Not a good way to start a democracy

[Judi Lynn]

Not a good way to start a democracy

Serious questions must be asked about US influence in Ukraine

Jonathan Steele
Friday December 31, 2004
The Guardian

The core of democracy is tolerance of other people's views. Whether it is Rosa Luxemburg's call for respecting the "freedom of people who think differently" or Winston Churchill's pride in British parliamentary debate, left and right agree on this principle.

Alas, it is not much on display in Kiev. Egged on by their favourite, Viktor Yushchenko, crowds have been blocking the main government building and doing all they can to humiliate his rival, prime minister Viktor Yanukovich. Their man won the presidential election, but where is the respect for constitutional procedures they claim to support?

In a minuscule way, I felt the same intolerance when I criticised the street protests in these columns a month ago. The flood of ferocious emails, mainly from Yushchenko fans, exceeded the response to anything I had written before.

Although my article said Yushchenko would probably be a better president than Yanukovich and urged the EU to open its doors to Ukraine immediately (views that most of the Kiev protesters held), it caused outrage. I had dared to suggest that Yanukovich's voters were as genuine as Yushchenko's, and that Yushchenko's backers included oligarchs who had enriched themselves at the state's expense. Above all, it drew attention to the degree of funding by the US and other western governments for the campaign.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1381326,00.html

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1. Democracy always seems to start rough these days

But it is terrible what is happening in Ukraine. So corrupt and plain evil (POISONING THE OTHER CANDIDATE?????) that it sickens me. I am proud of the non-violent protesters though (the orange band protesters. They are a perfect display of the power of civil disobedience.