By Vitaly KNIAZHANSKY, The Day
The All-Ukrainian Gathering of Peasants, held February 9, once again discussed
the universally known crisis in agriculture and also voiced a certain new
point in government policies: aid is from now on to be granted only to
the strong, i.e., those who are able to return it. However, the conference
said nothing about selection criteria.
Deliberating on this, Minister for the Agro-Industrial Complex Borys
Supikhanov referred to the experience of Belarus and its President Aleksandr
Lukashenka. The glory of Leonid Kuchma's counterpart seems to have inspired
in the Ukrainian President, who graced the conference with his presence,
a new desire for paternal guidance of Ukrainian farming. In a spirit of
the best Communist Party traditions, he began to lay down the law to Minister
of Industrial Policy Vasyl Hureyev and Minister of Finance Ihor Mitiukov
who had taken the floor, blaming them for government blunders in purchasing
foreign farming machinery and financing its domestic production. The President's
philippic was taken in by an undisturbed Verkhovna Rada Speaker Oleksandr
Tkachenko, the former head of the Land and People Association whose bad
loan for John Deere harvesters had been written off by government decision.
The straw poll in the hall conducted by The Day's reporter showed
that expectations for a pre-election increase in the President's popularity
have not come true. A collective farm chairman from Zaporizhzhia oblast,
who wished to remain anonymous ("otherwise, I'll never leave here"), said:
"The promises we've heard about revival of and aid to the countryside are
general phrases. The countryside is flat on its pack. For example, in my
case all the verbiage about aid boiled down to 2,500 hryvnias. All I could
buy was a piston unit for one tractor. Now the President is asking ministers
questions. But where was he? What did he do?"
Chairman of Vinnytsia Oblast Farmers' Association Serhiy Maniak said,
"The conference left an ambivalent impression. I don't see so far any prospects
for real change in farming. We must bet on the people capable of carrying
out reforms. There are such people in our association. And, merely reshuffling
the deck, as the President is doing, will do no good."







