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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

RUKH ON THE MOVE

2 March, 1999 - 00:00

After the Popular Movement (Rukh) faction in Verkhovna Rada had officially
passed a vote of no confidence in their leader Vyacheslav Chornovil and
charged Yuri Kostenko with the responsibility of faction leader, the inner
party conflict entered the phase of overt confrontation.

The majority of Rukh leadership members resolved to voice no confidence
in Mr. Chornovil and recommended that the Rukh congress put on the agenda
the issue of removing him as party leader. The congress was slated for
February 28.

Mr. Chornovil said all those decisions were "illegitimate," and he insists
on convening a congress by request of 13 regional party organizations,
scheduled for March 6-7.

This conflict, despite all attempts not to wash the dirty linen in public,
has been an open secret for so long that it more and more resembles a neglected
abscess. Virtually all observers were unanimous that, sooner or later,
the abscess would have to be lanced to save Rukh from death by blood poisoning.

To look at it, Mr. Chornovil's "constructive opposition" looked more
and more like overt bargaining with those in power, while the relationships
within Rukh itself aroused unsettling thoughts about a CPSU-style witch-hunt.

On February 23 People's Deputies Ivan Drach, Dmytro Pavlychko, and Pavlo
Movchan held a press conference at the Union of Architects Lviv branch,
where they expressed their attitude toward the party conflict, reports
The Day's Oleksandr SYRTSOV. These spiritual fathers of Rukh
say the party no longer conforms to the current political situation. First
of all, the time of personified parties is gone. According to Messrs. Drach,
Pavlychko, and Movchan, Mr. Chornovil is trying to establish one-man rule
in the party, while Rukh has lost the initiative in many, especially social,
issues. It needs young blood and a revised leadership. In other words,
the Rukh founders were in fact calling for fulfillment of the party slogan,
"we need changes".

The three People's Deputies emphasized they were acting strictly under
the party's statute. They wanted to use their stay in Lviv to bring home
their stand to party militants and the public, as well as to lay the groundwork
for an extraordinary congress of Rukh. They think a compromise in the party
is still possible, but for that to happen Mr. Chornovil would have to take
back his letters labeling as schismatics those leadership members who voted
for his resignation. They are also ready to propose him the post of Rukh
honorary chairman. That Mr. Chornovil is most likely to reject this because
of his ambitions was referred to as his own problem.

The Rukh fathers told journalists that Lviv was only the beginning of
their work for a qualitative renewal of the party, and they would soon
conduct similar meetings in other regional centers.

Last Wednesday The Day's editorial office hosted some well-known
politicians associated by many with the future of the Popular Movement
of Ukraine: Verkhovna Rada deputies Yuri Kostenko and Oleksandr Lavrynovych.
They told about their stance in the conflict and spelled out their views
of further developments in Rukh.

"Why have you kept silent so long, why has this internal conflict
in Rukh, apparent for so long, flared up now?"

Kostenko: "The negative processes started as long ago as 1992,
when Mr. Chornovil staged a coup within Rukh in an undemocratic way, to
put it mildly. Some people, who had been in Rukh from the very outset,
have been trying all these years to change the situation in a legitimate
way in order to preserve unity. We attempted to democratize the party by
amending the statute, but in real life it came off precisely the contrary:
the statute was amended in such a way as to only reinforce authoritarianism
in managing the party, and all this was done under very heavy pressure
from Mr. Chornovil. All governing bodies in the party were gradually assuming
a purely decorative nature.

"And one more, perhaps key, aspect. After independence had been gained,
Rukh did not identify its new ideology, its new political objective, or
its economic groundwork. We still remained an old, public rally-type, party
which, having played its role in 1991, has been in fact called upon all
the past years to serve those in power."

Lavrynovych: "Your newspaper once printed a headline 'Whatever
party we build, it turns into the CPSU.' The point is that the party we
started building in 1989 did not look like the CPSU. The then statute even
read that we have no centralism and that the minority is not obliged to
fulfill the decisions of the majority."

"Please tell us whether it was typical of Mr. Chornovil earlier to
show the methods and style of accusations he has been displaying lately
in 'exposing' you? Was it noticeable within Rukh?"

Kostenko: "Unfortunately, Mr. Chornovil has an inherent manner
of constantly searching for enemies. Many representative of the old system
divide the world into friend or foe categories, they don't have half-friends,
especially in politics. What is going on today has always taken place in
Rukh. We were always engaged in searching for enemies, those who stood
in our way, instead of searching for the ways of solving one problem or
another."

