aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] Again on US "meddling"

["Alexander Dillon" <alexdillon@earthlink.net>]

Dear AAUS'ers,
	Last night I was musing about the issue of US "meddling" in the Ukrainian
elections. The question impinges on me personally, because I'm now an
employee of a private Ukrainian university, my work here is funded entirely
by OSI (a Soros foundation), and this university has taken an active stance
in the recent events. Finally, I've offered my energies and "expertise"
(for whatever it's worth) to the university's political engagement.
	I thought I'd share it with you all. If any of you have any reactions, I'd
be grateful to read them.
	Since I wrote the piece thinking I might send it to some American journal
or website, I wrote of "American" traditions or institutional etiquette;
but in such instances, I do mean Western ones, in general.
	-Alex

****************************************

The question whether the US is inappropriately aiding the ~SOrange
Revolution~T in Ukraine is very complex. Since the accusation not that the
US has funded the Yushchenko campaign directly, but rather that it funds
NGOs that in turn support the Yushchenko campaign, the question we are
therefore faced with is, where do we draw the line between appropriate and
inappropriate political partisanship for a public or government-funded
organization (or an organization that is mixed public/private). Should the
US only give money to organizations that, in turn, are bound to *a strict
oath of non-partisanship* in their own countries~R politics? 
	 One thing I'm sure of is that we cannot use American standards of
institutional etiquette to answer this question. Our country has a
long-standing tradition of civil society, and we have developed a
sophisticated etiquette concerning how private and semi-private
institutions should act towards political questions. Many of our such
organizations voluntarily abstain from partisanship come election time.
They do this not because the individuals within those organizations are
apolitical. Rather, they usually do so out of respect for the diversity of
opinion within their institution and the unwillingness to jeopardize the
free atmosphere in which such diversity came about. Most importantly, they
also know that, this being the US, other available forums in which their
personnel can articulate various political stances are plentiful. (One such
example: recall a recent e-mail "discussion" about the institutional
political non-partisanship of HURI.) 
	 In Ukraine, however, civil society works in a very different legal and
political environment, because of which it is very difficult to be an
institution of civil society without becoming politically motivated.
Ukrainian NGOs do not enjoy the luxuries that American civil society
enjoys. Civil society in Ukraine is relatively new and far less vigorous
than in the US. Americans journalists seem to have forgotten that civil
society was not tolerated in Soviet times, in which apparently civic
organizations were arms of the state apparatus. Today, Ukraine~Rs civil
society, growing partly but not wholly with foreign aid, faces both
economic and political obstacles. The poor economic situation is a serious
hindrance, because one cannot establish institutions without money. Many
Ukrainians feel that the government of Kuchma is, too, a hindrance to the
development of civil society, as it frequently harasses independent
institutions, such as the press. 
	In two of the history classes I teach here in L~Rviv, I asked students
whether they felt Ukraine had civil society, and was astonished at their
answer: both groups of students unhesitatingly said no. I think this is
exaggerated: Ukraine does have civil society, but I must agree with my
Ukrainian students in the sense that Ukrainian civil society is
beleaguered, both by an economy that affords little surplus to go around
creating organizations, and by a regime that is not always hospitable to
independent initiative. 
	In such conditions, it is an exceedingly high demand to make of NGOs that
they maintain strict non-partisanship in the political process. 
         We in America have relative confidence that our votes will be
counted fairly, that our dissenting mass-media programs will not be cut in
mid-program, that we won't get beaten by thugs after writing an expose on
the political machinations of some corporate criminal. Americans should try
to imagine life in country where none of these things are guaranteed before
they start acting surprised by the expressed political preferences of
Ukrainian NGOs that happen to receive US support.


Alexander Dillon, HESP fellow
Faculty of Humanities
Ukrainian Catholic University
vul. Sventsits'koho 17
L'viv 79011
Ukraine

home tel: (380)-(322)-76-0224
mobile tel: (380)-(67)-605-4604
e-mail: alexdillon@earthlink.net