JOHN MARONE, KYIV
WADING INTO THE WOES – UKRAINIAN POLITICIANS SHOW HOW MUCH THEY CARE
Ukraine has again been challenged by disaster – not another coalmine disaster, which continue to claim lives on a small scale, or a deadly military mishap (thank goodness), or even a gas explosion at one of the country’s innumerable apartment blocs. No, this time it’s flooding in the country’s rural western regions. And the authorities have been quick to respond, in what is beginning to look like a positive trend. But that improved and timelier responsiveness is ultimately a symptom of the country’s ongoing political chaos, as hopefuls in next year’s presidential race jostle with each other before the public eye in a crude attempt to look useful.
As of Sunday, August 3, around 140 population points, including over 2,000 homes, were still flooded in the country’s westernmost regions of Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Vynnitsa, Chernovtsi, Transcarpathia and Ternopil. At its peak, the floodwater had claimed 784 population points and almost 45,000 homes.
This is Orange territory, where the heroes of Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution (President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko) get the most votes. Only now, Mr. Yushchenko and Ms. Tymoshenko are in a cutthroat popularity contest in advance of next year’s presidential poll.
Never one to miss the opportunity to play Ukraine’s version of Joan of Arc, Ms. Yulia visited the disaster zone on Sunday.
Besides promising Western Ukrainians that Kyiv would do everything to ease their woes, she overflowed with praise for local officials’ handling of disaster relief.
“Having toured population points in Lviv Region and met with people, having seen how (relief) efforts have been organized, I can congratulate the Lviv authorities on what they have been able to do,” She told journalists on August 3.
The premier’s encouraging visit may have been an attempt at another type of disaster relief – political disaster brought on by her First Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchynov.
One day earlier, Mr. Turchynov was in Ivan-Frankivsk Region, where he warned officials against being light on looters and even urged law-enforcement officials to use firearms to maintain civil order.
During the same visit, the deputy premier called on the police and security service to ensure that relief funds are not pilfered. “We cannot allow this money to be used for anything but its intended purpose,”
He also ordered local authorities to ‘direct’ supplies of food and building materials toward relief efforts, in a tone that smacked of martial law.
“All resources in the region, including material valuables, food products and construction materials must be mobilized toward relief efforts,” he said.
“We will use the army in full measure,” he threatened.
Sensitive to her reputation for over-reacting as a form of political showboating, Ms. Tymoshenko was more restrained during her visit to the disaster zone.
For example, while Turchynov called for confiscating the goods of companies suspected of gouging consumers, Tymoshenko ordered law-enforcement officials to simply publicize the companies’ names.
Already under fire by her innumerable political opponents for the country’s runaway inflation, which has been aggravated by her generous social spending, the premier wants to look tough but not fanatical.
Her Orange rival, President Yushchenko, is also still ironing out wrinkles in his public image. Unlike Tymoshenko, he is perceived as something of a wimp, for squandering the enviable authority he possessed after the Orange Revolution.
Last year, during rampant forest fires, the president took shovel in hand before the television cameras to show he was a man of action.
The resulting media furor had the opposite effect, with journalists rightly questioning why the president didn’t employ his energy toward more managerial tasks.
Over the weekend, Yushchenko was hot on the trail of Tymoshenko and Turchynov, also visiting Ivano-Frankivsk Region, which was hardest hit by the flood waters.
As of Friday, August 1, over thirty people had been reported killed as a result of overflowing riverbanks, most from drowning. Over a third of the victims were in Ivano-Frankivsk Region.
In addition to the direct effects of flooding between July 23 and July 27, the mostly rural area was deprived of electricity, gas and clean drinking water.
Also, at least 59,000 hectares of crops were destroyed for a net loss of around $60 million, Agriculture Minister Yury Melnyk said on July 29
The government has allocated around $12 million in partial compensation to agricultural companies.
But more help is already on the way following a rare showing of non-partisan solidarity among Ukrainian lawmakers.
Last week, people’s deputies put aside their seemingly never-ending inter-factional squabbles to pass changes to this year’s budget needed to fund flood relief. The effort required MPs, many of whom rarely show up in the session hall, to take time out of their summer break to convene.
After several hours of debate, lawmakers raised 2008 budget revenue and expenditure targets by well over a billion US dollars, while keeping the deficit estimate unchanged at about $3.5 billion, or 2.0 percent of estimated GDP for this year.
The areas of the country affected by flooding will get the lion’s share of this, with the rest going to finance grain purchases to the state reserve or subsidies to agricultural enterprises.
Soon after the Rada approved changes to the budget, Tymoshenko tried to redirect the spotlight on herself, with the Cabinet announcing that advance payments for flood victims would be raised by 5-10 times.
“We have counted the money and determined that we can significantly increase advance payments,” she told journalists last week.
The non-Orange opposition, however, wasn’t about to allow itself to be sidelined.
The former head of Ukraine’s Emergencies Ministry, Nestor Shufrych, accused the ministry’s current leadership of fudging on flood statistics.
“We will definitely demand an explanation as to why information on the number of those who were killed was hidden from society,” Shyfrych trumpeted to journalists, suggesting that Orange leaders played down the bad news so as not to spoil a high-profile visit to the country by the Universal Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew.
Communist leader Petro Simonenko called for a vote of no-confidence in Ministry Volodymyr Shandra.
“The Ministry not only should be fired but charged criminally, Simonenko announced in parliament on Thursday.
Unfortunately, no political force raised the issue of why flooding in Western Ukraine is such a regular and damaging occurrence, as that might be embarrassing for the country’s lumber industry.
Instead, everyone in parliament, the government and city administrations was pledging a day’s salary or larger figures to help out.
Private Ukrainian citizens donated $200,000.
In terms of international assistance, aid has come in from as near as Lithuania and as far away as Japan – over a hundred thousand US dollars.
The Russians also gave, and made a parade of it: “On orders from the head of the Russian government, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, has come up with a plan to deliver humanitarian aid to flood victims in Ukraine and Moldova and send it to these countries in a automobile convoy,” reads a Russian government press release.
Disasters now represent the best PR opportunities for anyone trying to endear themselves to ordinary Ukrainians, who are busy trying to keep their heads above the water of more mundane, economic problems.
John Marone, a columnist of Eurasian Home website, Kyiv, Ukraine
August 6, 2008
|
