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Taras VoznyakTwo years of Poroshenko’s presidency: failures and achievementsPetro Poroshenko has been president
for two years and Ukraine is slowly moving forward, but the question is whether
our country will manage to reach its objectives. Well, actually, it’s not very
clear what the objectives are, and this can be explained by both internal and
external factors. Internal factors – vague and
confused plans. Poroshenko’s Ukraine has got stuck at the stage of the
EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The president doesn’t talk aloud about
Ukraine’s plans for full membership in the EU and NATO, nor does he outline
them as a clear political objective. His announcements are limited to small
ridiculous plans for a visa-free regime with the EU or the Ukraine-EU
Association Agreement. Other countries, such as Morocco or South Africa, have
worked towards reaching such an agreement with the EU, but, in contrast to
Ukraine, they’ve attained their objective. Generally speaking, 32 countries
have some sort of membership status with the EU, even the Palestinian
Authority. But not Ukraine, even after two Maidans and our heroic war in the
East. But there are other factors,
independent of Ukraine, that make this process somewhat illusory. The first is
the internal crisis in the EU. The EU has walked away from plans for closer
integration and adoption of the European Constitution, and on the contrary,
it’s moving towards a growing sense of vague national egoism. It’s not just
about Greece, but also the UK, Hungary and recently, to our surprise,
neighbouring Poland. Internal EU integration is differentiated, so we must move
quickly in order to integrate with the EU. The EU is changing and even if we
declare that we’re in the EU, we’ll probably find ourselves in a very different
political structure from today’s. So, we’re currently heading towards the EU,
but we don’t actually know where we’ll end up… No one really knows because no
one knows what the EU will look like in several years, not to mention how far
it will extend. Ukraine’s status is especially curious because it stretches
tediously into infinity – to a point on the horizon that seems to move further
and further away as we strive to approach it… The same applies to Ukraine’s more
urgent need – integration “with” or “into” NATO. Here, the president remains
silent. Although it’s difficult to say something when presidential candidate
Donald Trump loudly asserts that he’ll dissolve NATO. No comment! And then there’s war and corruption,
and the debilitation and pettiness of Ukraine’s political class. After two years of Poroshenko’s
rule, Ukrainian society is very tired of everyone and everything. However,
there are two sides to this fatigue. On the one hand, people are extremely
exhausted and disappointed. On the other hand, people are seething with rage…
two normal trends, in my opinion. The political process hasn’t stopped
in Ukraine, as many would like it to. We’re into the second year of social and
political revolution. These processes don’t depend on our political class or on
President Poroshenko. If our politicians and the President move along with this
process, and not drag their feet behind it, they will have a chance to
survive. If not, they’ll disappear in the coming social and political wave. Of
course, we could talk about some other things that Ukraine’s politicians and
the president have done, and that they’re well in charge of the political
scene. But, today, I don’t believe anyone would dare propose such a thesis.
Therefore, our politicians have two options – try to save themselves by not
interfering in these changing political processes, or be destroyed. So, let’s take a look at President
Poroshenko’s failures and achievements during these two years. Failures: 1.1. Deoligarchization or reducing
the influence of oligarchic clans in social and political processes. On the
contrary, today their influence has increased. 1.2. Lustration – President
Poroshenko has run into aggressive professional corporations such as the
judiciary, the prosecution, and the police. Deep corruption has penetrated all
aspects of these corporations; they operate daily on complicated corruption schemes.
They’ve organized an effective resistance to all attempts to clean up their
backyard. And they’ve won… although one
question still remains – Have we really done everything possible to fight them?
Here, Poroshenko is to blame. 1.3. Given the failure of the two
above, President Poroshenko isn’t even close to fighting corruption – and I
don’t mean taking down simple bribe-takers, but renewing the functionality of
state institutions that are completely dysfunctional, inoperative and,
therefore, corrupt in the true sense the word. These institutions do not
fulfill their functions and serve the interests of oligarchs and corrupt
corporations. 1.4. The last action that was to be
made in accordance with the president’s pre-election promises is the liberation
of occupied Crimea and Donbas. Two questions arise – Was it possible? Should it
be our top priority now? 1.5. President Poroshenko has not
fulfilled his main election promise, i.e., he hasn’t brought peace to Ukraine.
Despite the Minsk Agreements, Russian invaders have killed or wounded one, two
or more Ukrainian soldiers every day. It doesn’t matter that election promises
are always very far from reality. Given the war in our country, there are no
excuses or pardons for Poroshenko, who was elected as the “president of peace”.
How very childish of our people to have believed this! Achievements 2.1. In these two years, we have
built and consolidated a new Ukrainian political nation that is based on the
principle of responsible citizenship. The president has not been directly
involved as it’s basically an objective social and political process. But, at
least he hasn’t interfered and hasn’t divided this new political nation, as did
Yanukovych. 2.2. Further Russian aggression was
stopped in Ukraine… stopped, and nothing more. Yes, the front lines could now
be along the Dnipro or the Zbruch – Putin has the military power to do so.
Although it’s quite possible that Putin wasn’t stopped by Ukrainian troops and
volunteer battalions, but by Poroshenko’s tacit refusal to transform Ukrainian
society and carry out Ukraine’s ambitious geopolitical plans for EU and NATO
integration. 2.3. Ukraine and Poroshenko have
managed not to lose their geopolitical allies in Europe and North America.
They’ve even acquired new ones, such as Turkey. 2.4. There have been some modest
attempts to implement reforms in certain areas – the police, the power sector,
local self-government… 2.5. I
believe the forced deindustrialization of the Donbas is an “achievement” – but,
it’s the result of war, and not someone’s conscious action. This should have
happened a long time ago, but everyone without exception – presidents, prime
ministers and ruling parties – were all terribly afraid of doing anything in
the Donbas. And so, it happened due to causes that were outside Ukraine’s
control (occupation and looting of the Donbas by Russian troops-Ed.). A
21st century economy must be built on the ruins of the
post-Soviet industries in the Donbas… if this comes about, of course. Today,
the opposite is happening in the Donbas – a complete breakdown of culture and
society, civilization rollback, and archaism. In fact, there’s a clear platform
to clear the area of industry and advanced technology. 2.6. An unexpected achievement in
these two years is that the revolutionary potential has been preserved.
Ukrainian society is not asleep and Ukrainian citizens are maturing; they are
much more ready and willing to act than on the eve of the two previous Maidans
in the summers of 2004 and 2013. 2.7. I think another unexpected
achievement in the two years of Poroshenko’s presidency is that the first set
of politicians recruited after 2014 are ready to be retired. Today, they’re all
more or less “burnt out” – they did what they could (if anything!), and I
believe most of them will be sidelined or thrown out of the political arena.
This will open the doors for the next generation of politicians, but they still
need to be trained and fortified. In my opinion, these are the most
apparent results of two years of Poroshenko’s presidency. 2016, June 06 Translated by: Christine Chraibi |