<I>The Day</I>’s Experts Advise New Government Not to Rush Elections

In his responses to questions from the public during the recent live television broadcast, President Yushchenko’s answers showed a noticeable lack of concreteness, but he should be commended for his calm and benevolent attitude toward critical, if not aggressive, callers. Most questions touched on socioeconomic issues. The head of state promised to create a million new jobs this year and continue doing so over the next five years, make the promised social payments, and begin compensating for the lost Soviet-era bank savings. Questions on sociopolitical matters sounded no less emotional. The chief executive stated that the question of Ukraine’s accession to the EU and NATO would be put to a referendum. He said he was firmly convinced that Red Army and OUN and UPA veterans should finally make peace with one another, promised not to discriminate against Russian and other ethnic minority languages in Ukraine, provided Ukrainian remains the only official language, upheld the current status of the Crimea and announced plans to solve the land problem in the peninsula. He also said with some pride that the new government has already managed to replace about 18,000 civil servants. “I cannot work with the old system of executive public administration,” President Yushchenko said, accusing the old state apparatus of mass corruption and public embezzlement.

On the same day the head of state held a briefing session with about 400 media people in Ukraine House. This event differed from ex-president Leonid Kuchma’s press conferences in that there was an incomparably more democratic atmosphere in the room, and the guards standing by the metal detectors did not look forbidding. The media people kept coming up to the mike one by one, so in theory everyone could communicate with the president. But the situation was complicated by the fact that it took Mr. Yushchenko 15 to 30 minutes to answer a question. So luck smiled on about 15 out of the 400 assembled journalists.

President Yushchenko announced that the list of 29 enterprises questionably privatized would be made public after being checked by law enforcement bodies. The president also promised “to follow only a legal and open way” of holding privatization tenders and did not rule out the possibility that the old owners would have the right to buy them out. The head of state emphasized that there would be no nationalization or reprivatization in Ukraine, noting that he dislikes these very words.

Since most of the journalists represented the regional media, many questions were about the state of affairs in specific regions. The president promised to introduce monthly monitoring of the basic indicators of local administrations’ performance. Governors and other regional officials will be evaluated by such criteria as the number of new jobs, birth/death rate ratio, and investments received. Mr. Yushchenko also promised to make more surprise visits to the regions to check on the actual state of affairs.

Speaking about foreign policies, the president said that Ukraine is not prepared today to negotiate EU membership. In his view, this country must first meet the standards of European politics, which requires passing about 350 laws. At the same time, President Yushchenko said he was thoroughly convinced that Ukraine will ultimately enter the European Union, for this country is located in the center of Europe. “Europe is incomplete without Ukraine,” the head of state pointed out.

President Yushchenko also announced that Ukraine would fulfill the commitment of the previous government, which had agreed to allow the Russian Black Sea Fleet to remain in Ukraine until 2017. However, the president said that many problems still remain unresolved. Within three months secretaries of the national security councils of Ukraine and Russia are to offer their presidents a number of ways to solve them.

Incidentally, none of our colleagues touched upon the subject of political reform (not surprising that ordinary individuals did not raise this question during the call-in show), the tape scandal, the Gongadze case, and the poisoning of the president.

As for the domestic political situation, the president believes that the opposition is still being formed, but he doubts that his political opponents will manage to reach an agreement. “There is no place for swindlers and bandits in politics,” Mr. Yushchenko said. “You can’t pursue a policy based on lies and robberies. To me, this is not an opposition. Those public officials who last year robbed the budget of 4 billion by way of VAT compensation cannot be the opposition.”

Oleh MEDVEDEV, political scientist; vice-president, Ukrainian League of Public Relations:

“What I liked most was the way the president tackled the problem of national reconciliation during the call-in TV program. What really matters is not the very fact that he broached this subject: in contrast to the election campaign, when Mr. Yushchenko mostly had to follow existing stereotypes (public opinion), now he tries to go forward and relying on his high prestige and popularity, he seeks to shape public opinion on such controversial issues as national reconciliation.

