2019 Elections – how Ukraine once again proved that anything could be possible

As the presidential inauguration day is approaching in Ukraine, the number of blog posts, articles, opinion pieces and theories in Ukraine and its north-eastern neighbor can be compared perhaps only to the Game of Thrones finale euphoria. Next five years on the iron throne of Ukrainian politics for Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian people promise to be anything but boring. And past several months of the election campaign will undoubtedly take their rightful place in history books as unique and unprecedented in the whole region. So why has this been a landmark campaign that became another win in the battle for Ukrainian civil society? 

Holoborodko phenomenon

Since Zelensky’s epic New Year speech there have been speculations about the timing of his decision to run for the office. This doesn’t matter in fact, as the infamous “Servant of the People” can nevertheless be regarded as the first significant step in the campaign – if not FOR Zelensky, then AGAINST the existent reality. One would argue that a wealthy actor and media manager is not a schoolteacher and equating them is a manipulation. But what is not in politics?

Back in 2015 when “Servant of the People” first aired, Ukrainian and later post-soviet segment of social media exploded with brutally honest extracts from the show that attracted even larger audience. The series, a talented mixture of creative and political, managed to uncover ugly truth not only about corrupt political establishment (so painfully familiar to all of us in the East block), but also became a sobering eye-opener showing us our mentality, crippled by 70 years of atrophied responsibility of Soviet dystopia.

The nation that went through the Orange Revolution and Euro-Maidan – which was obviously a significant indicator of braveness and a strong desire of change – by 2015 started to acknowledge that achievements of the revolution need to be preserved and turned into sustainable reforms in order to conform to the ideals they had fought for. However, the newly established nation (after centuries within the empire and so-called “Sovok”) had yet to figure out the practical ways to achieve those ideals. This was in tune with what they had observed and heard from President Holoborodko, and Ukrainians would see themselves in his shoes, which showed that…

 …Anything is possible

"I’m not yet officially the president, but as a citizen of Ukraine, I can say to all countries in the post-Soviet Union look at us. Anything is possible!"

This phrase is the biggest indicator of my previous statement that, despite being dirty, polarizing and “family-and-friendship-ruining”, 2019 election campaign is a huge win for Ukrainians. Many of my “Porohobot” friends from Ukrainian military, law enforcement and numerous “post-Maidan” NGOs (which thrived during Poroshenko’s term due to the inflow of western money), would call me overly optimistic, another half of pro-Zelensky idealists would mistakenly take it for the win of their candidate. But I believe that it’s much deeper than that and it’s not about either of the candidates. It’s about people, it’s their win, which they have yet to realize. Another soviet scar on our mentality is that we don’t value our own achievements, we are ready to lay them down at the feet of another authority figure, a so-called tsar or a supreme leader. 2019 campaign showed that eternal “little man” of long-suffering Russian literature has got the voice and this voice can be heard outside Maidan barricades. Isn’t this the true…

 …Birth of democracy?

Giving birth has always been a painful process, at times even unsightly. The Ukrainian people - as most of us here in ex-Sovok – were deprived of the privilege of birth in a democratic country. The cascade of archetypal Western revolutions of 18-19 centuries, when heads flew from guillotines and people tasted the power and learned how to use it, passed us by. We only got this choice less than 30 years ago. Modern reality doesn’t give us the benefit of past “bloody lesson of guillotine and terror”, however we’ve got the social media. We are still learning and sometimes even doing just fine.

Educational function of elections – sounds boring but this time proves to be exciting

Ukrainian presidential campaign had a very important function in this vein – educational. Why? Because people, who in their majority had never read a single pre-election program were given an opportunity to co-author one in real-time.  One might argue that it’s because the candidate was incompetent and populist. So what? People started using brains to articulate their needs and to write them down. And they went even further – they began to defend their opinions using arguments.

Also, passionate ardour and desire to prove one’s neighbour their point of view drove users out of sickeningly comfortable (although banned, but that’s another story) Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte and introduced them to the magic world of Facebook and Twitter and as the result to something different from a habitual propaganda guideline. The biggest achievement is that many Russians (here I do not mean heroic warriors of the troll fabrics, but rather ordinary people) rushed there too, and even if a hundred of them has questioned that guideline, is a bigger win than we think.

These also turned out to be the first elections where young generation felt that its voice mattered. And yes, some of them did it “for shits and giggles”, but what we are missing here is that they really went to the polling station and voted.

And finally, the voting “for shits and giggles” educated political establishment about how tired people had become of corruption, nepotism, poverty and of them – politicians who reveled in their impunity. In fact, by making this seemingly unpredictable choice people managed to educate those in power that they are not eternal without a single burning tire or Molotov cocktail.

One of the paradoxical reasons for such peaceful expression of discontent is the extreme polarisation and mutual hate grade, or - to be more exact – the ability to empty it out in social media. And this has been another important part of…

…The Show

Bread and circuses. Guilty. We still love it. However, the show can take various shapes: a bloody mess (the one that brought Putin to power in 1999) or Moshe Klughaft-style dirty games (we’ve “enjoyed” them a lot here in Georgia). Zelensky’s team introduced the element of humour into the “bread and circuses” concept and it saved the day for the Ukrainians. This creative nation armed themselves with jokes and internet memes against opponents. This, in my opinion, answers the recent question, how Ukrainians will look into each other’s eyes after epic battles over their candidates. Hopefully, with a smile.

The Debates scene became the climax of the Show. Clumsily, sometimes even exposing themselves to ridicule, “the clown” and “the Baryga” made it to the stadium. (Vakarchuk is still ahead in gathering crowds on the stadiums, however his recent political aspirations will show for how long).

During the debates it became finally clear that a positive (“-Na?ve!” - one would insist), people-oriented (“Populist!”), and humorous (“Ridiculous!”) attitude managed to sweep away old-school efforts and started a new era in Ukrainian and maybe regional politics.

Populism has become a predominant trend all over the globe. And in our fake news era of the new media we need to stop cursing it and start adapting as this is the only way to win populists. Unfortunately, history show that expressing “grave concern” rarely helps.

Even though future might show that Zelensky’s win could turn into a big loss for him and his supporters (taking in consideration recent developments in international politics). Even though that the “wights from the other side of the wall” have no plans to stop and question the existence of Ukrainian “iron thrown” on a daily basis, the 2019 campaign is still a huge step in forming a gene of freedom for coming generations of Ukrainians and their neighbors.