Lustration – a word, which again started to be used by political figures. It’s been probably the first time since Orange Revolution. It is promised by candidates for the position of the President for everybody: Tymoshenko, Yanukovich, to the orange ones, the young orange ones – to the old ones, and the latter – to everybody who is against everybody.
There are 18 of them – 3 women and 15 men: 3 official millionaires, and the rest – modern descendants of Koreyko. They are the candidates for the position of the President of Ukraine at the elections 2010. And in their struggle for the welfare of ‘the little Ukrainian’ the winner will be only one.
It’s not even obligatory to make a clear diagnosis of the epidemic, which covered all the candidates without exception, but it is obvious – today, you won’t find a single candidate for the position of the president who wouldn’t declare the necessity to fight corruption.
What is it? A flow of sudden love to the state, a late understanding by the officials of the real scope of danger, or maybe it’s just another fashionable ‘trend’? We offer you to look for the wanted variant of the reply yourselves.
The candidate doesn’t survive only thanks to bread
Corruption, to be more clear, fighting corruption is the top topic in the programs of all the candidates for the position of the President of Ukraine. The issues of two languages, entering NATO, dividing Ukraine into ephemeral sorts – all these questions are not up to date during this political season. Presidential candidates aspire for fight: with the flue, with the prices, with the crisis, and naturally – with corruption.
The radical character of anti corruption promises astonishes. Let’s have a look at the approaches of our tender female candidates!
To wind up corrupted officials as a class with all seriousness promises Inna Bohoslovska; to provide imprisonment for life for corruption is the slogan of Yuliya Timoshenko. And the suggestion of Lyudmyla Suprun to conduct regular clean-up of the authorities with recalling of all the officials who committed themselves sounds really naïve.
After these calls you stop being surprised by the decisiveness of the male candidates. Each of them has already publicly promised to wind up corruption and together with it - the corruptionists. The youngest and the most hot-tempered announced another crusade against corruption.
The serious character of the intentions of the male candidates is witnessed by the fact that 7 candidates have started their election campaign with the problem of corruption in Ukraine and necessity of fighting it: Mykhaylo Brodskiy, Anatoliy Hrytsenko, Oleksandr Moroz, Petro Symonenko, Serhiy Tihipko and naturally Viktor Yanukovych. Two of them have also finished their program with this topic. The rest of the candidates, including the current President have also paid attention to the corruption topic. For example, Viktor Yushenko 4 times mentioned corruption in his program, Yuriy Kostenko – 6 times.
It will be interesting for the readers to know that the word “corruption” in the programs of candidates can be found 49 times. For example, all the candidates mentioned the welfare of Ukrainians just 10 times, whereas mentioning of ‘order’ can be seen 42 times - almost as frequent as ‘corruption’.
Lustration with the elements of prevention is Ukrainian artless recipe of fighting corruption.
Under these conditions, it’s interesting to see the first steps of any of the winners. If to follow the program logics, announcements and acts of the candidates, the first thing they have to deal with in case of election – is to save the country from corruptionists. Therefore, we should expect the decisive fight of the winner with his/her competitors at the elections.
The set of fighting methods of all the candidates is traditionally unpretentious: starting from deprivation of corruptionists of the state pensions, ranks and rewards and up to the threats familiar to Ukrainians, which is imprisonment for life.
And some of them, for example Oleksandr Moroz and Oleh Tyzhnybok state directly: Ukraine renounced death penalty for corruptionists too early – they are ready to support the necessary law.
The closer to the elections, the more menacing look has the weapon of the candidates – anti corruptionists, their faces become more decisive at the colorful bill boards.
That’s why we would like to remind the honorable readers and the candidates themselves about the experience of fighting corruption in China. As it is known, it’s not the most democratic country in the world. Military execution at the squares is still practiced there.
The Chinese authorities have started to admit the problem of corruption comparatively recently – just about 7 years ago. It was the time, when ‘red commissars’ announced the contest for the decisive fight with the corruptionists.
The set of anti corruption methods of the Chinese was extremely similar to the approaches of our candidates: from the clear regulation of administrative services, accountability of the officials, and up to providing maximum severe punishment for the act of corruption.
Let’s be frank: such radical actions of the Chinese authorities gave their results comparatively quickly – in 3 years the Chinese were able to decrease corruption level almost in 20%.
But, despite the ardor of the local authorities, during the last 4 years the situation with corruption in China hasn’t become any better. The experts speak of the so called stagnation of corruption in China.
The reason for it is that the state has almost fully used all administrative influence patters on corruption, whereas China lacks democratic patterns: they were simply thrown away as the ineffective ones and those, which distract attention, during the planning of anti corruption measures.
In this key new Ukrainian fashion for the strong hand doesn’t seem such an innocent toy. Furthermore, the whole civilized world has been long speaking about such a democratic form of corruption counteraction as prevention.
One of the sufficiently successful examples of corruption prevention during entering higher educational establishments can be considered external independent evaluation. A number of Ukrainian and international researches certified: upon introducing independent testing, corruption during entrance decreased in more than 90%.
This gave village residents equal rights to study in Kyiv higher educational establishments. For this reasons it’s quite sad to observe that the top 5 candidates for the position of the President support the cancellation of independent testing and call for returning to the in transparent entrance procedures.
In general the selective approach to overcoming corruption in the spirit of the old Rome principle “Everything to the friends – the law for the enemies” is quite often observed in the candidates’ programs. It becomes obvious from their texts that future Presidents clearly know how to punish the guilty, but have a vague understanding what to do so as not to have guilty ones.
One of the last examples can serve as a determiner. In December of the current year the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine held a subject seating of the government, during which in the presence of more than 100 invited persons, it discussed and adopted 14 very important anti corruption decrees.
Among them National anti corruption strategy. But the present people remembered this seating not due to the adopted decrees, but due to the fact that the government headed by the Prime Minister insisted on everyone leaving the hall.
We shall remind that the second issue of the agenda was adopting by the government the final decision on the so called summer house of Viktor Yanukovich – notorious residence “Mezhygir’ya”.
What is left.
It’s undisputable fact that corruption fight becomes new political fashion in Ukraine. For the elector it means that each candidate will indispensably remind from the TV screen or a bill board about the shameful 146th position of Ukraine in the list of 180 most corrupted countries of the world. This rating is prepared by Transparency International based on the results of Corruption Perception Index.
All the candidates without exception in the format of fashionable culinary TV shows will offer the audience their own recipes of fast overcoming of corruption in Ukraine. Instead, as in culinary TV shows, to eat broth prepared according to such recipes, the star heroes will ask the spectators, observing this process from behind the scenes.
But the fashionable trends, as it is known, quickly pass – sometimes even during one seasons. And as always in these cases, only the classics remain worth.
This means that each elector should once more carefully look through the programs of the candidates and try and find there something from the classical anti corruption ways.
For Ukraine they are the following:
- real ensuring of the independence of Ukrainian judicial system;
- adoption and execution of National anti corruption strategy as a foundation for strengthening the capability of the authorities to really counteract corruption;
- involving and taking into consideration anti corruption experience of other countries at all stages of development and introduction of anti corruption initiatives;
- reinforcing the role of civil society organizations in forming intolerable attitude of Ukrainians towards corruption;
- introduction of the actual civic control over the work of authorities of all levels and over the decisions adopted by them.
Without this basis it’s impossible to promote any anti corruption reforms in Ukraine. That’s why any kind of talks on this topic or sweet promises is sly.
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