Does Our Ukraine Lay Claim to Being A Party of Power?

What made me pay attention to Viktor Yushchenko’s new interview, widely touted as “unprecedented,” was natural interest in the destiny of the former premier’s announced Our Ukraine election coalition. Having secured some public trust in advance, the leader of a political association still to be legally registered should at least outline with a month to go before the election campaign the political foundation his proposed coalition proposes.

The interview he gave to the Stolichnye Novosti weekly was unprecedented indeed. After announcing that his “team” includes about thirty persons with Mykola Sydorenko and Ivan Vasiuk at the head, Mr. Yushchenko went on to say he does not consider himself the sole leader and even agrees to be 701st on the bloc’s election list, but only on condition that the 700 before him are to think and act (! — Ed.) like he does. This is why he is holding talks and does not rule out cooperation with all more or less known political forces from the Communists and followers of Oleksandr Moroz and Yuliya Tymoshenko to overtly pro-presidential forces. The impression is that, if asked about the Party of Beer Fans, he would also opt for this force as a potential ally. Mr. Yushchenko spoke so little and contemptuously about the two Rukhs, which had the other day proclaimed him their future leader, that this could have caused offense. And, in general, Our Ukraine’s leader sees no real rivals to his bloc. To substantiate his theses, Mr. Yushchenko uses the copybook example of Poland, which displayed a broad coalition in the last elections.

Oddly enough, nothing was said about such elementary things as the ideological foundations. Love of Ukraine was mentioned as the only unifying factor. Is the popular politician unaware that any political process consists precisely in the rivalry of ideas, so it is impossible in real politics to unite the parties that reject, say, private property and the ones that consider the latter a foundation of the future progress? In a democratic state, the voter is free to choose a development program which he/she will eventually vote for. Conversely, Mr. Yushchenko only offers “fair policies and a transparent economy,” without taking into account that one can fairly defend opposite points of view and transparently pursue any policy one wants. Also, the charismatic leader rejects any opposition to the current authorities, thus repudiating the fundamental principle of democracy which implies continuous debate between the authorities and the opposition: the latter struggles for power in a democratic way so that, after getting this power, it can implement its political and economic programs.

In sum, Our Ukraine’s leader totally failed in his latest interview to search for any real political prospects. It was futile to learn what kind of programs Mr. Yushchenko’s semi-anonymous team was drawing up. Or does this team perhaps include not political scientists but face-lifters who think that their leader’s looks are enough to let him win the elections? This point of view also has a right to exist. But what does it have to do with politics?

“Don’t hope that the authorities will come to like us. We know what and to do about the economy and geopolitics and how, but will we be given the chance?” Mr. Yushchenko declared on September 14, addressing the public forum called Strategy for Ukraine: Experience and Prospects. “A bitter struggle is going on. And if we fail to learn to come to terms, the democratic wing will face serious problems,” Interfax-Ukraine quotes Mr. Yushchenko as saying. This is quite a significant statement in light of the current rumors that Our Ukraine maintains contacts with various political forces. The question is which of these will take maximum advantage of the former premier’s popularity. Meanwhile, Mr. Yushchenko again dodged the question of which parties will be part of Our Ukraine, explaining that his bloc will be not a bloc of parliamentary fractions but a parliamentary association open to any parties “irrespective of the political factions they are in today” (he had said earlier that 5-7 parties would form the basis of the bloc but consultations were ongoing). Commenting on the reports that Our Ukraine, UNR, NRU, and the Reforms Congress are uniting, he confirmed that these factions of parliament are now going through a “formal procedure” of unification. “The offer remains open, and we are now holding very close negotiations and consultations with potential political partners which are going to join us soon. I am sure this will touch upon liberal, Christian, and social democratic camps in Ukraine,” the ex-premier also noted. Asked by the journalists whether Petro Poroshenko, leader of the Solidarity parliamentary group, is this kind of partner, Mr. Yushchenko replied evasively, “We consider the forces that rallied behind him as our allies,” Interfax-Ukraine reports. Mr. Yushchenko thus encouraged Solidarity that it can play sort of a separate game with both Our Ukraine and TUNDRA (a political tossed salad made up of Labor Ukraine, People’s Democrats, the Party of the Regions, and Agrarians —Ed.). At the same time, he refused to reaffirm his intention of uniting at this stage with the bloc of the National Salvation Forum (NSF) and the Socialist Party. Significantly, when Mr. Yushchenko commented on the elections law Verkhovna Rada passed last Thursday, he spoke in favor of the proportional representation system. “This system itself would have solved a lot of problems associated with the huge mass of falsifications. After all, we would have avoided the moral situation, whereby a politician, who comes to parliament from a winner-take-all constituency, can remain politically uncertain for years,” As to “political certainty,” this brings to mind two circumstances: Mr. Yushchenko first calls himself “the son of the president” and then lavishes praises on NSF leaders whose principal demand is resignation of that same president. Go figure...