Rada chairman opens session by calling for a new national development program (09/07/03)

Rada chairman opens session by calling for a new national development program

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn called for the development of a national program for the country's development during remarks before the legislative body on the first day of the its session on September 2.

In a somewhat meandering platitude-charged state of the nation address, the Parliament leader said that Ukraine must stop running on the treadmill of state-building and finally develop a clear path for progress, including political reform in the form of Constitutional changes

"Clear-cut guidelines and objectives will ensure that the country does not pursue experiments of a doubtful nature with their accompanying reverberations," explained Mr. Lytvyn to a full session hall, which included most lawmakers, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and members of his government, as well as court officials, but not President Leonid Kuchma, who was on a visit to Moscow.

Mr. Lytvyn said such an "all-Ukrainian social agreement" would "re-energize and strengthen social impulses from 1991, renew the hope and expectations of people and finally answer their demands."

The former chief of staff to President Kuchma said it was time to stop looking to copy models of country development but to develop one that worked for Ukraine.

He said it was time also to bring order to the country, complete an inventory of government wealth, stop systemic theft of government property, destroy the shadow economy once and for all, and increase law and order.

Mr. Lytvyn called for bridging the gap between the words spoken by politicians and their deeds, and cited the need to stem "the terrible disease that has metastasized in the political system - the lies and falsehoods that have become the norms of political life, the norms of relations among parties, the state and the person."

Mr. Lytvyn stressed the need to pass a political reform bill to make the constitutional changes needed to turn Ukraine into a true parliamentary-presidential system.

"It should be considered a necessary and effective instrument for the realization of the development of Ukraine, and not as a means to fulfill individual or combined political interest and ambitions, which we must admit is the way it is viewed today," said Mr. Lytvyn.

In a rather telling moment he also noted, "This should be done also so that we can rationalize why we spent so much time in debate on the matter and so as not to make us a laughingstock."

In the last days, the presidential administration and pro-presidential members of the Verkhovna Rada have appeared close to agreeing on a new set of political reform initiatives that could find sufficient votes to receive parliamentary approval.

A previous draft law that President Kuchma submitted in the spring was rejected by the Verkhovna Rada in July and sent off to the Constitutional Court for commentary. President Kuchma withdrew that bill on August 23 and the Parliament returned it to him on September 3.

In the new set of proposed reforms, Mr. Kuchma has enticed the Communist faction into a serious dialogue by suggesting that he could consider a president appointed by the legislative body.

Socialist faction leader Oleksander Moroz also has expressed interest in the proposal explaining that it incorporates many of the demands that the Verkhovna Rada had made previously. However, he has rejected the idea of a president appointed by the Verkhovna Rada. If the two factions were to jump on the president's political reform band wagon, Mr. Kuchma could be all but assured of receiving the 300 parliamentary votes needed to make constitutional changes.

The two other opposition leaders, Viktor Yushchenko of Our Ukraine and Yulia Tymoshenko of the eponymous bloc, have rejected the new dialogue on political reform as another attempt by the president to assure that either he or one of his designates takes the reigns of power after the November 2004 presidential elections.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yanukovych, speaking after Mr. Lytvyn's presentation, said the first thing the Verkhovna Rada needed to do was pass a 2004 government budget on time, which he said had to be done with a view to developing revenues under a new tax plan.

He said his government would submit the new plan and the budget together, and expressed hope that the Parliament could review and approve both simultaneously.

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