Our Ukraine convenes Forum for the Democratic Development of Ukraine (09/29/02)

Our Ukraine convenes Forum for the Democratic Development of Ukraine

by Yarema Bachynsky
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - On September 14-15, Our Ukraine, the parliamentary bloc headed up by former Prime Minister and current National Deputy Viktor Yushchenko, called together parties from the right, center and left and their colleagues in the NGO sector to discuss how to revive political, economic and social reforms that forum organizers say have stalled since the March 31 Parliament election. Dubbed the Forum for the Democratic Development of Ukraine, the two-day weekend conclave was held at the National University of the Kyiv Polytechnical Institute, in the same hall that gave birth to Rukh in 1989.

On Saturday, September 14, representatives of more than 50 political parties, including such national democratic stalwarts as the two Rukhs and Viktor Pynzenyk's Reforms and Order, as well as pro-presidential centrists and the Socialist Party of Ukraine, worked with Ukrainian NGOs, think-tanks and international guests in discussion sections, aimed at reviewing the current political situation; progress on economic reforms, the state of Ukrainian society; freedom of speech issues, including censorship and killings of journalists, and governance and administrative reform.

The day saw heated debates between pro-presidential parties, which insisted that the March 31 parliamentary elections had been won fair and square, something representatives of Our Ukraine, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Socialists hotly contested. These forces insisted that President Leonid Kuchma's recently announced plans to turn Ukraine into a parliamentary-presidential republic, thereby slicing presidential powers, were too little, too late, boiling down to an attempt at distracting the Ukrainian public's attention from the series of scandals and crises that have beset Mr. Kuchma since the disappearance and death of opposition journalist Heorhii Gongadze in September 2000.

Another bone of contention between opposition and pro-presidential groups was the current state of freedom of speech and information in Ukraine. Our Ukraine National Deputy Mykola Tomenko, who heads the Institute of Politics, chaired the information policy discussion section, called participants' attention to numerous accusations of direct censorship of national TV networks by forces close to Presidential Administration chief Viktor Medvedchuk and the Social Democratic Party-United. Other participants accused the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting of refusing to issue licenses to opposition broadcasters. The discussion group issued a resolution calling for an end to censorship and an overhaul of state information policy.

On Sunday, delegates and guests assembled for an all-day plenary session, which quickly turned into a series of blistering attacks on President Kuchma, despite the organizing committee's efforts to calm emotions and sum up Saturday's discussions and resolutions. A greeting from Mr. Kuchma read by a representative of the presidential administration accused the forum's organizers of using undiplomatic language in inviting the president and making his attendance impossible. The fact that the greeting was pronounced by a mid-level official infuriated the audience and drew grimaces from certain centrist members of the forum presidium.

Socialist Party Chairman Oleksander Moroz, a longtime Kuchma foe, called on Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko to join the Socialists, Communists and Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in forcing Mr. Kuchma out of office. Mr. Moroz also criticized Kyiv Mayor Oleksander Omelchenko, whose Unity Party was a forum co-organizer, for the latter's attempts to prevent the opposition from demonstrating in the center of Kyiv. [Mr. Omelchenko had suggested the demonstrations be held at the Chaika Stadium located on the city's outskirts]. Following his speech, Mr. Moroz gave Mr. Yushchenko a videotape prepared by the Socialist Party's press service on the murder of Mr. Gongadze and the Melnychenko tapes, which was shown a bit later and drew a very emotional audience response from forum participants.

National Deputy Serhii Tyhypko, a one-time member of Viktor Yushchenko's government and leader of the centrist Labor Ukraine/Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs faction in Parliament, called on forum participants to support the formation of a democratic parliamentary majority and a coalition government to include the victors of the March elections. Mr. Tyhypko seemed to be suggesting that early presidential elections are unachievable, and that efforts to unseat Mr. Kuchma are a waste of time. Compared with National Deputy Anatolii Tolstoukhov of the centrist National Democratic Party and other pro-presidential speakers, Mr. Tyhypko was given a warm reception by all assembled.

Mr. Yushchenko suggested that the time had come for the state leadership to begin roundtable talks with all political forces in order to prevent street demonstrations and civil disobedience from becoming the norm in Ukraine. Unlike Mr. Moroz, Mr. Yushchenko did not call upon President Kuchma to resign - as some of his allies in Our Ukraine had been urging him to do - but it was clear that his speech was meant as a clarion call to strengthen Parliament's role in reforming the Ukrainian political system.

By day's end, the forum adopted five resolutions, including one creating a permanent coordinating council of political parties and NGOs to consolidate political reforms, and another calling on the government to ensure a full and speedy investigation into the killings of Mr. Gongadze and Donetsk journalist Ihor Aleksandrov.

A memorandum of intent was signed by Our Ukraine, the Labor Ukraine/Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, National Democratic Party, Agrarian Party and Democratic Initiatives (a centrist deputy group led by National Deputy and former Verkhovna Rada Vice-Chairman Stepan Havrysh) to form a pro-reform parliamentary majority as soon as possible.

| Home Page |