IN THE PRESS: Aftermath of a political crises, a president who won't listen (08/13/06)

IN THE PRESS

Aftermath of a political crises, a president who won't listen

"Don't give up on Ukraine," commentary by Carlos Pascual, vice president of the Brookings Institution and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, International Herald Tribune, July 3:

"... there is some good news in [Ukraine's] current political mess. Multi-party politics is alive. It can be bare-knuckled, ugly and corrupt, but it also involves real debate over how to advance Ukraine's development as a state with ties to the Euro-Atlantic community and with decent relations with Russia. For these goals to be achieved, however, Ukraine's politicians must give more weight to national interests and less to the politics of personal power. Such leadership may have emerged with the coalition forged in the early hours of Thursday. ...

"Yushchenko and Yanukovych now have an opportunity to stop the political slide. The agreement reached on Thursday gives Yushchenko the chance to champion a solid policy agenda - his ticket to restore his political relevance. Yanukovych will get another shot as prime minister - and a chance to turn his tainted legacy into one of effective governance.

"Coalitions inevitably mean imperfect compromise, but it is hard to see how any other alternative would be good for Ukraine. Any excuse to dissolve Parliament after August 2 and vote again would have violated the Constitution and surrendered the last remnant of the Orange Revolution's claim to a moral high ground.

"New elections also would have extended the crisis through 2006 ..."

"The Non-Listening President," commentary by Dr. Taras Kuzio, senior fellow at the German Marshal Fund of the U.S.A., Kyiv Post, August 3:

"One of the most surprising aspects of the Viktor Yushchenko administration has been its unwillingness, or disinterest, in public relations and public opinion, whether in Ukraine or abroad. The Yushchenko administration and Our Ukraine ignored public opinion in Ukraine among Orange Revolution supporters, and that of the U.S.A. and the West in general, which called for a revived Orange coalition following the March elections. A coalition was only put together on the eve of the June deadline, but it immediately collapsed and led to the current political crisis.

"In ignoring domestic and foreign public opinion and advice, the Yushchenko administration has boxed itself into a corner. The two choices facing President Yushchenko are both unpalatable; proposing Viktor Yanukovych as prime minister or dissolving Parliament and holding new elections. The first would be to make Yushchenko a lame duck president and the second would make Our Ukraine a lame duck political force.

"The Orange Revolution did not have to develop this way if the president and Our Ukraine had upheld one of the central ideals of the maidan. When Ukrainians went on to the streets in the Orange Revolution they sought to change their relationship with their rulers.

" ... A central component was to be that the ruling elites would listen and act in line with public opinion. But Yushchenko has failed to become a listening president. ..."

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