Thus, according to Vice Rector of UCU Myroslav Marynovych, politicians with their slogans were powerless to raise the people, but it was made possible by the Ukrainians’ desire to live according to certain moral principles. And the young people who came out for EuroMaidan must set the pace, as if it is already living in the EU.
The director of the Lviv Business School Sophia Opatska opening discussion “Ukraine 2014: What Comes Next?”
The director of the Lviv Business School Sophia Opatska, speaking at the opening of the discussion “Ukraine 2014: What Comes Next?” said that everything that happens in Ukraine is relevant to business. This was the reason that the Lviv Business School addressed the business elite of Ukraine with a request to come together for the future of Ukraine.
Overall, at the meeting were gathered representatives of small and medium businesses, youth, and civic activists. Historian Yaroslav Hrytsak called the people present a “triangle of value changes” and “modern people.” The authorities are people of the day before yesterday, and the opposition are people of yesterday. Yaroslav Hrytsak encouraged Ukrainians to speak to the opposition in the language of values, pulling it to the present, rather than going to their level.
The fact that the opposition, as well as the government, was not ready for the people to come out to Maidan was confirmed by politician and public figure Oleh Rybachuk. He said that they are now not fully prepared for systemic decisions, so civil society must constantly “push” them by offering ideas for implementation.
Yevhen Hlibovytsky, head of the expert company pro.mova, opined that the only way to reboot the whole system is through elections, both parliamentary and presidential elections. “The prerequisite for these elections is a government that can hold these elections in a peaceful manner; a new law that will prevent people from entering parliament through of backroom agreements, that is, a proportional election model with open party lists. After rebooting the system, we need a number of reforms, including a return to the parliamentary-presidential system. Parallel to this must act a system of collective security – when an attack on one is treated as an attack on all.”
Furthermore, Yevhen Hlibovytsky said that we should “move Maidan to the Ukrainian consciousness.”
As a historian, Yaroslav Hrytsak gave an example that once the guillotine was the symbol of revolutions, while the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century it was replaced with the negotiation table. So successful revolutions were the ones that ended with a discussion, not bloodshed. And successful societies in this case are those were the smoke from factory chimneys was replaced with the the steam from coffee, as is demonstrated in Lviv, which abandoned industrialization in favor of service.
As for Lviv, Yaroslav Hrytsak stressed that at present its representatives should renounce the debate about language and history, as it will not unite them in the future. They should focus on issues of values. And the relationship that this dialog of values formed between Lviv and Kyiv should be extended to other cities. And the first of them should be Dnipropetrovsk.
Professor at the Lviv Business School Yaroslav Prytula, who is now in Washington, DC (USA) where he conducts research on a Fulbright program, spoke about economic issues in Ukraine. He said that corruption, arbitrary interpretation of laws, and the lack of dialogue between all segments of the population (government, business, middle class, young people) can lead to a greater crisis. Those 15 billion dollars that the government of Ukraine received from the Russian Federation, according to the economist, will not help the development of the country, but will “patch the holes in the budget” in time for the presidential election, and that they have no benefit in the medium and long term. And may even bring further harm.
Yaroslav Rushchyshyn, a representative of medium-sized business, said that today a significant portion of businesses work with the future, focusing on what people will need tomorrow. Therefore, politics should work in the same way. He also said that if all businesses in Ukraine were put at the level of market conditions, without the “preferences” for certain members of government circles, Ukraine’s economy would be on a higher level. So today businesses have to take two steps: create a common enterprise network to protect their rights; support/creation/entry into ideological parties that may represent entrepreneurship in Ukraine.
The subject of students as a part of EuroMaidan and the possible propeller of further changes were also discussed. Rybachuk noted that in the 20 years after the granite revolution, students never actively expressed their political position. While Yaroslav Prytula said that it is the students and the middle class that do not allow our country to become a dictatorship.
In conclusion, Myroslav Marynovych presented the Declaration of the Branch of the People’s Union Maidan of the Ukrainian Catholic University.
“EuroMaidan brought people together around a set of principles. And I wanted to formulate these principles together with my colleagues, and the result of this attempt was this declaration,” said the vice rector.
At the end Yaroslav Hrytsak said: “For real change in the country, it is enough for one percent of the population to become mobilized and sensible. The appearance of the Solidarity movement in Poland was preceded by a change of rhetoric and changing way of thinking. This means that discussions are worthwhile. Solidarity means that if doctors go on strike, we all go. If someone is repressed, this means that was are all repressed.”
UCU Press Service