Social Democrats, People's Democrats and provincial officials join forces to give a boost to Kuchma's re-election campaign
Thousands of provincial functionaries descended on Kyiv on March 20 for a 2 day pep rally for president Leonid Kuchma’s re-election campaign.
Led by key figures from the Social Democratic and People’s Democratic parties, the rally was touted as a forum for creating an anti-communist ‘union of democratic political forces’ and as the founding congress of a new ‘civic organization’ called Zlahoda that would help define the coalition’s platform.
But the convention at Kyiv’s Palats Ukraina was state-engineered and dominated by former top communists, and although delegates stopped short of formally putting forward Kuchma’s nomination, the ‘Ukraine 2010’ program it adopted as its platform was drafted by the Cabinet.
As in Soviet political theater, the script was dull and predictable, but the choice of actors and their relative prominence on stage told volumes about who is likely to run Ukraine for the next five years.
The core of the organization was an alliance between the Social Democratic Party and many – but not all – of the leading figures in the People’s Democratic Party.
The congress elected three co-chairmen: Prime Minister Valery Pustovoitenko, a PDP member; former parliamentary speaker Ivan Plyushch, also of the PDP; and former President Leonid Kravchuk, of the Social Democrats.
Deputy parliament speaker Viktor Medvedchuk, who heads the Social Democrats, played a leading role in organizing the convention. His involvement fed speculation that he is hoping to run for president in 2004.
Besides Pustovoitenko and Plyushch, four other top PDP members were named to Zlahoda’s 17-member steering committee: Cabinet Affairs Minister Anatoly Tolstoukhov, former presidential administration chief Yevhen Kushnarov, Ukrainian Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Association President Anatoly Kinakh and Donetsk Oblast Council Chairman Volodymyr Rybak.
Roughly speaking, People’s Democrats with positions in or strong affiliations with the government or presidential administration are taking leading roles in Zlahoda, while those whose power base rests in the PDP’s political organization are staying out or on the sidelines.
PDP leader Anatoly Matviyenko warned recently that the process of deciding under what terms to endorse Kuchma’s re-election could split his party, and his party leadership has taken to attacking the circle of businessmen close to the president, led by Naftogaz Ukrainy president Ihor Bakai.
Bakai’s group was notably missing from the convention, as was the powerful presidential ally Oleksandr Volkov and other members of Regional Revival bloc in parliament. That suggests that Zlahoda, if it holds together past the election, could have a rival for the role of ‘party of power.’
The steering committee was rounded out with other top state officials, such as Kyiv Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko, Ukrteleradio director Zinovy Kulyk and a few prominent characters close to but outside government, including Kvazar Micro President Yevhen Utkin and Afghan vets association head Serhy Chervonopysky.
The real stars of the convention, however, were the countless provincial officials who showed up to unanimously endorse the rising new order and a fuzzy program of ‘patriotism, creative solidarity, pragmatic reform and mutually responsible partnership of social forces.’
First presented at a Dec. 24 Cabinet meeting by Pustovoitenko, the Zlahoda platform predicts that by the latter half of the next decade Ukraine will undergo economic growth comparable to that of modern-day China, radically raise wages and state benefits, and generally solve all its problems.
The threat to that success, Zlahoda leaders stressed, is the danger that Ukraine might elect a leftist this fall rather than Kuchma.
At a news conference on March 20, Plyushch described Kuchma’s candidacy as Ukraine’s only bastion against a red revanche.
‘What are the alternatives to a retrenchment?’ he asked. ‘On the center-right, only Leonid Danylovych [Kuchma].’
Plyushch was obviously aware that observers would be looking at the conference as a prelude to the carving up of political and economic power after the election, and he was ready with a counter-argument.
‘Kuchma two will be much more effective than Kuchma one, because Kuchma two will not have to flirt with everyone in order to get elected a third time,’ Plyushch said. ‘As a responsible politician, he understands his obligation to leave a notable legacy; we need to give him the opportunity to realize his program.’
Kravchuk chimed in with a call to arms against the left-wing contenders.
‘We can’t allow [the left] to put the brakes on the government’s policy of reform, and we can’t allow a reversal in course to be dictated from the tribune parliament,’ he said.
There was a touch of irony to the warnings about a return of the reds, as all three Zlahoda co-chairmen were top officials in the former regime, as were most of the members of the steering committee. When this decade began, Pustovoitenko was mayor of Dnipropetrovsk, Plyushch was governor of Kyiv oblast, and Kravchuk was Ukraine’s chief of ideology.
Tolstoukhov said at the congress that Zlahoda represented the creation of a ‘genuine grassroots political movement,’ but the list of participants read like a directory of Kuchma appointees. On the opening day of the conference, a Friday, Cabinet offices were all but shut down.
Among the representatives of Zlahoda’s regional organizations were oblast governors, senior ministry officials, agro-industrial complex officials and directors of state enterprises.
‘Unfortunately, Tolstoukhov’s statements do not correspond to reality,’ Mykola Tomenko, director of Kyiv’s Institute of Politics, commented after the convention. ‘Zlahoda bears no resemblance to a civic-based organization. If you look at it at the membership level, you’ll find that most of these people draw their salary from the state.’
Although it was held under a democratic aegis, the Zlahoda conference resembled an old-style party congress more than it did a nomination convention. Delegates voted unanimously on all the measures and gave standing ovations as if on cue.
Leaders of the Green and Rukh parties accepted invitations to attend and address the convention, and Tolstoukhov confidently predicted that they and the Christian-Democratic, Liberal, Democratic, Labor and Agrarian parties would jump on the Zlahoda bandwagon.
However, Heorhy Filipchuk, deputy head of Rukh’s faction in parliament, rejected reports that Rukh leader Yury Kostenko had announced Rukh’s support for Zlahoda.
Filipchuk described Rukh representative Ivan Drach’s speech to the convention as ‘sarcastic and critical’ of the proceedings, and said Rukh as yet had no unified opinion on Zlahoda or plans to join it. Kostenko attended but didn’t address the convention. Filipchuk said Rukh would consider joining, however.
‘This new political manifestation is not something that can simply be ignored. We can analyze and discuss the possible influence that Rukh could have in a unified democratic front,’ he said.
