Playing single-candidate game
Candidates for presidency are now hunting for the electorate, anxious to get votes by hook or by crook. Viktor Yanukovych, for example, is frequenting churches and orphanages. Just yesterday, for example, in the Chernivtsi Oblast the head of the Party of Regions did a round dance with children and gave them a synthesizer as a present.
Yulia Tymoshenko sticks to a radically different approach. The country was shaken by a wave of marches. Not only is the Ukrainian pop music world engaged in her support. She is also being backed by university presidents, miners, doctors, publishers, and so on. Moreover, Tymoshenko even dared to venture into the Party of Regions’ territory. Last week she got support from the intellectuals of Luhansk, Sevastopol, and even Donetsk.
Luhansk oblast outdid the others by far. The premier has received unanimous support from the staff of entire enterprises, such as the Alchevsk Steel Works. On second thought, everything seems quite clear with Luhansk: it is the result of the work done by Natalia Korolevska, the BYuT’s representative in the region, who has a considerable influence there. Another factor not to be overlooked is that the present Minister for Industrial Policy Volodymyr Novytsky is the man of the Luhansk group.
Speaking about Donetsk and Sevastopol, one can hardly accuse the BYuT of abusing administrative resources there. This is “enemy’s turf” for Tymoshenko. The local power there is entirely in the hands of the Party of Regions. The “miracle” can rather be ascribed to the bustling activities of Tymoshenko’s numerous sympathizers.
Few people can recall now that all this “intellectual” chain reaction was triggered by the Lviv regional organization of the Congress of the Ukrainian Intelligentsia. Its chairman, Stepan Pavliuk, noted that he himself was astonished at the scope their initiative had assumed.
Mr. Pavliuk, one can hardly believe that people has spontaneously come to support one candidate nationwide. Frankly, this suggests the use of a technology.
“It has indeed turned into a technology. In reality, we have been talking about this to the intellectuals in Lviv oblast for at least a year. But this was just talking and analyzing. We were saying that today the head of state cannot meet the challenges Ukraine is faced with. On the contrary, he has made the situation worse. Outside the political scene he might be a good, nice person. But he failed to leverage his power. It takes mobilizing and consolidating, not mere criticism. If anything goes wrong, a president should arrange for a meeting and give advice as to how the situation can be fixed.
“It took us about two months to get the appeal ready. This wasn’t in the least a clandestine process. When electioneering began, we gathered the representatives from various regions and agreed that we should somehow make our stand known. We do not have any contact with parties and their headquarters. We are totally independent from our candidate – we just voiced our thoughts.
“We might want to sign a memorandum during a meeting with Tymoshenko, so that the opinions of local intellectuals will be taken into consideration when serious decisions are made.”
So, what are your demands to Tymoshenko?
“These are agreements rather than demands. To start with, economic issues are just a tool to ensure individual spiritual freedom, i.e., ideology. Everything should work to meet individual spiritual needs and abilities. Our demands run along these lines.
“They will mostly concern ethic and moral principles. We want the local elites to have a say in the formation of the local authorities, and our opinions to be taken into consideration while developing local spiritual and industrial projects. We would like to be the ones who prompt and advise.”
Would you agree that your appeal to the candidates to quit looks somewhat naive and Utopian?
“We are well aware of that. We just want to make them realize that what they do is just waste the votes. Their chances to be elected are next to zero.”
Most experts share the opinion that, whatever the outcome of the election, the Party of Regions and the BYuT are bound to engage in negotiations. How do you take this prospect?
“Parties have to negotiate. It takes the art of negotiating to make the best possible use of the nation’s resources. There is no need for conflicts. A human being wants to, above all, live, not fight. But I don’t think that the BYuT and the Party of Regions will end up in a friendly embrace. For them, only a temporary alliance is possible.”
