EDITORIAL: Landmark legislation (11/11/01)

EDITORIAL

Landmark legislation

President Leonid Kuchma probably put it best when he said on November 7 - which was October Revolution Day, by the way - that it is time to stop the speculation that the new land code will seriously damage the country and that a huge danger exists that Ukraine's lands will now be sold off to foreigners. He explained that, quite the contrary, with the passage of the new land act, which legalizes the right to private ownership of land and makes it a commodity within three years, land would finally be put in the hands of those who best know how to utilize it: Ukraine's farmers.

Indeed, the "new land constitution" is one of the single most important acts passed by the Verkhovna Rada in 10 years of independence. If other pieces of legislation in support of the land code are put in place properly and quickly by the Parliament, Ukraine could soon regain its place as one of the world's leading agricultural producers. It would also finally have the conditions for the creation of a normal land market.

The scare tactics employed by the political left in recent months to alarm the Ukrainian citizenry that legalization of the sale of land would spell the end of economic independence did not succeed, just as unprincipled vitriol and shenanigans by leftist deputies in the Verkhovna Rada failed to defeat the Land Code passed on October 25.

The tactics employed in particular by the Communist faction and its leader, Petro Symonenko, can only be seen as desperate in view of the Land Code's ramifications. Afer all, the end of state control of land could well be the death knell for the political organization. The Communist Party had won the hearts of a good many villagers in the agriculturally reliant Russian empire by calling for land to belong to the peasants, and lived with that slogan for decades after it took the reigns of power in the October Revolution, even though the villager ended up with nothing.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, and particularly since presidential elections in Ukraine in 1999, the Communist Party's influence has waned considerably. State ownership of the land was one of the last Soviet-era government policies retained by Ukraine. With little protest from Ukrainians over the passage of the Land Code and the privatization of land, the party may well be even more peripheral and less relevant to modern Ukrainian society than some have thought.

While it has been clear for some time as Ukraine has headed slowly Westward in its political and economic orientation that the privatization and commercialization of land was inevitable, leftist politicians from Mr. Symonenko to Progressive Socialist leader Natalia Vitrenko and Socialist leader Oleksander Moroz kept warning, ever more stridently, that with land privatization Ukraine faces a loss of its sovereignty and independence. To their credit, however, Ukraine's citizens, often criticized for being naïve, uninformed and passive, did not heed the call to the political trenches by the leftist political forces. Demonstrations by Communist supporters opposed to a new land code were minimal and minuscule, and succeeded in attracting only the same old babushka-clad pensioners and worn slogans.

The Ukrainian village, perhaps not strongly convinced that it is ready for the commercialization of land even today, nonetheless has been far from critical of such a development. Its major concern is that the private farmer not be shut out in favor of the wealthy oligarchs. And that is a tangible fear. Most politicians agree that at least a couple of dozen laws need to be approved as soon as possible in order to give the Land Code teeth. While a system of property transactions and a method of land valuation still need to be legislatively developed, the most important matter at the moment is to move quickly to establish a Land Bank.

The private farmer can best be served today by making easy, low-interest loans available to him. This would allow him the finances to purchase quality seed, fertilizer and, most importantly, farm machinery to obtain better yields from his land. We hope that a Land Bank will indeed be up and running by as soon as next summer, which some politicians are calling for.

Another matter that needs attention is the stipulation within the document to put off the sale of land until January 1, 2005. While it is understandable that time is needed to create instruments and methods for land transactions and to implement a smoothly running system with checks and balances, those concerns must be weighed against a real risk that leftist forces will develop strategies and tactics that will continue to delay the completion of the process or perhaps derail it altogether in some unforeseen way.

The Communists have shown they are capable of most anything. As their days draw to a close and their desperation increases, their methods could grow cruder and more damaging. Therefore, it would be best for the future of the Ukrainian farmer if Ukraine's national deputies decided to avoid danger and push forward the date of legalized land transactions.

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