Pustovoitenko government survives Verkhovna Rada vote (10/18/98)

Pustovoitenko government survives Verkhovna Rada vote

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko and his government stood down an attempt by leftist national deputies in Parliament to dismiss the Cabinet of Ministers on October 13 for its failure to move the country out of its economic malaise and past the current financial crisis.

Ironically, it came just days after the prime minister had returned from a conference of international bankers in Washington, where Ukraine received support for its economic anti-crisis measures.

The Verkhovna Rada voted down the resolution of no-confidence in the government, 203-108, after a daylong session during which Mr. Pustovoitenko defended the work of the Cabinet of Ministers from intense criticism by leaders of the Hromada, Left Center and Communist factions, whose members had called for the resignation.

The effort to oust the Pustovoitenko government, the longest-surviving of the four during President Leonid Kuchma's tenure, was another major battle in the ongoing political war between the president and the Communist-led Parliament, which has opposed much of the president's Western-influenced economic program.

The leftist forces in the Parliament have grown increasingly vocal in their criticism of International Monetary Fund policy towards Ukraine, blaming strict IMF economic requirements on Ukraine's inability to jump-start its economy. They have withheld approval of a restructured tax system and have stifled any public debate of land reform.

Last week a proposed government budget was returned to the Cabinet of Ministers for reworking on the grounds that it did not reflect Ukraine's current economic realities. Most of criticism has been leveled at what the leftists believe to be an insufficient amount of funding for social programs.

On October 12, after it became obvious that the Parliament would review the no-confidence resolution, President Leonid Kuchma assured the Cabinet of Ministers that he supports its work. "No one will gain from a government resignation," said the president. "No political force will benefit from it, while the common man will suffer, as usual."

While not identifying specifically whom he had in mind, President Kuchma acknowledged that certain ministers need to be replaced, and he called on the Verkhovna Rada political factions to work with him to develop a list of possible candidates.

The president blamed Hromada Party leader Pavlo Lazarenko and Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz for instigating a government crisis for their own political benefit. Both men have indicated they will run for president in 1999. President Kuchma said he believes the two "wish things to go as bad as possible" in the lead-up to the political campaign scheduled to begin after the New Year.

Mr. Lazarenko, whose party is aligned with the left, although ideologically its platform is much more centrist, has carried on a pitched political battle with President Kuchma since the president forced him to resign as head of government in June 1997.

While Prime Minister Pustovoitenko was in Washington, 202 national deputies, chiefly from the Hromada, Communist and Socialist factions, had signed a resolution requiring that the Verkhovna Rada bring to a vote a motion of no confidence.

A majority of the national deputies agreed to consider the resolution over objections from Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Tkachenko, who had expressed his view that the matter should not be placed on the legislative agenda until after a decision had been made on the budget.

Mr. Tkachenko said that changing the government will not improve the situation. "Governments change, while people live worse and worse." Ukraine has experienced seven governments since independence in 1991.

Mr. Pustovoitenko was called before the Ukrainian legislature to explain Ukraine's financial and economic situation after attending conferences of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, where leaders of both international financial organizations agreed that Ukraine had done much better than Russia in dealing with the financial crisis now swamping much of the globe.

To underscore what he perceived as the political nature of the call for the resignation of the government, Prime Minister Pustovoitenko began the hourlong defense of his government by querying, "Who is it that wants this government to resign?"

Mr. Pustovoitenko's presentation before the Verkhovna Rada was divided into three parts: the reasons for the current economic crisis; what the government accomplished in the last nine months; and perspectives for the expansion of Ukraine's economy.

The prime minister explained that, in his opinion, the government was being asked to take the blame for the world financial crisis that also has consumed Ukraine. He acknowledged that Ukraine's current economic picture is dismal, but asserted that his government holds little responsibility.

As for the country's debt payment problems, he put the blame on past governments. "We were simply the ones who were forced to begin the repayments," said Mr. Pustovoitenko.

He admitted that the government had failed to make a dent in the repayment of wage and pension arrears, which he again blamed on financial instability in the world economy.

The prime minister did, however, take credit for the reduction of the budget deficit and an increase in production in the aircraft, auto and shipbuilding industries.

He identified the government's future economic priorities as: a renewed effort to bring investment to Ukraine; an effort to "lift" the export potential of the country; the development of a strategic economic plan for Ukraine that would include extensive tax reform and reform of bankruptcy laws.

He also said that the 1999 budget draft that has been sent back to the Cabinet of Ministers for reworking may be Ukraine's last chance at economic stabilization. "The budget must not be based on emotion and simple wishes, but on financial reality." He warned that "an unrealistic budget with an unreasonable deficit" could spell doom for any hope of averting a full-blown financial meltdown.

The prime minister's presentation was answered by a barrage of criticism from the chairpersons of several parliamentary committees, as well as representatives of the three factions that led the effort to dismiss the government.

Yevhen Marchuk, member of the Social Democratic (United) faction, speaking as the chairman of the Committee on Banking and Financial Activity, criticized the government's economic and social programs. "There is no macro-economist who could show that real economic change occurred from 1994 to today," said Mr. Marchuk, who also is an announced candidate for the presidency in 1999. He added, "The government's assertion that today we will deal with the financial crisis and tomorrow we will return to the social problems is incorrect in principle."

Yulia Tymoshenko, a member of the Hromada Party, which spearheaded the vote on no confidence, spoke as the chairman of the budget committee. She said that business in Ukraine is basically dead, and that much of the country has been beaten into political submission. "Ukraine has been divided into two sectors," said Ms. Tymoshenko, "those who have been beaten into submission and now do what they can to survive and those who are still trying to build a normal European country."

The official speaker for the Hromada Party, Serhii Pravdenko, explained to national deputies that in the eyes of his party today no government exists in reality. "It is a committee for the repayment of foreign debts and a committee to stifle opposition," said Mr. Pravdenko.

Even after all the criticism, the Verkhovna Rada could not muster the 226 nods needed to oust the Pustovoitenko government.

Instead, the national deputies again circled their wagons into the two political camps that have not allowed the Verkhovna Rada to move on any major decision, beginning with the election of the chairman in July.

The Green faction, the Social Democrats (United) and the Progressive Socialists voted against the dismissal of the government; the Rukh faction, which usually goes along with that voting bloc, abstained. Meanwhile, the Hromada faction, the Communists, the Left Center faction and the newly organized Peasant faction (formed after a split between the Socialist and the Peasant Party in the Left Center faction last week) moved for dismissal of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Seven other resolutions geared to grade the performance of the Cabinet of Ministers were prepared by other factions in answer to the resolution on no confidence. They covered everything from conditional support, to condemnation, to outright support. None of the seven alternative resolutions were approved.

Much of the debate that preceded the failed vote to dismiss the Cabinet included talk of who could form a new government capable of being approved by the Verkhovna Rada. Although there had been some talk of a coalition government, President Kuchma said at the October 12 Cabinet of Ministers meeting that if the Communists voted for dismissal of the Pustovoitenko government, he would propose that Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko form a new government.

Most politicians believe the idea was a win-win political move on the part of the president. First, it called the Communist bluff that it had the votes to force the government to resign. If the vote succeeded and the Communists had taken the offer, it would have allowed the president to pin much of the country's troubles on the Communists as he began his campaign for re-election.

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