01 September 2009, 14:50
1 September 2009
Dear People´s Deputies!
Dear members of the government, all the guests and journalists!
The tradition to be observed, one should dwell upon the vital importance of this session. Especially taking into account the fact that it concurs with the political campaign connected with the elections of the President of Ukraine.
However, such detachment is absolutely unacceptable. We, The Verkhovna Rada, witness the process of destruction of our country. It is weakened and is being driven into a political isolation. All the expectations for the elections or reelections in nothing more than the demonstration of political helplessness and willingness to evade the responsibility.
The situation at The Verkhovna Rada fully reflects the situation in the country. Both the country and The Verkhovna Rada function in chaos. Groups and political forces adapt both the country and The Verkhovna Rada to the interests of certain leaders. Both the country and The Verkhovna Rada are characterized by the endless political conflicts.
All these facts together with constant political turmoil result in the obvious situation: both Ukraine and The Verkhovna Rada fall out of time, demonstrate utter inadequacy to the social and human needs and demands. People survive this hard period not owing to our deeds, but despite our actions and passivity. It can not last any longer.
Therefore, it is necessary to raise the following question and answer it: is the activity of The Verkhovna Rada necessary? I mean its activity as a legislative and representative national body. Is it necessary?
It is primitive to expect that the work of The Verkhovna Rada will be restored after the elections or that it may be reloaded after extraordinary elections. It is impossible to create anything reasonable on the ruins. And nothing will be created.
I address you, People´s Deputies:
The Verkhovna Rada must work. If you think otherwise, if you blindly follow the instructions, let us adopt the resolution on termination of its activity by means of voluntary dissolution. Then the humiliation of the country and the people will be suspended. It will be at least fair.
The Verkhovna Rada shall fulfill its constitutional commitments. I stand for the serious conversation, reasonable compromises and consolidated standpoints.
All the matters shall be settled only at the session hall, on the grounds of the public arguments, the Constitution, the laws and the Standing Orders. We can not avoid a general, or even a national, conversation about the situation in the country.
The public must hear this conversation first of all. Therefore, I call for the holding of a special Parliament´s meeting with the participation of the President of Ukraine and the Government.
I stress ones more: Ukraine is in an urgent need of a serious, reasonable and responsible conversation. Elections do not make a sense of life, and life will not end with the elections, hence, it is necessary to draft a national action plan to be popularly understood and supported.
It is necessary to discuss such crucial matters, as employment, pension provision, wages, public utility services, medical provision, and accessibility of basic foodstuffs. It is a minimum. It is necessary to offer a clear-cut plan of its implementation.
If the proposal is further neglected, the situation in Ukraine will aggravate. Further life without economic basis as a foundation, with depreciation of the moral fundamentals means acceleration of destruction, an example of the last years of the USSR.
The country that fails to secure a constitutional order, legitimacy and observance of human rights, depends on the external forces and relies on them is not fully sovereign. It is a formal sovereignty, and we have it. Nothing more.
It is necessary to discuss the quality of public administration, not expecting the results of the presidential elections, as it does not stand up to criticism due to both incompetence and irresponsibility, and prevention of actual participation of the people in public administration. Elections on the grounds of the present-day election system are not the best achievement. It is an obvious problem. Willingness of certain political reorganizations to rewrite the Constitution prevails over the practical tasks. Such innovations in practice are transformed into the attempts to make the feudal political system legitimate.
I suggest supporting such obvious proposals. Otherwise, people will despise us.
If the said crucial proposals are supported, we will have clear-cut criteria in the attitude to the issues suggested for inclusion to the agenda (approximately 1,5 thousand), to the State Budget 2010; we will feel that activity of The Verkhovna Rada corresponds to the needs of the country and the people.
Dear People´s Deputies! We have trespassed the limits of the reason a long time ago. We have not noticed it in the heat of the conflicts. We must stop. Everyone must make a reasonable choice. A choice for the sake of a full-fledged fulfillment of one´s duties.
The country stands behind us.