Mikheil Saakashvili, ex-president of Georgia, head of the Odesa Oblast State Administration, gave an interview to Politico, a media from Brussels, saying that he was ready to become the prime minister of Ukraine. “I would like to partake in the great changes and reforms. I can do it in any capacity,” Saakashvili said, actually refuting his earlier statements. The declaration was preceded by the governor’s harsh verbal dispute with incumbent Prime Minister Arsenii Yatseniuk.
One can surely see the trend of appointing “Varyags” for public offices continue. The past Wednesday Khatia Dekanoidze was appointed Chief of the National Police – she was the Minister of Education of Georgia, the first rector of the Police Academy of Georgia, and Assistant Deputy to Eka Zguladze, Interior Minister.
Surely, inviting the experts from other countries as advisors is beneficial to Ukraine, as their experience is very important. However, we must also cultivate the national elite. Hennadii DRUZENKO, social activist, comments to The Day on the problem of inviting foreigners to highest public offices.
“It is unfortunate that Georgians – people with a keen sense of self-esteem, are willing to be tools in the hands of others, to play the cover-up role in the clash within the top of our clan-oligarchic elite.
“There is a simple democratic logic: the politicians should have warned that they would rely on ‘Varyags.’ However, none of them mentioned that during the election campaign. It turns out that our leadership is doing something they did not warn the voters about – and this is yet another instance of political cheating.
“The president or the prime minister – depending on who decided on the appointment – insulted Ukrainian people, who won the Revolution of Dignity, who took the whole brunt of the war themselves, albeit with the help of fellow Georgians. This demonstrates the lack of faith in the people. I think this to be a great disrespect towards Ukrainians, without whom most of today’s political leaders would have been in the emigration or on remand of the Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka.
“Such actions of our authorities will have serious consequences. These appointments develop national inferiority complex among Ukrainians. It is just that instead of inviting Russians we do the same with Georgians. With all due respect to our Georgian brothers, I am afraid that this is just trading the bad for the worse.
“I’m not sure if Georgians could help in the reforms in Ukraine. In many respects our state is more powerful than Georgia. Our senior officials have to understand that these ‘transplants’ will not work in our country, except for those related to the marketing. But one may not sell candy wrappers instead of the candy – our president must understand this well. And I even don’t mention the disregard of the concept of Ukrainian citizenship, which is handed overnight.
“Everyone knows that Saakashvili is great at PR, but I have to agree with Yatseniuk that the consequence of Saakashvili’s reforms were not only the ousting of him personally, but also the decline of his party, and probably the loss of the citizenship. I don’t think this to be the thing we should take as an example.
“I would like to see the results of his work; but it is clear now that Saakashvili, being the head of Odesa Oblast State Administration, with his own public prosecutor and the police, has lost outright to the Party of Regions. Following his high-profile allegations and the war with the prime minister, we saw very little reform. When I visited Georgia in the late 2000s, I had the impression that Saakashvili has only one brilliant team – in the marketing department. And it looks like in Ukraine we are experiencing the same thing as Georgia back then: the parallel realities of the marketing and the real world.”
