When reporter Mustafa Nayem called a protest in Kiev against then-Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych’s rejection of a deal with Europe, he sparked a movement that would oust a government and plunge Ukraine into historic change.
A year, a revolution, foreign intervention and an insurgency later, the former opposition journalist has gone from outsider to running on the ticket of Ukraine’s new pro-Western leadership in today’s parliamentary elections.
Nayem, 33, is not the only one to have trod the path from protest to ballot box, and said he made up his mind after best-selling US author Francis Fukyuama told him an activist must be ready to “get his hands dirty” in order to achieve change.
Photo: Reuters
About 50 young activists who helped organize the rallies on Ukraine’s iconic Independence Square that toppled Yanukovych in February now look likely to become elected lawmakers.
Also running for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s party is Nayem’s colleague at the influential online publication Ukrainska Pravda, Sergiy Leshchenko, whose coverage of Yanukovych’s excesses of fueled the revolt against the former elite.
Now the ex-journalists want to join the political establishment to try to change it from the inside.
“I do not know if we will be successful or not, but we have to try in order not to regret missing this chance,” the towering 34-year-old Leshchenko said. “There is an opportunity to change the system from the inside.”
KEY STEP
Today’s snap election in Ukraine is seen as a key step in completing the historical rupture with the past that started with the barricades and bloodshed of Kiev’s protests.
Polls show that pro-Western and nationalist candidates look set to win big as the ex-Soviet state cements its shift toward Europe and away from Russia, blamed for driving a bloody separatist uprising in the industrial east.
“There is a strong demand by society for renewing the political elites and lawmakers,” a club dominated by business clans, political analyst Taras Berezovets told reporters.
For the activists and ex-journalists, the decision to enter into the minefield of Ukrainian politics — long tainted by a reputation for rampant graft and self-enrichment — was not an easy one.
Nayem, Leshchenko and their running mate, Svitlana Zalishchuk, 32, a prominent activist and Leshchenko’s partner, said they spoke to several parties, but finally chose the president’s.
‘SELLING OUT’
The official announcement was made at a Poroshenko Bloc conference in mid-September, where they showed up in T-shirts emblazoned with “Fuck corruption” slogans.
Even then the decision sparked an avalanche of criticism that they had sold out to those who had come to power.
The trio counters that they opted for one of the mainstream parties because the warp speed of recent events in Ukraine left them scrambling to catch up.
“Ideally we should have founded a political party, but we didn’t have time,” Zalishchuk said.
In addition, building a campaign from scratch would cost at least US$10 million, a prohibitive sum for any activist, she said.
‘TALENTED JOURNALISTS’
Seeing some of the fiercest government critics attempt to join the establishment has left some worried about where scrutiny will come from in future. With the ranks of her best journalists depleted by the political campaign, Ukrainska Pravda’s editor-in-chief announced Thursday that she was leaving her post.
“I am sorry that they chose politics,” outgoing editor Olena Pritula wrote. “I hope it is not in vain, that instead of talented journalists, the country will have lawmakers that are no less sharp.”
However, she promised that seeing former allies enter politics would not stifle criticism from Ukraine’s one-time activists.
“No regime can put us in its pocket; we promise,” she wrote.
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