The Left Giving Up Parliamentary Watch
Never throughout the history of Ukrainian parliamentary government has the Left suffered such a crushing defeat at the hands of the Center Right. To be more exact, it is too early to speak in formal terms about its defeat, but nobody doubts now that they have lost the battle to control Parliament on all fronts. The utterances of Left opposition representatives have of late been marked with extreme pessimism, and their assessments of the latest developments concerning Verkhovna Rada most often boil down to one fatalistic conclusion: “The end of Ukrainian parliamentary government.” In particular, Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz speaks about an attempt “of criminals to finally seize power in this country through the institution of presidency.” The oligarchs, in his opinion, have decided “to completely remove Verkhovna Rada from political activity and lawmaking.” Judging by the events, the oligarchs have completely succeeded. One of the leaders of the Regional Renaissance faction and active participant in the pro-presidential parliamentary majority, Stepan Havrysh, already sees as a priority, condescendingly, not “giving the majority an opportunity to have direct influence on decision-making in Parliament” but “asserting the rights of the minority and opposition” who previously ruled supreme “under the dome.” And SDPU(o) leader Viktor Medvedchuk has even drawn up a special bill on the opposition. According to Social Democrat Ion Popescu, this document is to be passed in the nearest time, for “the rules of the game are already being written for the future Parliament.”
Formally, the Left factions have never constituted a majority in Verkhovna Rada (leaving aside the period of the domination of group of 329 before the proclamation of independence), but they in fact controlled the course of sessions for many years due to lack of unity among the Center Right and thanks to their own organizational skills. It sufficed for the Communists to get up and walk out under unfavorable circumstances, and legislative work was effectively blocked. In the Verkhovna Rada of the two last convocations, they also held the key posts in its leadership (above all, the post of Speaker), which provided them additional clout. No candidacy from outside the Left camp had a chance to go through if it did not suit, for tactical considerations, the Communists, Socialists, and Peasants.
Now the majority has taken a firm decision to keep the Left at bay from the Verkhovna Rada leadership. According to Mr. Havrysh in some respects it would be a good idea to allow the minority to be represented in the parliamentary leadership for the sake of constructive work, but no such possibility now exists.” And the Left has finally understood this. Mr. Moroz was the first to try to enter into a dialogue with the majority. Many are inclined to think that his short appearance in Ukraine House and his calls to the majority for observing parliamentary procedure, which raised so much dissatisfaction among PSPU radicals, is by no means accidental. Backstage rumor has it that Mr. Moroz wants to stake out a place for himself, as a compromise Left figure, in the future presidium. As a result, the SPU faction became the first among the Left to agree to talks with its opponents; then it was followed by the others. Representatives of the conflicting sides met last Thursday mostly to discuss the general issues of possible cooperation and the agenda of the first sitting of the fifth session. This resulted in the complete absence of a result, leaving aside the very fact of talks, which provides a faint hope for compromise.
According to some information, the Communists are still nursing hope that on February 1, if the majority still decides to vote again, according to normal session procedure, on the removal of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, their representative Adam Martyniuk will be able to retain the chair of People’s Deputy, if not Deputy Speaker.
In principle, all the Left still can do is to try to skillfully convince the majority that it is necessary to put to a repeated vote in the session room the resolutions passed in Ukraine House. They are firmly upholding the right of Oleksandr Tkachenko to open the session, which will in fact amount to admitting the illegitimacy of the majority’s radical decisions. But the latter have in turn a scenario of their own. Majority representatives are certain the session should in any case be opened by Mr. Medvedchuk as the only legitimate parliamentary leader. Word has it there even is an unofficial “scenario commission” led by Oleksandr Zinchenko now drawing up a detailed plan of the plenary sitting on February 1. The plan takes into account the placement of deputies in the aisles and doorways and the probable disposition of the Left, and provides for a number of actions in reply to the probable active steps by it. Messrs. Tkachenko and Martyniuk will perhaps be allowed to take their traditional seats in the presidium, but the majority-controlled secretariat will not switch on their microphones without special command and the minority Deputies will not have a chance to hear the greeting words of their alienated speaker.
Incidentally, the loss of control over Verkhovna Rada staff is by far the greatest loss for the Left. It is this structure, earlier totally dominated by them, that handles all the paperwork, prepares for discussion, and finally edits all bills; these people service and know all the subtleties of the very unpredictable behavior of the Rada electronic voting system. And moreover they dispose of the parliamentary budget, i.e., very big sums. Now it will be not so simple, for example, to convene in Kyiv an extraordinary session of the CIS Inter- Parliamentary Assembly or to finance the production of a parliamentary television program for propagating opposition ideas. The minority is in fact shocked. The Left still cannot understand how Mr. Medvedchuk managed, without a parliamentary decision, to oust Leonid Horevy, a person loyal to it, from the post of secretariat chief and to appoint to it, at least temporarily, his protйgй Oleksandr Karpov, and how he, the Deputy Speaker, managed to take hold of the Verkhovna Rada seal with which he seals the resolutions passed by the majority if Mr. Tkachenko kept all the official stamps locked in his safe. According to Mr. Moroz, “this amounts to a criminal offense, forging of documents.”
Having lost ground in the top legislative body, as well as the opportunity to rely on the system of local councils in the regions, the Left idea in Ukraine is more and more turning from a real political force into a symbol. However, symbols are not eternal, either, which Rukh Deputies tried to prove. They succeeded in putting on the agenda of the majority’s day session in Ukraine House the sore point of removing Soviet symbols from the Verkhovna Rada building. For the national flag really looks rather ridiculous above the hammer and sickle surrounded by wheat ears. The Soviet state emblem still hangs on the facade, but the Right promises to eliminate this anachronism before the next parliamentary session begins work. And even if the facade does not yet look more national democratic (although it was a matter of a few days to cover Soviet symbols on the Foreign Ministry building with a trident-bearing shield on the eve of the EBRD summit), there is no doubt that the Right, inspired by easy victories, will also finish the renovation of Verkhovna Rada. Then perhaps we will be able to say that the form is completely in line with the content.
