When dealing with any proposal, it seems best to start by addressing the ways to implement it. Among many political statements marking the start of the political season one’s attention is drawn by Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine’s proposal to hold an “all- Ukrainian forum of democratic forces” laid down in an open letter to the president of Ukraine (Aug. 28). OU suggests that the head of state “secure the participation” of the regime in the said forum.
Suppose we skip the old Communist Youth League formula about securing participation and go to the crux of the matter. Who is supposed to select the participants in that “all-Ukraine forum” and how? Who will OU entrust with deciding on this participation and according to what criteria? This author has on more than one occasion poked fun at outwardly prestigious gatherings like the Forum of Ukrainian as no one has as yet bothered to explain what being Ukrainian is. From what I know, the last time such a “Ukrainian forum” was arranged largely owing to local state administrations. Supposedly, the later knew best whom of those under their jurisdiction were real Ukrainians. This is probably why this and other such “forums” have always served to offer the podium to specially selected figures. And no one would take seriously anything said by the rest taking the floor or how the audience felt about it.
Is there any difference between such window-dressing get-togethers and the forum proposed by Yushchenko? We do not have a meter to measure the level of democracy present in a given individual. Does this mean that the delegates will be determined according to someone’s biased judgment? Who will that someone be? Acting on whose authority? We have not received an answer to any of these questions, because there are no democracy criteria. A real democracy knows only one way to delegate rights — by free elections. We are supposed to have had such elections. Was the turnout tampered with? Probably. Admitting that much officially would mean resignation for all the deputies and new elections. No one wants this, meaning that accusations of lack of democracy hurled by one group of people’s deputies at the next are worth about as much as a bride’s complaints of not being led through the proper church ritual. Likewise, calling the said forum is nothing but a desire to replace a legitimate body of power by God knows what.
That “forum of democratic forces” leaves no doubt as to what it is really all about. Any political party worth its salt will arrange to bring the needed number of people from the regions and seat them in the audience at the right time and place. Likewise, no one can be legally prevented from calling such a gathering an all-Ukraine forum. Except perhaps that in our case those in power are required to attend it. Why? Who? The parliament? The latter would make the whole situation look like a nationwide farce with the people’s choices attending a forum representing a certain political force we know all about. President Kuchma? Suppose he does attend, and then?
We are all human and the same goes for this forum’s organizing committee. There is that urge to visit high places, sensing the atmosphere, imagining oneself part of it, with all the privileges, being able to allow access to some and ban it to others. Except that one ought to indulge such fantasizing after hours. Business comes first, especially in the parliament.
