Volodymyr Kish.
The news from Ukraine this past week was not good, with yet another Cabinet Minister resigning the increasingly fragile coalition government. Aivaras Abromavičius, Minister of Economy and Trade, left the government over frustration with continuing corruption and political interference aimed at protecting vested oligarchic interests. What was notable was that he fingered a specific individual, Ihor Kononenko, a close friend and ally of President Poroshenko, who is also first deputy of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc in Ukraine’s parliament.
It is not hard to see the implications in this. For quite some time now, critics of the President and of Prime Minister Yatseniuk, have been saying that though they make lots of noise about fighting corruption, they are more likely part of the problem rather than the solution.
Although there are genuine reformers in the government, and there have been some successes at pulling the country out of the endemic morass of corruption that has beset it since it gained independence, the two main enablers of corruption, namely the Prosecutor’s office and the judiciary, are still populated by the same folks that enabled former President Yanukovich and his gang to steal the country blind. What is sad is that two years after Yanukovich’s ouster, many of his remaining fellow travellers are continuing to steal with impunity. The fact that one of Poroshenko’s closest colleagues stands accused of complicity in the country’s pervasive machinery of corruption, cannot but help implicate the President as well.
What is tragic about all of this is that the current President and Prime Minister know that this is going on but are seemingly turning a blind eye to the thievery that surrounds them. There is no doubt that more than a few Ministers and highly placed government bureaucrats need to be shown the door, yet no such much needed action appears to be in the offing. In fact, incomprehensibly, Prime Minister Yatseniuk has recently threatened that if any one Minister was sacked, the whole Cabinet would resign. Just who are these people working for?
The consequences will only get more serious the longer that Ukraine’s current leadership fails to act. Aside from the growing disillusionment and discontent brewing within the increasingly restive Ukrainian population, Ukraine’s strong support from its European and free world allies also stands in jeopardy. Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF that has been instrumental in bailing Ukraine out financially, voiced her serious concern upon hearing of Abromavičius’ resignation. In Kyiv, the Ambassadors of ten leading nations, including Canada, the U.S., France, Germany and the U.K., jointly expressed their deep disappointment with this turn of events. Concern and disappointment could easily lead to a cooling of support for Ukraine, regardless of what Putin does, if the integrity of Ukraine’s current leadership continues to erode with more resignations and accusations.
It should be clear to both Poroshenko and Yatseniuk, that unless real action on corruption is taken soon, they will lose not only their credibility but most of their support from both the Ukrainian population as well as their political and economic allies around the world.
Although both Poroshenko and Yatseniuk have acknowledged lack of any real progress in fighting corruption, they have tried to claim that it is a difficult process and they have been pre-occupied with the on-going war with Russia. Frankly, that argument doesn’t cut it anymore with either Ukrainians or the broader world community. They have had two years and have made minimal progress in replacing the tens of thousands of corrupt bureaucrats, judges and prosecutors that continue to poison the day to day life of every Ukrainian. The oligarchic system that siphons most of the country’s public wealth into private pockets continues to operate unabated and with impunity.
It is time to hold Poroshenko’s and Yatseniuk’s feet to the fire. Either they start acting decisively and with effect on corruption, or they step aside and let someone with fire in their belly take on this task of ridding Ukraine of this pernicious cancer.
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