Yevhen MARCHUK: “My district is Ukraine”

Last week, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Yevhen Marchuk celebrated his birthday. The Day could not help but use the occasion to congratulate him and ask him a few topical questions:

There have been lots of versions about which constituency you are going to choose to run for Verkhovna Rada from. In Pavlohrad, for example, there was a great stir raised by rumors of your possible nomination in that city. But, as far as we know, you have decided to stay out of the elections. Why?

My district is Ukraine. I have so many ideas and tasks that can be solved neither during the parliamentary elections, nor in the parliament: they can be solved only in my present capacity, of course, with the president’s support.

Many people who run for parliament are after a kind of insurance policy, the immunity of a people’s deputy. Don’t you have a premonition that so many deputies with problems could well make the future parliament problematical also?

Having accepted the post of NSDC secretary, I immediately gave up my deputy’s mandate and all the immunities that go with it. I believe the next parliament would act courageously if it abolishes deputy immunity in the broad sense of the word and reduces it to the European scope, to immunity inside the parliament’s walls only. Of course, there are quite a few candidates who run for the parliament with the sole purpose of getting immunity. Unfortunately, this is our reality.

A few days ago, the president appointed you chairman of the Interdepartmental Commission for Information Policy and Information Security under the NSDC. What kind of structure is this, and what will be your first steps in this new capacity?

In 1998 the parliament adopted the law On the National Information Development Program. Substantial appropriations were earmarked by the budget specifically for this program. But the previous government completely failed to carry it out. Later, last September, the Verkhovna Rada amended the law and appointed the NSDC the main body mandated to coordinate and supervise the implementation of the program. That was actually how I became the chairman of the commission whose principal objective is the implementation of the national information development program. It embraces a very broad spectrum of problems from providing an information structure for all government offices to such specific problems as the drafting and pushing through the parliament the bills on electronic signatures and on electronic document circulation. In other words, this commission is meant to speed up Ukraine’s integration into the global information space.

The first steps have already been made. The NSDC earlier held a very important session on problems of information security. Now, there are the council’s resolution and presidential order, which envision a search for new technologies and new international opportunities for Ukraine’s more rapid integration into the world community. Concurrently, the nation’s identity must be protected against harsh global processes in the information sphere. I mean that while integrating with the international community we should safeguard our own national identity. This is a very complex task.

You have always had quite enough opponents, but, of course, also many friends. What important words have you heard or want to hear on your birthday?

I’ve heard lots of kind words today from my friends and acquaintances as well as from my immediate superior, the president of Ukraine. I’ve heard many simply human wishes from good health to optimism, from logic in my closest environment to the wish that I always achieve my goals. But best of all I remember the words that were said when my candidacy was discussed in two constituencies (Beliayivka and Reni) in Odesa oblast. The people from those constituencies tried to persuade me to run for the parliament as their representative: they said they needed men of deeds, predictable and reliable. I earnestly appreciate their trust in me.

The Day joins all these wishes for Yevhen Marchuk and sincerely wishes him strength and courage in his public service, happiness, and good health.