Cloak and  Dagger Boys

"I think you have been simply taught to break laws, you've forgotten who you represent and where you are! This is not the President's Administration where you go running, this is Verkhovna Rada." This emotional outburst by Speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko followed a period during the commission session when some probable presidential candidates and the press were several times moved to laughter by some high officeholders who brazenly pretended that what is going on concerning the elections is not to their knowledge or outside their competence. Or, as the SBU deputy Chairman put it, causing a burst of laughter: "I was not there, so I heard and saw nothing."

Meanwhile, the focus was an SBU meeting, where all were "set up" to work for the current President's victory. Deputy Yermak also spoke about a similar meeting in the Crimea, this time among police officers. Members of parliamentary committees and prospective presidential candidates also tried to find out why there is such total surveillance, bugging, and phone-tapping. Why are provocative materials being spread at will and the sources cannot be traced? Why are even those who placed their signature in favor of a certain candidate being harassed? Why are factory managers being threatened with dismissal if they collect signatures for anybody other than President Kuchma?

It has already come to blatant frame-up: representatives of various political forces told about an unprecedented case. On May 30, certain people were collecting signatures throughout Kyiv for the main contenders on fake signature sheets. A version of why this is being done is: fakes can be used to replace genuine documents at a later stage. But no one said this aloud, for this would have been perhaps an impolite and so far groundless suspicion about the Central Elections Commission (CEC) whose chief, Mykhailo Riabets, was present at the session.

Mr. Riabets, incidentally, had to explain why the candidates filled in different forms of financial statements and why a form drawn up by the Ministry of Finance was rejected, one which points out the incomes of family members and financial liabilities, including those abroad. It would be a sin against the truth to say that the answer was very coherent and logical. It was the same story with the CEC's hasty recommendation to cancel live broadcast of debates: if our independent body is justly concerned about equality of rights, why is it not indignant at the unprecedented use of state-controlled television time as a mouthpiece privatized by the President?

The speeches of SBU and Prosecutor-General's deputies in general gave the impression that no one is responsible for anything in this country. This also aroused suspicion: the visiting high officials do not take what is going on seriously, and this parliamentary commission is to them like water off a duck's back.

The hitherto-silent Speaker Tkachenko took the floor and, we should note, managed to show the high-placed comrades that they were somewhat mistaken. Having noted that they should correct the constitutional error, whereby enforcement bodies are subordinated to one person, and promising to invite the top executives whom nobody authorized to flout the invitation of a legislative commission, the Speaker in fact tweaked the ears (or something else) of the high officials present.

By Tetiana KOROBOVA, The Day
 

INCIDENTALLY

On June 1 the Speaker made it quite clear that it is time to discuss the question of government responsibility. By contrast, as early as May Mr. Tkachenko condescendingly calmed down lawmakers all set to lay a vote of no confidence at the Cabinet's door: better not, he counseled, for it would not improve things. Perhaps this cardinal change in attitude toward Premier Valery Pustovoitenko was not least caused by the fact that the head of government gathered parliamentary faction leaders in his office on May 31 and tried to strike a deal about toppling the "rebellious Speaker."

It is too early to speculate about the turn of events surrounding the Speaker's chair. What is clear is this:

1. There will be attempts to stage an anti-Speaker coup.

2. Mr. Tkachenko has taken up the hatchet and gone on the warpath against President Kuchma and Premier Pustovoitenko.

3. We should expect early publication of interesting information about Mr. Tkachenko's activities as chairman of the notorious Land and People Association.

Oleksandr YURCHUK, Center for Journalistic Research