Communists fail to oust Pustovoitenko government (07/11/99)

Communists fail to oust Pustovoitenko government

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The Communist majority in Ukraine's Parliament failed on July 6 to find the votes to oust the Cabinet of Ministers of Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko, even while sharpening its attack on the president and the government as the presidential election season heated up another notch.

The Communists could find merely 182 votes, not even close to the 226 required for a simple majority, to support their resolution of no-confidence in the government - their third such failure in less than a year.

The debate on the floor of the Verkhovna Rada was dominated by Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko, one of the politicians who is thought to offer the most serious threat to President Leonid Kuchma's re-election ambitions, and Prime Minister Pustovoitenko, the head of government.

Mr. Symonenko and President Kuchma have moved ahead of the candidate pack in registering the 1 million signatures needed to get on the October election ballot, which both men did simultaneously in a ceremony at the Central Election Committee headquarters on June 30 that featured them shaking hands.

Mr. Symonenko's attack on the government made it plain, if there had been any doubt, that his will not be a gentlemanly and civil political race against the incumbent. He called the government that Prime Minister Pustovoitenko leads with the backing of President Kuchma criminal and immoral.

"The Cabinet continues to build a criminal-predatory society with immoral and cruel rules of the game imposed by international financial circles," said the Communist Party leader during his tirade against the government.

Mr. Symonenko criticized the International Monetary Fund as a "veiled form of colonization and economic plunder." He accused members of the Pustovoitenko government of embezzling loans that international banks have extended to Ukraine and of stealing government-owned raw materials, selling them abroad and depositing the proceeds in personal foreign bank accounts.

He also noted the sorry state of the economy and the government's dismal record on the payment of wage and pension arrears. According to figures cited by Mr. Symonenko, the Ukrainian government now owes government workers and pensioners 12 billion hrv ($3 billion), while the economy continues to sink. In the January-March period for this year it fell by 3.5 percent, as compared to the same time period in 1998, said the Communist leader.

"The promises of the prime minister that the economic recession would soon end and the crisis would be overcome have been proven to be a soap bubble," said Mr. Symonenko, referring to an assertion by Mr. Pustovoitenko during his appearance earlier in the day that the Ukrainian economic crisis has ebbed and that in 2000 Ukraine could see 2 percent growth, which would be the first expansion of the Ukrainian economy since independence.

Mr. Pustovoitenko, a close political ally of President Kuchma, whose government has been at odds with the Ukrainian Parliament and its Communist-led leadership since the prime minister took office in the summer of 1997, did not attempt to dispute any of the often-repeated criticisms of his government. Instead, he used the one hour that the parliamentary assembly offered him to accent the government's accomplishments and to explain what its future plans are for moving the country forward economically.

He noted that the Cabinet of Ministers is working intensively to repay credits taken in 1996 and to strengthen Ukraine's financial solvency. He underscored that much of the debt that Ukraine has accrued is a result of the bad policies of earlier governments.

"The pyramid of government domestic bonds built by the preceding government has jeopardized the country's macroeconomic and currency stability," explained Mr. Pustovoitenko. "To stave off the consequences of those actions, this government has taken all necessary measures so that the state lives on the funds it earns."

The prime minister said that real steps had already been taken to reduce the tax burden on domestic manufacturers, including in the agriculture, sugar and coal sectors.

He also stressed that a list of priority industries had been drawn up, including ship-building and aircraft-manufacturing, where Ukraine would provide economic stimulus, which will help to develop them into the driving industries of Ukraine's economy.

What is most needed at the present, stressed Mr. Pustovoitenko, is less confrontation and more cooperation between the executive and the legislative branches of government. He spoke out for the establishment of permanent contacts between the leaders of parliamentary factions and Cabinet members.

"We must draw up a joint coordinated plan of work on bills that are desperately needed," said Mr. Pustovoitenko.

Mr. Pustovoitenko said the main task before him is to continue to build stability in the government and the economy during a time when many political leaders will be preoccupied with the presidential elections. He explained that if his government is dismissed there would be little chance for any political party or faction to form a new government before the October vote - an assertion with which the Verkhovna Rada body agreed by its refusal to go along with the Communists' attempt to bring down the prime minister's government.

| Home Page |