Removing responsibility and an inferiority complex: co-author of the anti-corruption reform opposed foreign participation in forming government bodies

Oksana Syroid, who took part in drafting anti-corruption legislation, spoke out against the practice of involving foreign experts in the formation and work of Ukrainian institutions. In her view, Ukrainians must take responsibility for the functioning of government bodies themselves, rather than shifting it onto representatives of other countries. The former deputy speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of the VIII convocation said this in an interview with the civic initiative “Holka,” published in Hlavkom. "Bringing foreign experts into the process is shirking responsibility from ourselves. It’s infantilism and inferiority. As if to say, look, they’re beating me, I’m a little girl. I won’t deal with it myself — I’ll go get a ‘big uncle,’ bring him in, and he will hand everything out for me. At some point you have to say: I’m an adult and I take responsibility," Syroid said. The former deputy speaker also warned against the idea that the foreign experts’ origins guarantee their integrity. "You shouldn’t think that people in Europe or America are born virtuous, and we are completely corrupt. If they could get more profit by not paying taxes, they would do it. It wasn’t the state that forbade them; they themselves, at the moment of creating the state, agreed that it’s better to pay taxes than to avoid them," she noted. According to Syroid, Ukraine expends significant effort trying to secure the participation of foreign specialists in the work of its own institutions, but that mechanism alone cannot change the system. "We expend colossal effort, lobbying Europeans, Americans, the International Monetary Fund for three, albeit highly respected, foreigners, hoping they will bring us happiness. But as long as these people are a foreign element, they will not change the system. Foreigners can be invited after we ourselves agree to act differently," the former MP explained. Syroid links the problem to the broader issue of responsibility for the work of state institutions. In her view, external participants cannot replace internal agreements about the rules by which the system should operate. As is known, Oksana Syroid was a member of parliament of the VIII convocation and served as deputy chair of the Verkhovna Rada from 2014 to 2019. She participated in preparing the judicial reform and in the work of the Constitutional Commission, and was also the author of the idea to create the Public Integrity Council. Syroid is currently an officer of the Defense Forces of Ukraine and serves in the 2-th corps of the National Guard of Ukraine “Khartia.” The Public Integrity Council is an independent civic body in Ukraine that helps the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ) vet judges and judicial candidates for integrity, ethics, and the lawful origin of assets.