"Why did the rebellion in Rukh start in the parliamentary faction?
If Mr. Chornovil is so perfidious, why did he let opposition elements into
the top of the party list?"

Lavrynovych: "Rukh deputies only understood the necessity of
change when in Parliament. It soon became obvious to a great number of
faction members that party members had only been used as an instrument
for achieving a certain result and fulfilling expedient tasks that were
far from always conceived in the leader's head. The faction leader's inconsistency
became all too apparent."

"Could you give an example of such inconsistency?"

"The year 1991. Mr. Chornovil proposes Yevhen Marchuk as Prime Minister,
and then becomes his implacable enemy. Then comes the question of appointing
Mr. Pustovoitenko. Mr. Chornovil says that nothing can be worse than this,
but when it comes to a no-confidence vote, he says it shouldn't be done.
Our program says we must encourage the making of free enterprise, while
we, at the proposal of our party leader, vote for new taxes and increased
administrative role of the state."

Kostenko: "I want to add that the faction is the party's intellectual
nucleus. This is why the issue started in the faction. But I don't agree
the conflict only germinated within the faction. Let me give a 1999 example.
Then, working in the government, I saw the party was gradually losing ground,
and the ruling structures looked on us as betes noires. So I approached
Mr. Chornovil and said that something was wrong and I associated the problems
with his leadership.

"He grinned and said, 'Do you mean I am no longer the same?'

"I said, 'Yes, the time has come for you to think of a successor.'

"He smiled again and asked, 'And who do you see as successor?'

"I replied, 'Oleksandr Lavrynovych, for example.'"

Lavrynovych (laughing): "If only I had known who squealed on
me."

Kostenko: "'Lavrynovych is not popular with all in the party,'
said Mr. Chornovil.

"I told him, 'Cherniak would not be a bad candidate.'

"Mr. Chornovil: 'Who else do you see?'

"I said, 'Ivan Zayets.'

"'Well, Zayets is no good, he's too short,' replied Mr. Chornovil.

"I then told him everything and thought that was the end of it. However,
odd things began then. Well, everybody knows the Lavrynovych story. Mr.
Cherniak was in fact brutally set up several times in the elections of
Kyiv mayor. As to me, I learned a few days ago that Mr. Chornovil happened
to be received by the President after our talk and told him, 'Cut your
minister down to size, for he is intriguing against me.' This was followed
by various inspections of the ministry.

"And the last interesting fact: calling us 'rebels,' Mr. Chornovil and
his entourage tend to forget that all these 'rebels' were founders of Rukh.
Moreover, accusing us of running up to somebody to ask for something, Mr.
Chornovil has forgotten it has been he who ran to Speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko
and telling him all this for an hour or so. Who did he tell this to? His
political opponent who later ironically told his left-wing colleagues what
Mr. Chornovil had been doing in his office!"

"Judging by Mr. Chornovil's behavior, the struggle will be fierce.
Are you aware of a danger in staying among people constantly try to fight
back? Are you prepared to place clear-cut political accents?"

Lavrynovych: "Our strength and weakness lies in having a great
number of highly-educated intellectuals with different viewpoints. This
is our weakness in the current situation. So the degree of decisiveness
will always be lower than that of purely authoritarian groupings. What
we will always have is weaker action but a broader base."

"Knowing Mr. Chornovil, we may predict he will not buckle down and
will fight at least for the name of the party. Are you ready to accept
simultaneous existence of Rukh(o) and Rukh(ch)? Will you agree to change
the party name?"

Lavrynovych: "We don't think it necessary. We've been working
until today under the law and the party statute. Our congress will be held
as required by statute. Mr. Chornovil is keen to leave the name with himself,
but he has already backtracked, aware of having no chances, and submitted
for registration a deputies group called First Popular Movement of Ukraine.
This name is unlikely to be registered in the Committee for Procedure,
Parliamentary Ethics, and Organizational Work. He will perhaps have to
choose a different name."

Kostenko: "By the way, speaking of political prospects, even
Rukh as such does not have them. There will only be political prospects
when the national democrats unite in a bloc or party and fully control
the right wing of the electorate. So this is our first step toward a powerful
right wing which will have political prospects for centuries to come."

"Does the fact that Mr. Chornovil has lost his monopoly on national
democratic leadership mean that all national democratic forces have now
a chance to really unite around a true leader?"

Kostenko: "I believe in and am sure we will achieve this."

 

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