Yushchenko urges Kuchma to stand for democracy (09/08/02)

Yushchenko urges Kuchma to stand for democracy

by Jan Maksymiuk
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report

The Our Ukraine bloc led by former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko last week publicized an open letter to President Leonid Kuchma. The letter seems to contain Our Ukraine's harshest criticism to date of the authorities, but avoids pointing to personalities, apart from the head of the presidential administration, Viktor Medvedchuk. Our Ukraine's letter may be read as a kind of response to Mr. Kuchma's recent proposal to launch a systemic reform in the country to move toward a parliamentary-presidential republic.

The letter warned the president against a "systemic crisis of the authority that has hit all spheres of social life." According to Mr. Yushchenko's bloc, "actions by the authorities are threatening Ukraine's national interests, national security and the independence of the state, and are provoking civic confrontation." Our Ukraine reiterated its charge that the presidential administration had created an "artificial majority" in the Parliament by pressuring deputies in order "to give the parliamentary leadership to outsiders in the election race."

"One has the impression that the Parliament, the government and the media have been leased to the head of the presidential administration [Medvedchuk] and his oligarchic clan," the letter noted. Our Ukraine also complained that the opposition has no access to the state-run media. According to the bloc, "the situation in the state has been heading toward unpredictability and uncontrollability."

Our Ukraine called on President Kuchma to make a choice between "democracy and dictatorship" and take urgent measures "to remove threats to Ukraine's democracy and statehood." In particular, the bloc demands that a democratic parliamentary majority be created around Our Ukraine and a coalition government be formed by this majority. Our Ukraine also postulates that the authorities secure equal access to the state media for all political forces, stop political persecution, and strengthen Ukraine's integration into "European and trans-Atlantic structures," while simultaneously abandoning talk of Ukraine's accession to the Eurasian Economic Community.

Our Ukraine said it is necessary to unite all democratic forces in the country to overcome the current crisis, adding that it wants to gather a nationwide forum of democratic forces on September 15 - on the eve of the "Rise Up, Ukraine!" protest campaign by the opposition - to contribute to this end.

An enigmatic threat of more radical actions, in the event the president fails to heed Our Ukraine's appeal, was included in the letter's last sentence: "The inability of the authorities to stop the country's slide toward a social and economic catastrophe and the continuation of the policy oriented toward curbing democracy and constitutional civil rights and freedoms will force us to call on voters to stand in defense of democracy, national interests and the independence of the Ukrainian state."

Judging by the content of this open letter, Mr. Yushchenko has not yet lost hope of striking a deal with the president and some of the pro-presidential parliamentary factions to form a "coalition government" that he could head, thus positioning himself better for the presidential elections in 2004. The letter carries Mr. Yushchenko's strong message: if he is not given leadership of the government, he will take the leadership of the anti-presidential opposition.

As of now, both options seem to be possible for Yushchenko, whose political sway, measured by both Our Ukraine's parliamentary representation and his personal popularity among voters, remains very strong.

But time is swiftly running out, and there is a threat that following the planned outbreak of opposition protests on September 16, Mr. Yushchenko's political maneuvering and wavering may place him closer to the sidelines rather than the center of political developments in the country.

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