It’s time to end the corruption

As we enter 2017, problems in Ukraine persist. First, it was Ukrainian President Yanukovych, and now, it’s his replacement Ukrainian President Poroshenko. Corruption permeates and persists throughout the highest levels of the Ukrainian government and despite promises of reform, nothing has been done.

Ukraine may have a leader who claims to be a proponent of democracy and a friend of the West, but his actions, and the actions of his associates, tell a different story. In fact, it appears that a National Anti-Corruption Bureau was created more for public relations “spin” than taking the action necessary to remedy continual abuses of the political system. Rather than solve the ills it was created to address, it appears that the bureau is being used by the president to attack his enemies.

{mosads}The Freedom House said in their recent report that the largest challenges remain the high level of corruption and the weakness of institutions tasked with ensuring the rule of law in Ukraine. World leaders are voicing the same opinions.

Recently, Former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who was brought into the Ukrainian government to set an example of transparency and clean government, resigned and accused Ukraine’s president of supporting corruption. He was quoted as saying “I’ve been severely disappointed with Mr. Poroshenko’s apparent inability to see that the status quo is unsustainable. Ukraine needs real change, not an imitation of it.” In February, Ukraine’s economic minister Aivaras Abromavicius stepped down because he did not want to act as a “smoke screen” for corruption. 

Like many others, I am an example of Poroshenko and his associates, going after their enemies as I exposed the system of corruption that’s occurring within the highest levels of the Ukrainian government with first-hand evidence.

I am an elected member of the Ukrainian Parliament and I personally witnessed President Poroshenko engage in corruption on a massive and unprecedented scale. Over the past three years, I have personally witnessed Petro Poroshenko steal hundreds of millions of dollars by requiring kickbacks from every contract associated with any state enterprise in Ukraine. Those who refuse to pay kickbacks were viewed as disloyal and targeted and systematically attacked by the government, just as I have been.

My case is a classic example of Poroshenko’s tactics.  When he felt I acted disloyally by supporting the Pro-Western Opposition, he had the National Anti-Corruption Bureau manufacture criminal allegations against me.  After manufacturing these charges, he told me and the leader of the pro-western opposition (Yuli Timoschenko) that we must either support his agenda or face indictments.  When I refused to give into this pressure, he moved forward with criminal indictments, arrested my lawyers and employees, seized my business assets and forced me to leave my home and the country that I love.

As a Ukrainian citizen it was and remains my duty to voice these misdeeds and crimes by the Ukrainian government because they will not only destroy public confidence in our government’s institutions, but they also threaten regional security. The time has come for the rest of the world to call for reform instead of turning a blind eye to these crimes and atrocities. We cannot allow President Poroshenko to continue the same practices that his predecessor President Yanukovych started. The time to put an end to these lies is now. 

Alexander Onishchenko is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament before being stripped of parliamentary immunity earlier this year. He is a whistleblower that is against government corruption.