Maverick orange revolutionary looks to hurdle three percent barrier for place in parliament
Vladyslav Kaskiv, 32, is a co-founder of the “yellow” branch of the Pora youth organization, which played a big role in the 2004 Orange Revolution. Last year, yellow Pora reorganized into a political party and recently united into a bloc for the upcoming March parliamentary elections with the Reforms & Order party. Retired boxing champion Vitali Klitschko accepted a role as leader of the Pora-PRP bloc. Kaskiv, who has served as an advisor to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, predicts Pora will play a larger role in Ukraine’s future.
In a Jan. 24 interview with the Post, Kaskiv reflects on the dynamic political situation in Ukraine since the 2004 presidential elections.
KP: Political polls suggest Pora-PRP does not have enough voter support to pass the three-percent barrier required for representation in parliament. Will your bloc get in?
VK: We are not running our political campaign for the sake of political polls, nor are we addicted to studying political surveys. Moreover, trust in such surveys has been lost since the last presidential elections. Everyone remembers the results of the exit polls in the 2004 presidential elections [most of them were inaccurate, predicting that Viktor Yanukovych had won rather than Yushchenko]. Political polls reflect prostitution more than sociology (laughs).
We want to win the votes of smart and independent minds. I am sure there are enough of them for Pora-PRP to become a part of the Ukrainian parliament. I have no doubt that we will be in the next parliament.
Q: How would you describe your electorate?
A: I would say there are two categories: people who think, who can read between the lines; and successful professionals. The number of such individuals in Ukraine is increasing each year.
Q: Both Pora and PRP have traditionally had strong voter bases in western Ukraine and central parts of the country, where people tend to speak Ukrainian. Do you think that having a Russian speaking sports star like Vitali Klitschko in your bloc will help win more votes in the Russian-speaking Eastern and Southern parts of the country?
A: One of our own surveys produced some unexpected results. It turns out that support for Pora is more or less spread equally across the nation. Of course there are regions with better or worse indicators. But, for example, the Mykolayiv and Kherson regions showed a high level of support, which was surprising. We want to finish the era of confrontation between the so-called “Orange” and “Blue,” or pro-Western and pro-Russian groups. Vitali Klitschko helps in this endeavor in that he opens the ears and hearts of people. People listen to him … This is his unique role. Plus Klitschko embodies our core qualities and values.
Q: Will Klitschko run for parliament or Kyiv city mayor? He is listed as the number one candidate in your parliamentary election bloc, yet he has also announced that he will run for the Kyiv city mayoral office.
A: Ukrainian election legislation allows him to run for both at the same time.
Q: Has he spent enough time in Ukraine in recent years to qualify as a candidate for Parliament?
A: The best law firms have reviewed this issue. As far as I know, all of them said that there is no problem.
Q: What specifically will Pora-PRP offer voters that is different from what is being promised by other political parties?
A: We are not caught up with populism. The philosophy of our work is to promote liberal values, such as freedom. We have a plan of actions that we will follow once we get into the parliament. Our primary goal is to cancel the imperative mandate in the parliament [a new rule instituted by constitutional reforms that took effect this year, requiring deputies to vote in line with their faction, or risk loosing their seat]. This is 21st century slavery, which leads to a totalitarian regime equally as excessive as [former] presidential rule.
Our second goal is to bring the Constitutional Court back into operation. These two steps will help return progress in the halls of parliament and in the country.
Q: What are your first political actions going to be?
A: We need to strip deputies in regional councils of the status that provides them immunity from prosecution. This is just a shield for criminals.
In addition, we are convinced that the system of government needs to be reformed. The current system of decision-making will not lead to anything positive.
We have to change the decision making process, reform the state apparatus, separating the planning department from the executive department while developing an independent system to oversee both.
The decision-making process should be transparent, involving both non-governmental professionals and private-sector initiative groups.
Computerization of such systems will also help eradicate corruption.
The employment process of government officials also needs to be reformed. We need a new system that utilizes testing and examination of candidates to ensure that qualified professionals are hired. We also have a plan to reform the judicial and social systems.
These are only some of the changes being proposed. Implementing only part of them would dramatically improve the quality of the system as a whole.
Q: You have been an advisor to Yushchenko. How would you grade his performance as president? What have been his biggest achievements and his major mistakes?
