Ex- PM not the shoo- in she thinks she is to replace Yanukovych
Ukraine: The West may see her as a leader of democracy, but the people are wary
The euphoria at the abrupt downfall of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych after a few days of shocking bloodshed in the heart of Kyiv is already giving way to fear about the resulting power vacuum.
Parliament appointed its speaker, Oleksandr Turchynov, to serve as acting president until early elections are held in May.
Meanwhile, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was released Saturday from a prison hospital, spent the day acting as if she had already won the election. She received phone calls from influential politicians in Europe and several prominent U. S. senators and held court for a stream of admiring western ambassadors.
You might not know it from the fawning coverage that Tymoshenko has received over the past two days, but it is far from a sure thing that she can win the presidency. That was obvious from the reception she got when she went directly to Independence Square to speak from a wheelchair to the large crowd that had already gathered there to mourn nearly 100 “martyrs” killed in gun battles with Yanukovych’s security forces last week.
All the major western television news networks claimed Tymoshenko had received a rapturous welcome. I was there, though, and the truth is that the actual reaction fell somewhere between lukewarm and tepid. Some even shouted that she had done exactly what Yanukovych had done, amassing an immense fortune while in office.
Quizzing people in the square after Tymoshenko spoke, almost nobody wanted one of the great heroes of the now- tarnished Orange Revolution of 2004 to return to the centre of Ukrainian political life.
“She talks a lot, but I do not believe her,” said activist Denis Tsymbal, still clutching a long wooden club and an improvised steel shield and hiding his face behind a bandana. He rolled his eyes at the suggestion that Tymoshenko might be the next president.
Others in the street denounced Tymoshenko as venal and incompetent.
One of the few observers for a western audience who differed sharply with the European and North American consensus about how wonderful it was to have Tymoshenko back in politics was the acerbic Russian- American editor Julia Ioffe. In an article published Sunday in the New Republic, The New Yorker’s former Moscow correspondent mockingly described Tymoshenko as “a Ukrainian speaking Joan of Arc.”
Her speech in the square “sounded like the opening volley of a campaign,” Ioffe wrote. “And the crowd wasn’t having any of it.”
The “big difference in perception of Tymoshenko in Ukraine and the West” amused Oleksandr Sushko of the Institute of Euro- Atlantic Integration.
“The West sees her as a leader of Ukrainian democracy. That is no longer true here,” Sushko said. “There is emotional solidarity with her because she was unfairly imprisoned. That makes her a victim, but not a hero.
“The reality,” he said, “is that she did nothing for the revolution and always has done everything for herself. We already know that she is not someone who can bring about the kind of democratic reforms that are required. She was a total failure as prime minister. She did nothing to transform the country.”
Vira Nanivska, the director of the International Institute of Political Studies, was even more damning.
“Tymoshenko was a Stalinist tyrant who absolutely did not understand public administration,” said Nanivska, who has frequently worked with Canadians to bring democratic reforms to Ukraine.
“She is not regarded as the potential saviour of Ukraine, and that is a big problem for her. That she does not yet see that herself was evident in her manner of speaking Saturday. She was not in tune with the people at the Maidan,” as Independence Square is also known.
Echoing what many of those in the square were saying, Nanivska added: “If she wants to run, fine. But she will have a shock at the way she is now accepted.”
Explaining her immense popularity in Europe and North America, Nanivska said that “while she was in jail good work was done for her by her daughter and others to get her sympathy and support. Yanukovych was so horrible he made her look good.”
Nanivska acknowledged that Tymoshenko remains “a fantastic public speaker,” but said: “I don’t think that she can win.
“It is not enough today to constantly say that you love the people and will always protect them. People remember how it was when she was prime minister.”
Even one of Tymoshenko’s few supporters backed into her explanation of why she would vote for her.
“I guess half the people do not regard her as the best candidate,” bank clerk Yana Zaglada said. “They want new people in government, not the old ones we had before.
“I think that she will make a good president because of what she learned while she was in prison.”