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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

Kuchma Offers Old Jam for Ukrainian Agriculture

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

By Vitaly Kniazhansky, The Day

Last Tuesday President Kuchma announced that he supports collective farming based on the private property.

The first part of his speech looked very sincere, though he spoke at the All-Ukrainian Conference of collective farm representatives and to some point could be considered a complement. Collective farmers are the most disciplined of voters and the presidential elections will be here soon.

The second part of the speech called forth many questions. The main is whether people actually own their plot of land? Then comes the next one: does the President know in general what private property is?

One can find the answers in a recently issued an decree meant to protect the owners of land plots. At least it can be understand that way from the title. The order defined the main entities able to purchase a plot land. Collective farms and joint stock companies (slightly changed forms of the old Soviet collective farms) top this list. A rank and file peasant or farmer, also on the list, will not be able to receive additional land under such conditions. In a word, the President conserves socialist relationships in land whereby a peasant can neither sell nor augment his plot.

In fact, President Kuchma is supported in this by one of his possible competitors in the coming elections, Speaker of Parliament Oleksandr Moroz. Earlier this year Moroz declared, “We should trade in grain, not land.” Their difference is that Moroz also speaks against distributing the land among peasants at all and declared that the President had violated the law in so doing.

Another leading presidential candidate, People’s Deputy Yevhen Marchuk, has a very clear position. Recently he declared that he favored the right to buy, sell, rent, or use land as loan collateral. In his opinion, what land in Ukraine needs is an effective owner, be he Ukrainian or foreign.

 

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