Tymoshenko to lead opposition in Ukraine (10/01/06)

Tymoshenko to lead opposition in Ukraine

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Yulia Tymoshenko failed to attract anyone from the Our Ukraine bloc in declaring the formation of her parliamentary opposition coalition on September 22, and managed to snag only two defectors from the Socialist Party of Ukraine.

In declaring their union, Ms. Tymoshenko and Socialist Party defector Yosyp Vinskyi repeatedly stressed the opposition's commitment to European values and accused the coalition government of betraying them.

"Ukraine made the choice during the parliamentary elections on behalf of democracy and the European choice," Mr. Vinskyi said. "But we couldn't predict that some of that people whom the people trusted refused this choice at the very moment it was obvious that Ukraine had to go this way."

Mr. Vinskyi's comments were a veiled reference to Verkhovna Rada Speaker Oleksander Moroz, who reneged on a coalition agreement he signed with the Our Ukraine and Tymoshenko blocs and opted to join the Anti-Crisis Coalition with the Party of the Regions and the Communist Party.

Incidentally, "Building Europe in Ukraine" was the Socialist Party's slogan during the 2006 parliamentary elections.

It's the very same 120-page coalition agreement that Mr. Moroz abandoned which will serve as the fundamental document for the opposition, Ms. Tymoshenko said.

The lack of expediency among Our Ukraine deputies in joining the opposition signifies the bloc's six parties may opt to remain united and join the coalition government, political experts said.

It's also possible that Our Ukraine will choose the path of political limbo, joining neither the coalition government nor the opposition.

Ms. Tymoshenko said many Our Ukraine deputies are in fact interested in joining the opposition, but have yet to reach an official decision. Among the Our Ukraine politicians most likely to join the opposition are Mykola Katerynchuk of the Our Ukraine People's Union party and Volodymyr Stretovych of the Christian-Democratic Union Party.

The opposition's program of activities contains positions and goals that firmly support Ukraine's integration into Euro-Atlantic structures, uphold free market principles and promote government transparency, among other measures meant to make the country more European.

"The process of changing Ukraine into a normal, democratic civilized country can't happen in a month, or two, or three," Ms. Tymoshenko said.

"There are difficult, deep changes. We began them during the presidential elections, we continue them, and we'll achieve them in such a way that our team won't be working in the opposition for long. Because we know with certainty that the team that's in government today doesn't deserve to be there and wasn't unanimously supported by the people as they claim today," she said.

The program also contains points that were clearly included by Our Ukraine's representatives to curtail Ms. Tymoshenko's past practices, such as restricting government interference in setting commodity prices. Ms. Tymoshenko is renowned and oft-criticized for her attempts as prime minister to set and influence gasoline and meat prices.

In recent weeks, Ms. Tymoshenko has appeared almost daily on Ukrainian television, attacking and criticizing the current coalition government in all of its main actions. In her evaluation of the 2007 budget currently being prepared by the Cabinet of Ministers, Ms. Tymoshenko on September 20 referred to it as "the budget of national danger."

She accused the Party of the Regions of hatching schemes to steal from the national budget. For example, massive budget increases are planned for those ministries led by the Regions Party members: eight times more funding for the Ministry of Construction, Architecture and Residential-Communal Management led by Volodymyr Rybak, four times more for the Ministry of the Economy led by Volodymyr Makukha and twice as much for the Ministry of Natural Environmental Defense headed by Vasyl Dzharty.

"In a half year's time, they calculated taking everything they could from the budget so that, should they leave, it won't be empty-handed," Ms. Tymoshenko said.

The opposition leader sparked a scuffle in the Verkhovna Rada on September 13 when the Tymoshenko Bloc attempted to form a temporary investigative committee to learn the legality of new natural gas rates.

She accused the government of artificially boosting natural gas prices and pocketing the difference through shadow structures, including the controversial RosUkrEnergo enterprise.

Rather than accepting a Tymoshenko Bloc deputy to chair the committee, the coalition government announced it would appoint Communist Alla Aleksandrovska, thereby ensuring a roadblock to any investigation.

The coalition also tagged on an amendment to investigate the cancelled debt of Unified Energy Systems, Ms. Tymoshenko's former enterprise.

The gesture to sabotage the opposition's efforts and put the revised bill to a vote caused Tymoshenko Bloc deputies to storm the podium in a failed attempt to block it.

Afterwards, Ms. Tymoshenko accused First Vice-Chairman Adam Martyniuk (Communist Party) of violating parliamentary regulations and the Constitution by illegally obstructing the opposition.

"I want to ask the prime minister what kind of nation he is building - a mafia or a democracy?" she told reporters.

After the numerous battles, Ms. Tymoshenko declared a victory for the opposition on September 26, when the government agreed to lower natural gas prices by $40 per 1,000 cubic meters. "I want the new government to keep in mind every minute that I am watching you!" Ms. Tymoshenko said.

Though her role as the government's top critic may work well for the next several months, she will need another platform to maintain her relevance in Ukrainian politics, said Serhii Taran, chair of the Socio-Vymir Center for Sociological and Political Research, which is financed by Ukrainian private enterprises.

"She can't be permanently in the opposition," said Mr. Taran, a doctoral candidate at Duke University.

"If she's going to be against everybody, then after three or four years, she will lose her support. People get tired of any politician if they don't propose anything new. It's very dangerous to say the same thing all the time and to be the same," Mr. Taran commented.

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