EDITORIAL: Verkhovna Rada a lemon? (06/07/98)

EDITORIAL

Verkhovna Rada a lemon?

If first impressions mean anything, and they usually do, then the new Verkhovna Rada is a real lemon. Hyped by some as the shiny new legislative body with the ability to finally get things done, but considered by many others the same old stalled political Edsel, the new Parliament has shown in its first month that it will be much like the old one, and that Ukraine's citizens can expect more of the same, i.e., very little.

Four weeks after the new Verkhovna Rada met in its opening session, no chairman has been elected and no laws passed, which, after all, is what the national deputies are elected to do. The daily sessions have been marked by shows of political maneuvering and gamesmanship that would leave a chessmaster befuddled.

This Parliament, formed more along party lines than either of the two previous legislatures after election laws were changed to allow both single-mandate voting and elections by party lists, has shown that it is indeed more structured. However, thus far, instead of allowing for more effectiveness in its work, the discipline and political alignment has resulted in the establishment of two divided and unyielding camps.

Even the centrist coalition of Rukh, the National Democrats, the Social Democrats and the Greens, for all their talk of the need to compromise, have not shown any concrete willingness to move to an agreement that would allow a leftist to sit in the chairman's seat - not that such a move would help this country, nor resolve the impasse that is developing in the Verkhovna Rada.

The four centrist factions are correct in their strategy that a presidium must represent all sides of the political spectrum and can be elected only by compromise.

The Communists think they can find the votes, especially among the leftists, to elect an all-left presidium; they see no reason for compromise. If the Parliament goes for a red presidium, some observers believe a major breakdown in the legislative process will occur. Few Communists are hiding the fact that the long-term goal is to bring down the presidency and return to some kind of neo-Communist Slavic brotherhood. In the short-term, the Communists would like to see one of their own or a like-minded individual win the presidential election in October 1999.

Others believe that the Communists' goal is simply to show that a democratic system does not work; to allow the current economic morass to continue, to allow for discontent among the populace to fester unabated, which also includes portraying Ukraine's democratically elected legislative body as a center of stagnation.

Ukraine's first president and current leader of the Social Democrats (United) faction in the Verkhovna Rada, Leonid Kravchuk, was correct when on May 28 he said of the leftist bloc: "They want to take this to an absurd level to show that the democratic system does not work." Mr. Kravchuk was speaking of the leftist strategy in the election of a chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, but he would have been correct to explain that this is the goal for Ukraine.

No one should deceive himself. Ukraine's new legislature will be able to accomplish little until the critically important presidential elections are over. Until then, forget about restarting economic reform. Forget about a better business climate in Ukraine. The left is geared to let all such legislation get stuck in the quagmire of political infighting between the left and the right.

The only thing that could break the developing logjam would be for a true democratic, centrist coalition to emerge from the temporary one formed for elections to the chairmanship. But, no one is ready to say that such a possibility exists. In fact, what is most often emphasized is the temporary nature of the union. For Ukrainians that means at least another year and a half of stagnation.

While criticizing Ukraine's legislative body, however, one must not forget that the Verkhovna Rada received its mandate from the electorate that voted the way it did, and gave the nod to 121 Communists to represent their interests.

As an old Ukrainian adage goes: "How well you sleep depends on how well you made your bed."