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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

Ukraine is Worse than Kazakhstan Or so says the President...

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

While visiting the Agro 1998 international trade show, Leonid Kuchma declared that all Ukrainian society should be worried due to Parliament’s failure to elect a Speaker, according to Interfax-Ukraine. Kuchma said also, “Today we see that Parliament has been having sessions for over a month and nothing has happened.” The President once again supported his opinion, that Parliament’s failure is “a problem of national security.”

One could agree with the President that the Peoples Deputies should elect their head a bit faster. However, in this, like any problem, it is better to choose what is best at the moment for society. In this case the issue is one of legal (based on Parliament factions) and illegal politics. The current Parliament is different from the two previous ones in its party structure. In fact, an important part of the problem in electing a Speaker resides in the contradiction between the old illegal habits of most Ukrainian politicians and the new rules of the game. It might have been easier to elect a Speaker by means of machinations, but the consequences would have been considerably worse than the future result of open conflict. In any case, the parties’ activity in Parliament will be judged in future elections.

In his further statements Kuchma makes clear what kind of political system he considers effective. He noted that he envies Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, because “there are no delays there in reforming the economic and political systems.” Uzbekistan started negotiations with Daewoo at the same time with Ukraine, yet “they have been manufacturing cars for two years now and we had to spend years talking the Ukrainian Parliament into passing the corresponding decision,” the President said. Leaving aside the Daewoo contract (there is an opinion Ukraine lost more than it gained), we may only wonder why President Kuchma considers the system where solving problems depends on one man to be the best. One may doubt, however, whether we would be better served by such a system than by, say, the US one.

We can be happy that Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are successful while ignoring their flaws. But we have many doubts that President Kuchma would manage to use properly as much power as Nazarbaev has. Just think back to the time of decrees, when no one put up any obstacles to Prime Minister of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma.

 

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