Can We Declare the Orange Revolution a Failure?
Contrary to what I had thought, Yushchenko announced tonight that he would propose Yanukovich’s candidacy for the prime minister’s post. I listened to his emotional speech, and my heart sank as he spoke.
Theoretically, he will try to unite the nation and reconcile the east-west divide which had put the Ukrainian parliamentarians, if not the entire nation, to a standstill. But will it work? Does it mean that the Orange Revolution is officially over and can be declared a failure? But most importantly, how bad will it play along the Belarusian regime? And will our opposition draw some important conclusions from the Ukrainian dilemma? If Yanukovich and Yushchenko had guts to become allies, shouldn’t Milinkevich and Kozulin have done the same? Or maybe fragile unities, like the Orange one, eventually lead to disintegration and political failure, and Belarusian opposition leaders should be cautious whom they befriend. The discussion is open.
I don’t think we need declare the Orange Revolution a failure. The revolution was about overturning falsified election results, and that happened. British observers who attended the latest elections said that the democratic credentials and nature of those elections in Ukraine were better than in the UK. Personally, I would prefer Yanukovich didn’t become Prime Minister, but that’s democracy. The Communists didn’t immediately all disappear from the former Soviet and Soviet satellite states when democracy appeared either, and yet, at least in the satellite states, democracy is still robust. I’m not despondent yet.
Comment by BiB — August 7, 2006 @ 1:41 pm