Just months ago, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko was heralded in Washington as the hero of Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution.” And, despite unsightly scars (from dioxin poisoning) that make him look more like a beastly ogre than the matinee idol he used to be, Yushchenko stood proud. A rare joint session of the US Congress showered him with praise worthy of a modern-day George Washington.
Back on the home front, however, Ukrainians had lost their revolutionary euphoria and were already becoming impatient with the lofty, but seemingly stagnant, promises of democracy. And, notwithstanding this national mood of anxiety and disillusionment, Yushchenko was more preoccupied with mending the alienation of affection within his political marriage than with tending to the affairs of state.
Unfortunately, he seems to have failed in both respects. Because Ukraine is now mired in economic and political chaos that, for a critical mass of Ukrainians, makes the corruption and oppression that prevailed under Yushchenko’s communist predecessors seem relatively benign. In fact, his Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Tomenko and State Secretary Alexander Zinchenko cited as much in tendering their resignations last week
But the worst was yet to come…
Alas, the glamorous and promising political marriage between President Yushchenko and his Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has become irretrievably broken down…
Reacting to these spectacular gestures of no-confidence in his leadership, Yushchenko sacked his entire cabinet and precipitated the downfall of Ukraine’s first democratically elected government after only 8 months in power. But Yulia Tymoshenko, the refined political wife he appointed as Prime Minister, felt betrayed by her summary dismissal. She filed for an immediate dissolution of their political marriage.
In keeping with her appeal as the mother of this young nation, Timoshenko justified her filing in an open letter to Yuschenko by declaring that:
I consider your decision [to sack the entire cabinet] about the government resignation [of Tomenko and Zinchenko] in current conditions as a threat to the national security of Ukraine.
Moreover, she indicated that her spurned affection was made even more vexatious by Yushchenko’s hypocrisy. Because, she claims, he blames her for the government’s demise, even though he was too busy traveling the world, basking in the acclaim as democracy’s latest darling. He rendered no support to her as the caretaker of Ukraine’s domestic affairs.
Nevertheless, this current political crisis does not necessarily portend doom for the Ukrainians in their transition from communism to democracy. After all, during their transition from fascism to democracy, Italians changed governments the way Frenchmen change mistresses. In fact, Yushchenko should seek guidance from Italy’s current Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Because Berlusconi has clearly reclaimed his country’s confidence and affection after conducting a disastrous May-December romance with the Italian people (as Prime Minister) in 1994.
But Yushchenko will have little time to work his charm on the Ukrainian people because new national elections are scheduled for March 2006. And, alas, this time around he won’t be able to get by on his good looks. Even more troubling for his prospects of success, however, is the fact that his opponents will be his former revolutionary partners PM Tymoshenko and Deputy PM Tomenko. They are not the former KGB apparatchiks who tried to assassinate him at a dinner party by spiking his martini with dioxin.
Indeed, in announcing his candidacy to unseat Yushchenko, Tomenko declared his intention to “organize the second stage of Orange Revolution.” And, not to be outdone, Tymoshenko announced her candidacy by emphatically warning Yushchenko against undermining her campaign by interfering “into personnel policy of my electoral block in the coming parliamentary elections.”
Game on!
Now, iPINIONS asks, doesn’t the drama of this divorce between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko make the split between Brad and Jen seem relatively trite?
Stay tuned…
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