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Zlahoda Soap Opera Seeks Happy Ending

23 March, 00:00

Premier Valery Pustovoitenko stated after last Saturday's Zlahoda (Harmony) conference that he would support President Kuchma's reelection "even if nobody else does." This is politic, for the head of government has more than once mentioned that the main factor determining whether he would keep his post was whether the President wants him to. Other factors simply do not enter into the balance. Otherwise, how can one account for the harmonious choir heard from the official trade unions? Today the Council of the Ukrainian Federation of Trade Unions intends to appeal to the President to topple a government, "which has done nothing to correct the socioeconomic situation." Perhaps the government hopes to expiate its sins in the immediate future and finally turn to strategic policies instead of just putting out fires? Not likely. The PR program, Ukraine 2010, puts forth a whole shopping list of good intentions. The Premier says that the program will be further refined to take into account the comments and wishes expressed by the Zlahoda Association's founding congress. How the association could approve the yet unpublished program is something that Pustovoitenko somehow failed to explain.

Obviously, the congress's organizers were interested in one thing politically, supporting the incumbent president. It is interesting that the country currently boasts not one single party ready to support Mr. Kuchma without reservations. Even the NDP, seen by many as a Cabinet fief, has produced some of the sharpest criticism aimed at the chief executive. In fact, supporting President Kuchma today is equivalent to suicide for any political party, for the electorate finds it hard to understand why support a President who has messed up just about everything there was to mess up.

The cochairmen of the new organization face the unenviable task of explaining to the people why on earth they should vote for Leonid Kuchma. Cochairman Ivan Pliushch noted that Kuchma-2 would be significantly better than Kuchma-1, because he would no longer have to try to please everybody in hopes of a third term. If we follow Mr. Pliushch's logic (if Kuchma didn't do anything for two terms, why not a third?) then can we look forward to yet another sequel, The Return of Kuchma?

Newspaper output №:

№11, (1999)

Section

Day After Day