A: I do not want to talk solely about the president’s responsibility, as performance has much to do with the joint responsibility of the team that supported him. I see one large mistake – that no reforms were swiftly initiated immediately after the presidential elections. The biggest problem here is that we did not have a detailed plan for reforms. We had about four to five months during which we could have swiftly implemented the reforms. We had time to do it but we did not use it.
Everyone says that freedom of speech and democracy are the biggest achievements.
This is all correct, but I think the main achievement is the fact that a new philosophy, a new set of values has surfaced in Ukrainian politics. Even though they seem wild and unnecessary, all of the conflicts and bickering in politics that we see now are healthy indicators of democratic development.
Q: Do you support the gas agreement struck earlier this year with Russia?
A: I am not impressed by this agreement. I think that the intermediary role of Rosukrenergo is not the best thing for Ukraine. On the other hand, I personally do not know of anyone who could propose a better solution. But there probably was a better solution. What I know for sure is that it was wrong and irresponsible to use this situation to oust the government, [which parliament did weeks ago].
Q: Do you believe there was serious corruption in Yushchenko’s inner circle as described by former Presidential chief of staff Oleksandr Zinchenko, ousted Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and others?
A: I think it’s true. But I also recognize that you can’t eradicate the corruption simply by replacing people. It is necessary to change the system of state management. I disagree with the recipe that one has to reshuffle officials to solve this problem. The arrival of new people into an old system will not change the situation.
Q: Why did Yushchenko sign a pact with Victor Yanukovych and other oppositionist groups?
A: It was a mistake … a serious one. But it was not something new. This move can be traced to the Orange Revolution, when Yushchenko decided to negotiate with the criminals who were trying to orchestrate a constitutional revolt. I understand Yushchenko did that for the sake of the country, to prevent a conflict. But on the other hand, if you start building a new country by an agreement with criminals, this can lead to very dangerous tendencies. By the way, PORA came out with a statement late last year warning that negotiations between Yushchenko and [now former President Leonid] Kuchma pose a threat of revenge.
Q: Why has Yushchenko’s administration not succeeded in “putting bandits in jail,” as he pledged to do during the election campaign last year?
A: Because it is not up to the president to put criminals in prison. It is up to the prosecutor’s office and judges. The current system is simply not capable of ensuring justice. The fault of the president and his team is that the judicial system was not reformed. Again, we’ve got back to where we started – a lack of reforms.
Q: When was the last time you met with the president?
A: About a month-and-a-half ago.
Q: How is his health?
A: I am, fortunately or unfortunately, not his doctor, but my impression is that he is fine.
Q: Does the president listen to you?
A: It is difficult to say. But I think that I managed to promote some of my more important ideas.
Q: Can you give an example?
A: For instance, reform of the state apparatus. Another example was when I suggested to the president to have a different concept of his speech on Independence Day. My idea was that Yushchenko should evaluate the reforms implemented over the past six months, name all of the problem areas, say that he understands these problems, knows how to solve them, and ask for the people’s support. [During that speech, Yushchenko opted instead to praise his government’s work, declaring that the country was moving in the right direction.]
I think if he had used a different approach in the speech as recommended by our team, we would have avoided the political crisis that erupted in the country two weeks later, leading to the ouster of the government.
Q: What do you think about the television ad currently being aired by the Yushchenko-loyal Our Ukraine bloc on television pleading to voters not to betray the revolution, saying that the bandits have a chance to return to power, while urging voters to support Our Ukraine in order to prevent this scenario? Why did Our Ukraine, the political force which today controls the government, not put these bandits in jail?
A: The first and the primary reason is that there have been no reforms. The second is that the deputies from regional councils were granted immunity by Ukraine’s parliament late last year. I think this slogan is a manipulative statement, thought it has some common sense. Having said all of this, I think that a year was enough to prevent these bandits from getting onto the lists for parties running for parliamentary elections.
Q: What is your relationship with the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc, one of the founding members of the so-called Orange coalition, which split apart last year?
A: We released a statement recently urging all of our political allies in the Orange Revolution to form an unconditional coalition in the parliament, taking political responsibility for the country and restoring the faith of the Ukrainian people.
Q: What are the chances of this coalition being formed before elections?A: The chances are high, and if it does not happen then we will see who is who in Ukrainian politics.
