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Attitude to Regime Main Cause Of Rightist Rifts

20 April, 00:00

By Oleksandr SYRTSOV, The Day There does not seem to be in today's Ukraine a centrist or center-right party which has not suffered to one extent or another a split in its ranks: People's Democrats, Rukh, National Republicans, Democratic Party, and the Greens which recently joined the camp. And the common feature for all of them is not so much ideological differences as the attitude, to a greater or lesser extent, to the current regime. On the one hand, such a conflict seems inevitable: the right-wing parties funded by private business find it hard to oppose the current rulers, for their sponsors will feel the squeeze immediately. So this gives rise to an objective dilemma of how best to preserve the party: saving face or money. On the other hand, it cannot escape notice that mass splits in the non-leftist part of the spectrum is to the advantage of the authorities, for this weakens any possible non-leftist presidential candidate except Leonid Kuchma. It is not that the series of party conflicts have been directly organized by the state, for the latter is simply incapable of so doing. But there is no doubt that those in power will take advantage of the situation.

NDP SPLIT: GRASSROOTS MORE OBEDIENT
THAN LEADERSHIP

President Leonid Kuchma's two-day routine visit to Odesa might have been considered almost without result, as all his previous visits to the region, if the grassroots had not issued a political challenge to the leaders of the People's Democratic Party (NDP) during a meeting between the head of state and the local officials and party activists.

The essence of this challenge was explained by a local NDP leader, chairman of the regional branch of the Zlahoda association and the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (UUIE) Leonid Shemyakin: the NDP oblast organization is nominating and will support Mr. Kuchma in the upcoming presidential elections. Moreover, Mr. Shemyakin noted, "We favor a single candidate of democratic forces, and this is Mr. Kuchma." This decision, he went on, is "a challenge to some conceited people." Mr. Shemyakin further explained to The Day's correspondent that the challenge by some Odesa NDP members was caused by the fact that "contrary to the decisions of the previous NDP congress, there are documents and demands to contender that run counter to the party forum decisions."

In other words, the well-known appeals of NDP leader Anatoly Matviyenko and five like-minded members of the political executive committee to Mr. Kuchma as a probable candidate from their party to begin some sort of reforms in the economy and public administration have at last received an unequivocal response. And, naturally, the "initiative of the Odesa grassroots," obviously much to the liking of the "NDP's probable candidate," was followed by a closed meeting of the NDP executive committee in Kyiv, where the voting revealed "the conceited people." Even without a fortune teller you can foresee that this decision will bring on a split in the party. As to which Odesa organizations supported Mr. Kuchma's candidature for presidency, Mr. Shemyakin named the local Regional Renaissance Association, New Ukraine, Women of Ukraine, regional UUIE, NDP, and Peasant Democratic Party branches.

NDP regional organizations seem so far either to be awaiting resolution of the conflict at the top or overtly taking the regime's side.

Newspaper output №:

№15, (1999)

Section

Day After Day