges of Ukraine’s free media;  and Inter TV--  for promising to move towards greater media freedom.

•     Ukraine--for pulling off the Euro Cup.

•     Dr. Ulrich Busch-- for the feisty defence of the near life-long persecuted John Demjanjuk whom the Central Office of the Judicial Authorities for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes ultimately and posthumously considers innocent due to the absence of the legally binding verdict.

•     United States of America--for passing legislation to name and shame persons from non-American jurisdictions who violate their office, and punish them by revoking travel visa to the United States.  Among the first is Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin, disgraced by his performance at the trials of opposition leaders.

•     Evhenia Tymoshenko--for a daughter’s love and fight in the international arena to free her incarcerated mother, Yulia Tymoshenko, and return her to Ukraine’s politics as a key opposition leader.

•     The Ukrainian people--for standing -up to its government’s institutionalized poverty and oppression, incarceration of  political leaders and endless violation of human rights by bringing in a numeric victory for the opposition parties in the latest parliamentary election despite government efforts to control the process and falsify results. 

WORST LIST

•     President Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions--for failing to provide good government to their people and stifling Ukraine’s progress towards democracy.  

•     Again, President Yanukovych --for failing to live up to his constitutional requirements to mount a free and fair election, and for perpetrating corruption and cronyism in government. 

•     Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin--for corrupting Ukraine’s judiciary by conducting improper trials for opposition leaderYulia Tymoshenko-- incarceration during her trial, the testimony of witnesses when she had no counsel present, and the court’s refusal to call certain defense witnesses-- and Yurij Lutsenko to prevent their candidacies in the elections.

•     Moscow’s Patriarch Kirill--for meddling in political affairs of Ukraine and allowing the Kremlin to use the Church as a political instrument--just as it was in the hands of the KGB in Soviet times-- to subjugate Ukraine.

•     Metropolitan Yurij, primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canada--for banning Ukraine’s Patriarch Filaret from churches and institutions in Canada thus acknowledging the sovereignty of the Moscow Patriarch over them, a development the UGOC has withstood since its founding nearly a century ago.

•     Volodymyr Shapoval, Chair Central Elections Commission in Ukraine--for posting election results then removing them in order to falsify findings as in polling station #132 where opposition candidate Arkadij Kondradskyj was elected.  Annulled by the Commission, he must compete anew in a by-election.  Meanwhile his life has been threatened; his family forced into exile; and his accountant Ludmila Nikitkina abducted off the street and incarcerated for months without being accused.

•     Bloomberg News --for publishing a piece by Tim Judah seemly determined to undermine the Svoboda Party and its understandable victory in light of the abominable politics of the ruling oligarchs and their determination to destroy political opposition and thereby democracy. 

•     Ukrainian diaspora organizations--for failing to mount a robust campaign, based on their knowledge of democratic practices, supporting incarcerated political leaders to prevent others from becoming regime’s victims and ensuring justice for all.

•     Jerusalem Post --for failing its readers with a nasty editorial following a popular vote victory for the opposition which resorts to discredited stereotyping instead of addressing today’s reality in Ukraine where the Jewish community is thriving in the political arena and leads in the list of its billionaires.

•     BBC decision-makers--for using an isolated stadium brawl to falsely accuse an entire people of racism and hooliganism; a premise not borne out by facts but, rather, motivated by hate-mongering and image -destroying on the eve of the Euro Cup in Kyiv.

•     Prime Minister Mykola Azarov--for failing to dismiss the unqualified Education and Science Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk for anti-Ukrainian rants which cause strife in the country.

•     Education and Science Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk--for allowing pro-Communist material --an ideology that aimed to the eradicate Ukrainians even before the Nazis copied it to pursue their own evil goals--into grade-schools; and hero-worshiping Lenin and Stalin, the fathers of Soviet crimes against humanity.

•     Ukraine’s leaders of all stripes--for failing to make a push to learn English, today’s lingua franca, and make their messages available to the world.

Oksana Bashuk Hepburn writes on issues designed to promote democracy in Ukraine. She may be reached at oksanabh@sympatico.ca