Unfortunately, the Rise up, Ukraine! protest campaign that has been organized by the opposition is still dominated by the issue of protecting Yulia Tymoshenko. This contradicts the absolutely correct statements of the Fatherland party leaders, including Oleksandr Turchynov himself, in which they clarified the main root cause of the protests: the arrest of ex-prime minister means an attack on the rights and freedoms of the vast majority of citizens, and looks like onset of dictatorship. Speakers at the tents in Khreshchatyk (they were still there as of August 10) talk a lot about “our unbreakable Yulia” and much less about democracy. In addition, she is always called the leader of opposition, in spite of the fact that there are other forces and leaders who have declared their opposition to the government. Thus, we have obvious signs of that long-standing flaw of thinking, according to which the leader comes before the values, and “our” organization shall lead the fight, while the rest are free to follow or quit. It should be just the opposite. It is extremely difficult to increase the number of protesters under such conditions.
They have announced the establishment of another committee to unite the opposition, but would not it end like earlier organizations, which also started with great pomp, only to disappear quietly? By the way, one can recall that in the early 2000s, Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc launched a similar protest called Arise, Ukraine! (Yulia Tymoshenko was jailed afterwards), but the protest appealed to a much broader political spectrum then. Today, the protesters’ propaganda texts purport to defend the democracy against dictatorship, too, but one cannot notice any such slogans over the tents. One should have written those appeals in the largest letters possible in order to make the dictatorship onset clearly visible for the Ukrainians. At the same time, an almost unknown organization, called General Military Servicemen Union of Ukraine, has fenced its own camp with boards that are covered with highly visible inscriptions; these slogans were made apparently with printing equipment and aimed at discrediting Tymoshenko. Those inscriptions are backed by the voices from that organization’s camp, which are trying to drown the opposition’s speeches with the help of powerful loudspeakers. Few people doubt the fact that this allegedly public initiative was organized on the government’s advice.
It is currently unclear how long the government will tolerate the tents and the opposition campaign participants themselves, for the latter declared no end date. But there are already the court orders prohibiting it, and the camp is surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands of militia and state security service personnel, all in body armor vests. Incidentally, such fear of fellow citizens is a sign of the totalitarian system. The protest campaign Rise up, Ukraine! is necessary for democratic forces’ mobilization. However, focusing only on the fate of Tymoshenko limits campaign’s chances for success in advance, and with these chances decreasing, our country’s prospects are becoming less optimistic, too.
