CANDIDATE PROFILE: Gen. Anatolii Lopata, Reform and Order Party (03/22/98)

CANDIDATE PROFILE: Gen. Anatolii Lopata, Reform and Order Party

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - For Gen. Anatolii Lopata, former head of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces and current candidate for national deputy to the Verkhovna Rada from the Reform and Order Party, the heart of Ukraine's problems is quite clear. If it were not for his military upbringing and political skills, he might just tell you directly and impatiently: "It's the economy, stupid."

The ex-military man with a forthright, brusque manner said he has allied himself with the Reform and Order Party led by Viktor Pynzenyk, considered the pre-eminent economic reformer in Ukraine, because he believes that change for the better in Ukraine has to begin with an economic overhaul.

"We all know that today the biggest problem in Ukraine is economic decline," said Gen. Lopata. "Everything else that has happened follows from that. As a military man I know that the building of the army depends on the state of the economy."

Gen. Lopata was drafted into the Red Army in 1959 and then quickly rose through the ranks, attaining the rank of general in 1984. A year after the Soviet Union crumbled and Ukraine declared independence, he returned to his native country to become vice minister of defense and head of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, a position he held until February 1996.

He is a career military man who holds military traditions in high esteem. For this reason, he still has not become a member of the party that lists him as No. 3 on its candidates' list and is aiding his drive for office in the 213th electoral district of Kyiv.

He explained that the tradition among officers is not to join political parties, adding, "I keep the traditions that all officers of Ukraine keep."

He said he developed close ties to the Verkhovna Rada's Reform faction, the precursor of the Reform and Order Party, after he retired from Ukraine's Armed Forces in August 1996. Ukraine's stagnating and unchanging economy spurred him to become politically active. "I decided to join the battle, but not alone, only with the Reform and Order Party," explained Gen. Lopata.

He said he saw in the party what he believes Ukraine needs today. "I looked for friends, young patriotic individuals and experts in their fields, most importantly in the field of economics," said Gen. Lopata.

The 58-year-old husband and father of two said that for Ukraine the only way out of its economic hole is through the implementation of an extensive economic reform package that the Reform and Order Party has developed on the basis of the tax package that its leader, Mr. Pynzenyk, drafted with the Reform faction of the Verkhovna Rada in late 1996 when he was Ukraine's vice prime minister for economic reform. That package was, for the most part, rejected by the Verkhovna Rada as it took six months to develop the 1997 budget.

The Reform and Order Party's economic program includes sweeping changes in individual and corporate tax rates, and reforms that would make it easier to register and do business in Ukraine. It also includes the development of a balanced budget and the payment of wage and pension arrears. Gen. Lopata said the economic package would affect 132 legislative acts currently on the books.

"Taxes must be reduced to about 35 percent, 40 percent at most, to bring businessmen out from the shadow economy," said Gen. Lopata. "Today that economy works no worse than the legal one, but it does not pay taxes." As a direct result of the shadow economy and the government's inability to collect taxes from it, workers don't get paid and pensioners don't receive their pensions, he said. "A major portion of the shadow economy," he asserted, could be brought out into the open by September through legislative acts.

Focusing on the "order" part of his party's reform and order platform, the general said that simply to pass laws on reform is not enough. "This means, first off, order in the implementation of laws by which Ukraine's society works. And control over the laws - a fierce battle with corruption and crime," explained Gen. Lopata. "These are the key points that would allow us to stop the crisis in this country."

If the program envisioned by the Reform and Order Party is implemented, Gen. Lopata said 1999 would be the first year of Ukraine's economic revival.

Gen. Lopata said he believes that no other political party has proposed such an extensive economic reform program to the Ukrainian electorate. He also noted that Mr. Pynzenyk's economic revival and tax plan had been embraced by the Cabinet of Ministers before it was rebuffed by the Verkhovna Rada.

That Cabinet was led, ironically, by Pavlo Lazarenko, who today leads the Hromada Party, which also has stated that it is the only political party in Ukraine with a developed usable economic program for Ukraine.

Mr. Lazarenko's government, which at first supported Mr. Pynzenyk's tax package, retracted its support after it became obvious that it would not muster sufficient support in the Verkhovna Rada for passage. The acrimony between the two men and the two parties they lead continues. "Today our party is not ready to work with Hromada," said Gen. Lopata.

However, the Reform and Order Party is willing to work with any of the other center and center-right parties in Ukraine. "The extreme right and the left have the ability to block reforms," explained Gen. Lopata. "We are looking to the center." He said his party is ready to cooperate with any party that has "good competent people."

Through his words, Gen. Lopata left the impression that his candidacy for the office of national deputy and his work in the Reform and Order Party are for him another call to serve his country that he had to heed at this critical juncture in Ukraine's history, a form of noblesse oblige. "Today the state of Ukraine, in the social as well as the economic spheres, forced me to take decisive action, to take a position," explained Gen. Lopata. "I could not be a passive observer of all that is going on."