Yevhen MARCHUK: “My first orders will deal with staff appointments”

The constituent convention of the Social Democratic Union Youth League was held on September 25, involving representatives from youth associations in 17 oblasts of Ukraine, the Crimea, and Kyiv. The delegates passed a statement supporting the Kaniv Four as the most influential political alliance and declared their resolve to campaign for presidential candidate Yevhen Marchuk.

Mr. Marchuk, addressing the convention, shared his views on developing the youth policy from the President's standpoint and answered questions.

Q: Mr. Marchuk, what do you think of People's Deputy Brodsky's action? Was his encounter with Rukh adherent Kendzior a stunt or a provocation?

A: I think that Mykhailo Brodsky chose an inadmissible form of protest. He showed political shortsightedness; he disregarded the fact that he set a vehicle for discrediting Parliament in motion. You saw the relish with which every detail of the incident was played and replayed on television later. His encounter with the Rukh adherent gave a sequel to the legislature's crisis, as several factions walked out. As it was, the oppositionist Brodsky helped his political rivals with their mudslinging campaign against Verkhovna Rada, contributing to the legislature's unattractive image. The event's political consequences are already in evidence: Leonid Kuchma declared that politicians have to be exposed to special tests to check their mental status. In other words, he made it clear that the lawmakers are mentally unstable and cannot be trusted with this country's destiny.

Q: How do you feel about the attempt being allegedly prepared on our leading gangbuster? Are there any special security arrangements to protect Hryhory Omelchenko?

A: There is indeed information about a planned attempt on Mr. Omelchenko. He is highly inconvenient for the regime. Hence, if something should happen to him the perpetrator's forwarding address would be generally known. For this reason I think that there are many people interested in preventing any incidents. The identity of the contractor would be obvious. Hryhory Omelchenko is a courageous man and politician. He is often criticized for never ending a case he starts, but this is just another attempt to shift emphasis; a People's Deputy should not act as a judge or prosecutor.

I think that the latest parliamentary inquiries, the Volkov and Pinchuk cases, indicate that Hryhory Omelchenko and Anatoly Yermak are very consistent politicians and they have to be given their due: they are very independent. It is practically impossible to influence Mr. Omelchenko. He is most persistent in the best sense of the word. His persistence is based on possessing serious arguments and valid information; he has a good reputation with Western law enforcement authorities.

Q: If and when elected President, what would be your first steps?

A: One of my first edicts would be on the struggle against organized crime. Here one has, figuratively speaking, to take a broom and clean up, rather than campaigning for clean streets. Today, the President has enough authority to start a devastating offensive against Ukraine's Mafia clans that are blocking economic reform. The struggle against organized crime must be continuous, yet measures will be taken not in terms of routine police procedures, but to immediately neutralize the ten or so such clans that control everything in this country. Thus my first orders (about 800 in all) will deal primarily with personnel appointments. Let me tell you here and now: when we come to power we will not ruin everything. We will cooperate with those currently functioning in the executive framework without having marred their reputation by taking bribes. We will need professionals. But mainly new people will receive posts, ones properly trained to do their jobs. They will learn about their appointments at least a month in advance.

I saw what happened after the 1994 presidential campaign. People followed each other around for half a year asking what to do and how. We cannot let this happen this time, for the joy of victory will be combined with the burden of responsibility from the outset. The new chief of state will inherit a devastated economy, so the entire executive vertical will have to be built as early as November 3-4. And the tenth day will see the Cabinet's report delivered publicly.

Q: Where are you going to find professionals enough to staff the whole executive floor?

A: We don't have a cadre problem, we have a problem with the cadre policy. There is strong young intellectual potential, for example, but every effort is being made to drag it into the shadows.

I say this knowing thousands of people of the new formation that are barred access to politics, let alone the Presidential Administration. There are thousands of professionals ready to start work immediately in the public and private sectors. But if the present situation remains, with some fifty ranking bureaucrats being rotated from one government post to another, nothing will change. I know about the current executive branch only too well: out of control, corrupt, and unprofessional. Indeed, how can one call these people professionals, considering that they were unable to predict the devastating blows dealt the economy this summer, let alone the hryvnia's slide that happened before everybody's eyes? Soaring fuel costs destroyed what little remained viable in agribusiness. I have been contacted by the managers of powerful collective agricultural enterprises. “We all went bankrupt for a year and a half after they charged six kilos of wheat per liter of diesel fuel,” they said. For this reason control over the executive is one of the key elements in rehabilitating and reviving Ukraine's reputation.

Take another example. Foreign investment is slow in Ukraine, totaling $2.8 billion over the eight years of independence, compared to $10-20 billion received annually by Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. We will never have serious investment come our way so long as power remains in corrupt hands in Ukraine.

Q: Mr. Marchuk, a lot is being said and written these days about Russian scenarios, Russian consultants' assistance. What about you? Do you rely on foreign, particularly Russian, assistance in your campaign?

A: I have met with quite a few Russian politicians and I am willing to meet with others, inasmuch as such contacts can benefit Ukraine. Saying how terrible it is when an opposition candidate meets with Luzhkov and Zatulin, claiming it is the end to Ukraine's sovereignty, is another borrowed ideological stereotype. How about the Communist Stroyev visiting Ukraine and meeting with the President? For one thing, I know that top-level no-necktie contacts are a positive factor in the psychological atmosphere. But I also know that the trade war between Ukraine and Russia began after precisely such meetings.

I am sure, however, that bullying the electorate with the threat of losing sovereignty simply will not work. No politician will ever make Ukraine turn back. The people will not let this happen.

Q: How do you view tax reform?

A: I don't think that the President will be able to reform the tax system single-handedly, so he must establish cooperation with Parliament at all costs, and I mean not friendly but strictly business contacts, aimed at revolutionizing tax policy. The current Tax Code is imperfect, we have high taxes and a totally devastated social sphere. Roughly speaking, we must reach a level with the sum total of tax payments being roughly 40-45%. The question is, of course, whether this will make us lose budget revenues? If we block all the channels of embezzlement at the national level there will be a kind of mutual compensation.

And a second no less important aspect is that we must revive tax-collecting structures that have presently turned into weapons of political terror. Tax people are involved in the political struggle, they participate in the destruction of business structures, inflicting staggering moral and financial losses on businesspeople. The result is mounting unemployment and dwindling contributions to the Chornobyl Relief and Pension Funds. Worst of all, they are obstructing the strengthening of the middle class base, that very political platform, that crest protecting the country's political system from upheavals.

Q: Being President, what would you be able to do for me as a young businessman?

A: First, you would get reliable protection, not against the racket but against me as President. Second, the tax service must be competent and strict, but it must not be allowed to tear businesspeople to pieces. If after a comprehensive verification you turn out clean, your firm must be left alone for another five years, as is the case in the United States, for example, where they won't bother you again for seven years. But if you are found guilty the punishment will be severe. As for privileges [tax exemptions], they should be geared to stimulate the economy. In Ukraine, they are tremendous but are granted five or six firms and individuals in high office, which makes the state lose a great deal; over one billion hryvnias lost after lifting the excise tax on distilleries and tobacco factories. I think that such privileges should be first given a small business with up to 10,000 on the payroll, where 40% of the staff are young people and where business is expanding. Or when a businessman is providing jobs to mothers with young children working short hours. What we have now is economic lawlessness. In short, what I would be able to do for you would be to straighten things out in the tax department.