EUROPE'S THIRD WAVE OF LIBERATION

The world should be alert on December 26, when Ukraine re-runs
its election, and in the years to follow as the enemies of freedom
try to undermine Ukraine's progress

COMMENTARY: By Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia
Financial Times, London, UK, Monday, December 20 2004

For those of us who remained behind the iron curtain during Europe's first great wave of liberation after the demise of Nazi Germany, western European states served as the standard bearers of freedom and liberty, generated by the power and promise of democracy. Growing up, the only contact I had with that distant world was by listening secretly to my shortwave radio.

I belong to the generation whose adulthood coincided with the second wave of European liberation, with Solidarity's triumph in Poland, the Velvet Revolution in Prague and the fall of the Berlin wall. I remember very well the moment I heard on Radio Liberty that the Berlin wall had collapsed. I had tears in my eyes. I was 22 at the time and knew instantly that nothing would ever be the same again and that a new and better life was starting for all of us.

As it turned out, the democratic wave of the early 1990s was limited to eastern Europe and the Baltic states. Although Georgia fought alongside the Balts for independence from Soviet rule, only the Baltic states succeeded in freeing their societies. Freedom, combined with democracy, is what made them successful.

Unfortunately, the other states of the former Soviet Union did not make it and independence for these peoples became synonymous with authoritarianism, kleptocracy and civil war. Instead of real democracy, these coun tries experienced a distorted perversion where elections were held but the rulers never changed, where wealth was intercepted by kleptocratic elites and where average people felt their voice and interests mattered least of all. Power in these regimes did not come from the people - it came at the expense of people, and for many of us these regimes seemed eternal.

Then, late last year, the Georgian people rose up to challenge the legitimacy of an authoritarian regime after my predecessor's government stole the elections. In reaction to overwhelming fraud, we took to the streets in weeks of non-violent protest. Our efforts forced Eduard Shevardnadze, the president, to resign. Since then we have held three sets of elections - presidential, parliamentary and regional, all acknowledged by international observers as "free and fair", a first in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Following our peaceful revolution, many in the Russian media sought to portray Georgia as a dangerous exception - as impulsive, unpredictable and bound to fail. They explained our revolution away as a strange aberration with roots in the extravagant, perhaps theatrical, nature of Georgian society. Certainly, the detractors claimed, nothing like this could happen in any other CIS country.

Then the Ukrainian presidential elections approached. My education began in Ukraine and there I received my first college degree. Living in Kiev, I learnt Ukrainian and fell in love with the people and I continue to care deeply about what happens in Ukraine. In the months before the elections, I spoke to many national leaders, including Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine's president. I cautioned them that if democracy there was once again defaced, developments similar to those in Georgia could unfold.

Some of my interlocutors openly doubted my concerns, citing the superior state of the Ukrainian economy over Georgia's under Mr Shevardnadze, or stronger Ukrainian government control of the media and law-enforcement agencies. I disagreed. My message was simple: the struggle would be not about the economy or the strength of government but rather about democracy and the fundamental right of citizens freely to choose their future. No matter how strong a grip one might have over the media, a blackout of the truth was not possible.

Subsequent events in Ukraine validated my prognosis. The Ukrainian people stood up peacefully to defend their right to democracy. Like many Georgians, I admired their courage and was proud to see Georgian flags alongside Ukrainian national flags in Kiev's Independence Square. I also enjoyed hearing leaders of the "Orange Revolution" make frequent reference to the Georgian example.

Yet, just as over Georgia, commentators in Russia and elsewhere have started to cry conspiracy, suggesting that mysterious, even shadowy, forces engineered events in both Georgia and Ukraine. As a leader of one of those revolutions and a great fan of the other, I can say that those inventing such theories do not understand the essentials of human nature. No money, tricks or publicity can bring millions out into the streets. Nothing can force the people to brave the cold and risk their lives other than their ultimate instinct to be free.

The citizens of Georgia were not inspired to defend their future by political consultants or other outside influences. Rather, our heroes are people such as Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa. We Georgians believe we are Europeans because our values and culture are deeply European - so too are those of Ukrainians and other post-Soviet citizens. There is no reason why Poles, Germans and Estonians should be free while other Europeans are not. The call initiated by Georgia's Rose Revolution and multiplied by Ukraine's Orange Revolution will spread - as demonstrators chanted in Kiev, freedom cannot be stopped.

Today, events are unfolding rapidly. The world should be alert on December 26, when Ukraine re-runs its election, and in the years to follow as the enemies of freedom will try to undermine Ukraine's progress just as they try in my own country. Ultimately, I believe that revanchist attempts will fail. Reforms can be expected throughout the whole post-Soviet region and they will lead to completion of the third and final wave of the European liberation.