Oleh Soskin Portal
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"Eastern economist" July 14-20, 2003 Vol.10 #25 (493)	17 July 2003
Opinions
"The reform discussion has involved 9,376,530 able-bodied Ukrainian citizens. If every meeting took two hours, then 18,753,060 man-hours and more than Hr 50mn were spent in vain on a national basis. Isn't it possible to provide oneself with a well-to-do retirement in a less expensive manner?" Yuriy Hrebenchuk, Director General of the Diamatik Social-Economic Investigation Center, said. The venue for this statement was a roundtable discussion titled "Political Reform, Montesquieu's Principles and the President's Company" at the Ukrainian National Journalist's Union on July 8, 2003. As Hrebenchuk states, "Though on June 20, President Kuchma submitted a revised Constitutional reform project without the most odious propositions of a two chamber parliament and a referendum, there are still many issues left...Thinking of the transfer of authority, Mr. Kuchma, though, leaves the President the right to appoint and dismiss ministers, on whom the real power depends (article93, paragraphs 9 and 10)...the wish to control the tax, customs, police departments and SBU ...may have only one root — absolute power." Ukrainian National Conservative Party leader Oleh Soskin was less diplomatic. In his open letter to the President from UNCO on July 10 he wrote that, "The insignificance of the project and the lack of its professionalism proved once again the level of the intellectual faculties of your circle, Mr. President." Soskin appealed to Kuchma to commit the "resignation long-awaited by the Ukrainian people," calling it "Kuchma's last chance to do at least something useful for Ukraine and Ukrainians." "Political reform in Ukraine is indispensable," Volodymyr Malinkovych, the director of the Ukrainian Department or International Humanitarian and Political Research Institute stressed. "We should abolish the vertical administration we inherited from the Soviets and Lenin, who believed in the importance of centralized power," he stated. Malinkovych sees the offered reform as not in tune with the needs of the country. "The best thing Kuchma can do at the moment is to retract the draft as he suggested on July 7. One of the points of the reform is to prolong presidential power, and if Kuchma changes Articles 77 and 103 of the Constitution, those regarding Presidential and Parliamentary elections, he will be able to prolong it for two and a half years, which means that both elections will be held under his control. We do support political reform, but one which corresponds with the law," noted Malinkovych. VR deputy Hryhoriy Omelchenko pointed out the lack of professionalism in laying down the law. "It is obvious that the law was not written by Kuchma himself, but at the same time it has his signature." Yaroslava Dotsenko
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