“I would also like to praise the democratic spirit of the call-in and advise those who doubt this to recall last year’s dialogue between Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainians. I want to draw your attention to Mr. Putin’s television debate style. In fact, we borrowed this style from Russia, where Mr. Putin has been appearing live on TV for many years. But you can clearly see that the Russian president behaves in a ‘sterilized’ way: carefully chosen questions, carefully chosen answers, everything has been checked from A to Z. No unexpected hitches: everything is smooth, sterile, and slick.

“In contrast, Mr. Yushchenko’s call-in differed in a positive way: the president was addressed from Independence Square by Nykopil Ferroalloy Plant workers obviously egged on by the current owners. Somebody shouted ‘Down with Yushchenko!’ In Donetsk there were people with portraits of Borys Kolesnykov, in the Crimea somebody read out questions (clearly prepared by some opposition parties) from a piece of paper (perhaps he was unable to learn it by heart). So it was a very democratic dialogue.”

“As for effectiveness, we don’t have any empirical data now to make any competent evaluations — it would be a good idea to conduct a public opinion poll. In principle, I would assume that people like this format of communicating with the president. While the Russians like Putin’s ‘smooth’ TV shows, there is no reason why Ukrainians should not prefer a lively and democratic way of communicating with their president.

“I do not see any politicking in that the president had his first live show broadcast on the channels of media baron Viktor Pinchuk. Maybe, the ‘baron’ was just showing initiative. I do not think this should be viewed as political scheming, especially in the context of relations between the new leadership and Pinchuk. I believe that Pinchuk’s media company mounted a successful television broadcast that will have a positive effect on the ratings of all three channels.”

Vasyl STOYAKIN, director, Center of Political Market Studies:

“ There is no escaping the fact that Viktor Yushchenko’s answers during a live TV broadcast is a clear borrowing from the Russian practice, for Vladimir Putin has done this many times in Russia (and even once in Ukraine). So there was nothing new here. As for effectiveness in principle, it should be assessed as very high, even though in many situations Mr. Yushchenko was clearly out of touch with concrete points and ill-advised on some specific matters (including the economy). He would answer economic questions, literally quoting a college manual. But one could expect him to explain such problems as economic growth, etc. in a simpler and clearer manner.

“On the whole it seems to me that this was a very successful step because people tend to grasp not so much what one says as how one says it. Like before, people find Mr. Yushchenko very attractive. In contrast to many of his other appearances, he was unusually, if not suspiciously, calm and self-confident; he was not nervous or aggressive in response to aggression (which is generally untypical of his style of public debate). On the whole, he showed himself from the best angle in this situation, and I think this call-in will help raise if not the president’s ratings, then just most people’s trust.

“I would also like to emphasize that it was a really live broadcast. By all accounts, there was no censorship. I mean people with entirely different, often diametrically opposed, political views could ask a question. This was evident, and difficult to conceal. As for the content of his answers, I’d like to repeat that it was too abstract. Mr. Yushchenko kept promising everything to everyone, and it sometimes looked as though he was still campaigning. For it’s hard to justify the repetition of election clichйs, such as the previous government slashed minimum wages to UAH 205. Everybody has long forgotten this, while experts knew at the very outset that this was wrong. At the very least it doesn’t seem proper for Yushchenko to be repeating this.

“Another thing that concerns not so much this live broadcast as today’s (last Friday’s — Ed.) press conference and the call-in to the 1+1 channel on May 9. The Ukrainian leadership seems to have taken a more sober attitude to the problems of European integration. Judging by the reaction of the president and Vice-Premier Rybachuk, they have begun to understand that the European Union is not exactly raring to admit Ukraine.

“The overall analysis of the situation around, say, the Nykopil Ferroalloy Plant creates the impression that the government is in dire need of money. The need is so desperate that the government seems to be ready even to negotiate with Pinchuk and Akhmetov, who were supposedly proclaimed the main public enemies. I am not ruling out that the very fact that the call-in was broadcast on Pinchuk’s channels is a signal that some deals have been struck. I don’t know about big-time reprivatization (in all probability, the process will not affect the Nykopil plant and Kryvorizhstal), but it hasn’t been ruled out that the government and the president are beginning to resign themselves to the fact that there is big business in Ukraine — it exists whether or not they want it.”