Once, leafing through another whodunit in a library, I suddenly came across some interesting revelations of a book character, “an image-maker and spin doctor,” the owner of an election- campaign agency. She described her job as a nonstop headache and a terrible strain which, however, is paid for according to her expenses. For the main thing is not so much to help your customer as to bring down his rivals. An especially hazardous — in the literal sense of the word — job. “Mudslinging is a subtle thing,” the novel’s character said.
Political reality overshadows the hottest plots in any piece of art. Even the writer’s wildest fantasies sometimes pale before the stormy process of throwing dirt on one and all. Mudslinging, now referred to as “election technologies,” has always been in demand because the ultimate goal remains the same: to neutralize undesirable politicians on a selective basis. The word democratic is hardly applicable to our election procedure: rather, might better be called metallurgical, for it resembles an uninterrupted production process. No sooner does one election finish than preparations for the next begin. This would raise no objections if the technicians focused their efforts on the development, rather than degradation, of sociopolitical processes. High technologies are trailing in the wake of antidemocratic traditions, such a fervent hunt for the brightest political figures. As soon as a lucid head begins to rise above and stand in the way of the quagmire, it immediately comes under a mud slide. Mudslinging during election and other campaigns is funded, accordingly, by dirty financial flows. This is why the practitioners of black technologies aim their sights above all at those who initiate and monitor the struggle against money laundering, try to foil dubious financial schemes, and block the shadow privatization of state property. What makes dirty technologies especially cynical is not only their protection of shadow business interests but also their chronic shortage or complete lack of political culture.
Western civilization draws cultural inspiration from the Bible, with its commandments being of fundamental importance in both business and politics. But where people continue to be guided by the law of the jungle, the white raiment of absolutely democratic institutions will be of little use. The main principle of Christ’s theoretical spiritual concept will be put into practice only when one individual does unto others as he would have done unto himself in return. Conversely, our businessmen and politicians do to their rivals what they would never want to be done to themselves. Of course, there are some exceptions, but these people are precisely the object of the most aggressive information onslaught, for they dared to be moral. Morality is the weakest link in business and politics still shackled to the totalitarian principle of the end justifies the means. Hence our election campaigns can be called, with a fair share of irony, a feast of democracy at the banquet of contracted dirty political technologies. Among those hired can be an individual, enterprise, government institution, or even a whole country. Mudslinging involves huge money, some leftovers of which also go to the gutter press whose zeal sometimes exceeds the limits of common sense and payment for the services rendered.
Such reflections occur to me every time someone cries fire in order to maximally heat up the atmosphere, himself trying to keep a low profile.
The first thing that attracted my attention when the post of the National Security and Defense Council was entrusted to Yevhen Marchuk was a change for as much openness and sincerity as possible. The NSDC began to discuss the most acute problems that present danger to the security of individuals and the country as a whole. Not a single letter from Ukrainian residents remains unattended or unanswered (which, unfortunately, is not the case with local authorities). The people have understood that this is one of the few governmental institutions that is not only corruption-free itself but also cuts off the supply lines of many shadow schemes. This is why the NSDC and its secretary have come under criticism and accusations in the past two years. Mr. Marchuk is being charged with incompetence, undemocratic attitudes, lack of patriotism, and even hostility toward the Internet. The NSDC has also played a major role in stabilizing the sociopolitical situation during the tapegate scandal. This is why the Left-Right extremists so hoped for the NSDC secretary to leave office. But what became the main trump for those who feel uneasy under the strict NSDC control is the illegal arms trade charge, one leveled at Ukraine four times in two years. Following a painstaking examination, the charge would remain unconfirmed and another would be leveled again some time later. The common people hold such accusers in wholesale contempt, saying they “will sell out both father and mother” or “will stab you in the back” to achieve their evil ends.
This brazen media attack on the NSDC secretary by shadow dealers reminds me, in a way, of another dirty campaign... Surprisingly (or perhaps not?), the latter featured the same names of individuals and newspapers and, moreover, a similar pretext for and method of conducting the campaign. The pretext was 50%+1 share of the government stake in the Illich Steel Mill. When it became clear that the mill’s management and workers firmly supported the privatization of their enterprise by the workforce unit and that this meaty morsel was thus slipping out of the schemers’ hands, the media launched a frenzied campaign to discredit General Manager V. S. Boiko and the collective form of ownership as allegedly ineffective. The method consisted in unfounded accusations, written-to-order articles, distortions, lies, and even fake letters by workers. One of the most active participants in that campaign was the newspaper... — yes, you’re right! — Kievsky telegraf owned by Andriy Derkach. Some unknown “patrons” subscribed to as many as five copies of that paper for our library! The then Security Service Director Leonid Derkach (pere ) was searching worldwide for Mr. Boiko’s mythical foreign bank accounts. Mariupol saw an ocean of libelous leaflets claiming that these accounts have allegedly been found. Also taking part in this campaign was a Mariupol newspaper that prints all kinds of allegations and is firmly against the Illich Plant. Now again, the newspaper has published a front-page article called “Is the Security Council Secretary a Smuggler?” Tellingly, the editor-in-chief thus defined the range of interests of her newspaper’s readers in an interview with none other than Kievsky telegraf (April 9-15, 2001), “In principle, people are more interested in what to cook, what to do laundry with, and how to kill cockroaches or Colorado beetles than in politics and politicians.” She apparently means that the headline with a pretense at cheap sensationalism is actually an attempt to get the reader interested in politics and politicians; otherwise, according to the editor-in-chief, “...the attitude toward, say, Tymoshenko, is simply philistine: ‘Look how they’ve just grabbed money hand over fist...’” I can only add to this that treating the readers as uncultivated philistines is in itself philistine.
One of those who opposed the privatization of the mill by its workforce unit was one Mr. Chechetov who claimed that it “would deal a painful blow to Ukraine’s investment image.” Time has clearly shown who dealt a painful blow to Ukraine’s image and how.
Is it accidental or merely to be expected that Mr. Chechetov, first deputy chief of the State Property Fund, should be now lobbying a dubious scheme, suggesting selling the Ukrnaftoprodukt controlling interest “on a competitive basis” (the same once applied to the controlling shares of the Illich Steel Mill Den’, No. 237, December 25 — Author )? Time is certain to answer this and other questions.
What is no accident is that the cynical “special operation” against Mr. Marchuk, the NSDC and Ukraine is bound to fail and justice will prevail! Which I sincerely wish it to all!
