ANALYSIS: Tymoshenko urges Yuschenko to form united bloc (10/14/01)

ANALYSIS

Tymoshenko urges Yuschenko to form united bloc

by Jan Maksymiuk
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report

Former Vice Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko has called upon former Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko to form an election bloc consisting of his Our Ukraine coalition, her National Salvation Forum, and Oleksander Moroz's Socialist Party. In an open letter published by Ukrainian media last week, Ms. Tymoshenko wrote:

"Today we are proposing to unite Our Ukraine, the National Salvation Forum and the bloc led by Oleksander Moroz into a single electoral democratic bloc with a single election list. It is exactly this bloc, according to my deep conviction, that will claim a victory in [next year's] parliamentary elections and install in power honest politicians who are able to introduce order in the state. ...

"If you fail to respond to this proposal, separately we will, of course, make it to the Parliament, but it will be a parliament controlled by oligarchic, anti-democratic and anti-reformist forces that will continue with the shameful practice of suppressing people, stealing national wealth and ruining the independent state. ...

"[Your] idea of building a single coalition of all 'constructive forces' is worth attention. However, this outwardly noble goal should not serve as a cover for making fools of people. The Party of Regions, Labor Ukraine, or other 'court-clique' structures, which are today pushing forward to become your allies, will never be building democracy or supporting national revival because they are being guided by 'principles and rules' that have noting to do with either democracy or Ukraine's revival."

Some Ukrainian commentators have called Ms. Tymoshenko's open letter a good propagandistic move that is intended to demystify Yuschenko and show the public that he primarily seeks power and not necessarily democratic reforms championed by a "national-patriotic" parliamentary coalition.

"Today, the ex-premier [Yuschenko] needs not Tymoshenko with national patriots (he already has a lot of them) but parties with backing in individual regions: Solidarnist - this [is leverage in] the Vinnytsia region; the Liberal Party - this [means] the Sumy region; Mejlis - this [means] Crimea; the Agrarian Party - this [means] the Volyn region; Ukraine's Regions - this [means] Donbas," the Ukrayinska Pravda website commented.

While publicizing her open letter, Ms. Tymoshenko most likely did not believe in the possibility of any election coalition with Mr. Yuschenko. It appears that she made her offer only to clear the political field for herself in the upcoming election campaign. Mr. Yuschenko's anticipated "no" to her proposal will leave her an indisputable leader on the right-of-center side of the anti-Kuchma opposition forces.

And indeed, Mr. Yuschenko's first reaction to Ms. Tymoshenko's letter was negative: "We are not going to consider somebody else's advice or recommendations, to speak correctly. We have our own vision. Our bloc is not aiming to fight the authorities or anybody else," ICTV television quoted the former prime minister as saying.

Jan Maksymiuk is the Belarus, Ukraine and Poland specialist on the staff of RFE/RL Newsline.

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