Kuchma names Marchuk secretary of security council (11/14/99)

Kuchma names Marchuk secretary of security council

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Yevhen Marchuk, who finished fifth in the first round of balloting in the presidential elections, was named secretary of the National Security and Defense Council on November 10 by President Leonid Kuchma in a move that most political analysts in Kyiv agree is a political gesture to secure the center-right vote in the presidential runoff.

The president, who faces a second-round vote against Communist Party nominee Petro Symonenko on November 14, made the unexpected pronouncement during a campaign stop in Uman, Cherkasy Oblast.

"Our viewpoints have never differed greatly," explained President Kuchma. "A political campaign is a political campaign. The important thing is not to cross the line."

During his election campaign, Mr. Marchuk, 58, stridently attacked the president, accusing him of giving tacit, if not active, support to the cronyism and corruption that have taken a firm hold in government in the five years of Mr. Kuchma's first term.

Mr. Marchuk aligned himself with three left-leaning presidential candidates during the campaign - even as his candidacy was promoted by a coalition of rightist political organizations - to form an anti-Kuchma alliance dubbed the Kaniv Four. The alliance fell apart days before the elections, and none of the four candidates managed to finish higher than fourth place

A central plank of Mr. Marchuk's political platform was a commitment to battle organized crime and to stop the flight of Ukrainian capital to foreign banks. That, explained President Kuchma, is the reason that he is needed as head of the government's security council.

Mr. Marchuk said that, while he still disagrees with the president's policies in many areas, he chose the path of political pragmatism after three days of what he called "strenuous negotiations."

"This is a good example of a pragmatic political approach," explained Mr. Marchuk.

In making his decision Mr. Marchuk said he is promoting a policy of cooperation among political opponents, which is much needed in Ukraine, and made reference to Europe, which has a tradition of coalition-building among political opposites.

"We must gradually destroy the idea of the state as a field of combat, where there is only one resolution: either a bloody victory for one, or exhaustion for all," he said.

The political dance between Mr. Marchuk and President Kuchma began with Mr. Marchuk's announcement on November 5 that he would not support the candidacy of Mr. Symonenko in the second round of voting. In a short interview in the newspaper Den (Day), Mr. Marchuk, while continuing to criticize the "corruption in government," said he wanted to be more objective than many of his fellow defeated candidates in analyzing the two remaining candidates - words that left the door open for negotiations with the Kuchma team.

"Many of the processes that have strategic significance, I view with the eyes of a prime minister, a head of the Security Service of Ukraine and a head of a parliamentary committee," explained Mr. Marchuk, who has held all three posts. "This forces me to be much more responsible in picking my current stand than are my talkative colleagues."

President Kuchma responded on November 7 with a statement in the Lviv newspaper Vysokyi Zamok in which he said that he is ready to cooperate with Mr. Marchuk. After hearing the president's words, Mr. Marchuk told reporters that he is ready to implement his program, if given "appropriate authority in the government."

Mr. Marchuk said he agreed finally to take the security council post after Mr. Kuchma accepted most provisions of his concept for Ukraine's strategic development, which he had presented during the course of his campaign. The program emphasized the need to decriminalize government and to bring the economy out of the shadows.

During a November 10 press conference, the new National Security and Defense Council secretary rejected the notion that he is simply looking for a position of influence in return for his 2.1 million votes.

"The main point is that there is a chance to implement a program for Ukraine's future, and a serious politician must take advantage of such an opportunity," explained Mr. Marchuk.

Mr. Symonenko, the individual who could be most affected by Mr. Marchuk's appointment in the short term, said the political move will not have a marked impact on the November 14 elections and his chances.

He said Mr. Marchuk does not have a dedicated electorate and his "compromise" with the president would not bring the president the full support of the political right. Mr. Symonenko also stated that the rightist coalition that supported Mr. Marchuk had done so to convey its disgust with the Kuchma administration and that, he added, had not changed.

Although political analysts were mixed in their reaction to the appointment, most agreed it would help President Kuchma in the runoff with his Communist opponent.

Ilko Kucheriv, director of the Democratic Initiatives Fund, which commissioned several sociological surveys prior to the elections, said the appointment will stimulate Mr. Marchuk's undecided electorate to vote for the president.

Mykola Chyrulov of SOCIS-Gallup called the appointment a "purely political move" that would consolidate the right-wing forces in favor of Mr. Kuchma, while Olha Balakireva of the Social Monitoring Center disagreed and said that most of Mr. Marchuk's supporters would have voted for the incumbent anyway,

The particular timing of the appointment of Mr. Marchuk has had many political observers making comparisons to a similar tactical move by Russian President Boris Yeltsin between the first and second round of the 1996 Russian presidential elections. Days before the second round, the Russian president - who eventually withstood a Communist challenge to win re-election - appointed Gen. Alexander Lebed, who had finished strongly in the first round, as his national security chairman. The political move drew a good portion of Russia's right wing to Mr. Yeltsin in the second round, but Mr. Lebed was fired within weeks for being too singleminded and outspoken.

President Kuchma, however, dismissed the comparison. "If I had chosen an ex-candidate with a background in agriculture for this post, then such questioning would be logical, but Mr. Marchuk is a specialist in this area," explained the president.

Political analyst Mykola Tomenko, who routinely has criticized the president, this time found common ground, to an extent. "The move is only similar in that the president is also trying to secure his victory," said Mr. Tomenko.

He explained that the length of Mr. Marchuk's stay in the Kuchma administration will depend on whether the new secretary of the security council "accepts the president's rules of the game."

"If [Mr. Marchuk] sees that the president has not stuck to the agreement, he will leave," said Mr. Tomenko.

Whether taken from Russian president's election playbook or not, President Kuchma's decision to bring his former opponent into the administration leaves Volodymyr Horbulin, whom Mr. Marchuk replaces, out in the political cold for now.

Mr. Horbulin, 60, a colleague of Mr. Kuchma since their days as engineers at the PivdenMash rocket manufacturing facility in Dnipropetrovsk, held the powerful security council position for more than three years and was very influential in policy development in the Kuchma administration.

The president offered a vague reason for the dismissal of his longtime friend, who, he emphasized, would be handed another top post, perhaps as a presidential advisor. "Life requires change," explained the president in Uman, located in the Ukrainian heartland. "When people stay in one position for too long, they lose their perspective."

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