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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

Rukh: From Personality Cult to Personalities

2 March, 1999 - 00:00

By Tetiana KOROBOVA and Iryna HAVRYLOVA, The
Day

"We can no longer remain a party adjusted to one man!" Although not in
so many words, the idea was voiced by many during Rukh's extraordinary
convention held last Saturday, which passed a no confidence vote on the
party leader. "It is hard to step over Vyacheslav Chornovil. Yet the man
has turned in a stumbling block for Rukh, so the party must step over it
and continue on its way. We give Mr. Chornovil all credit; he is a banner
of the national liberation struggle. His wrote his name in golden letters
in latter-day Ukrainian history. But now that he did he might as well step
aside and let others do the same," says Volodymyr Cherniak, although without
any malice.

Mr. Chornovil (it was fleetingly announced at the convention) refused
to attend. Instead, yet another message was present, warning against "a
real threat of breakup" hanging over the party and proclaiming the convention
illegitimate. Looking over the audience and presidium, one noticed historically
familiar faces - Horyn, Pavlychko, Lavrynovych, Zvarych, Chervony, Movchan,
Drach, Yukhnovsky, Zayets, Boiko, Kostenko, and Cherniak - all hallmarks
of Rukh, and could not but wonder: what breakup? Which of the fathers and
activists made it a point not to attend? Yet some of the delegates openly
admitted that only 25-30% of the membership may side with Vyacheslav Chornovil.
Volodymyr Stretovych, leader of Christian People's Union and quite an expert
on party rifts, warned his comrades-in-arms from the podium: "Whether this
convention is legitimate or not will be determined by whoever supports
the current leadership. The Ukrainian state is not ruled by the law and
nor is it a democracy, despite of what is laid down in Article 1 of the
Constitution."

The presidential candidacy issue was not included on the agenda (due
to the need to cope with internal party problems, to be sure), yet the
subject was broached from the podium and actively discussed in the lobby.
In fact, it was only natural, for differences on the Rukh candidate, emerging
at the December convention, in many ways caused the current confrontation.

However, the idea about negotiating a single national democratic candidate
this May, voiced by Democrat Yavorivsky, was not met with standing ovation.
One of the reasons is that other possible Rukh allies - e.g., CUN, CDU,
URP - made it clear that they will cooperate only if Rukh determines its
stand in supporting a candidate from the nationalist opposition, "because
an opposition candidate is the only one with a real chance to win the 1999
campaign," declared URP's Oleksandr Shandriuk from the podium.

The report read by Yuri Kostenko, leader of the Rukh faction in Parliament,
was apparently the result of serious consideration: "What is the Rukh faction's
strategy in Verkhovna Rada? We all understand the Leftist strategy: so-called
social populism; that of the Agrarians boils down to preserving the collective
and state farm system; even the corporate groups take a more or less clear
stand: grab whatever others have left. And no one can understand what the
Rukh faction is actually after, except that we constantly declare our adherence
to a national independent and sovereign state. But what is the gist of
this state-building strategy? What is it all about? No one will answer
this one, not even faction members." Yet some of the principal points raised
by the new party leader caused raised eyebrows: "The time of running round
the corridors of power, begging for secondary posts, is over. From the
policy of servicing the rich and the famous, masked under slogans of constructive
opposition, we must proceed to a policy of equal partnership. From now
on all our relationships with those in power will be based on the political,
economic, and cadre interests of the party."

By way of summary, Rukh made a sharp yet fruitful (in terms of organization)
attempt to refresh and reform itself. Will it be able to change from a
party adjusted to a single personality into one of personalities? This
remains to be seen. The extraordinary convention looked promising, which
is a lot but does not solve the problem. Be it as it may, an event took
place whose importance is greater than just another page in the annals
of a political party. In fact, Rukh adherents do not seem oblivious to
their outstanding role in the history of independent Ukraine. Leonid Kravchuk
also attended and was greeted in a manner befitting the first President.
It caused reminiscences voiced by Mr. Cherniak (and adequately responded
by the audience) who said. "I remember when in 1991 we were doing the living
chain he worked at the Communist Central Committee. He put on a blazer
and quietly drove over to see how many Rukh members would turn up. He drove
and drove and there was no end to Rukh people. I think it was then that
the head of the CC propaganda directorate driving over for a look-see turned
and drove away as the future President of Ukraine. I mean this is how Rukh
can influence history and individual destinies. This is the Gospel truth,
and we must be fully aware of our lofty mission."

(For more see page Closeup)

 

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