Speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine - April 8, 2004

Dear friends! Today is undoubtedly a very important day for Ukraine and it goes not only about the amendments to the Constitution. It goes about the matter if Ukraine stays as we see it today - people on their own hand, politicians on their own hand - or if we shall have any chance to change something for the better in October, 2004. It is the constitutional reform that today makes the whole difference.

What is this constitutional reform in general? It is clear that this is a banal taking away the power from the nation by the authorities and giving it to People's Deputies. Today the nation has two main plenary powers. The first of them is to elect People's Deputies and to make legislature through Deputies' activities and the second of them is to elect the President of Ukraine who is the guarantor of the Constitution de jure and in fact is the chief of the executive power branch de facto.

Today is these amendments pass we deprive the nation of one of those rights, which is to elect the valuable President. We let him to be a shallow decorative person who is going to travel with the help of diplomatic visas and present orders. In such a case people do not need that right to elect such a President because it is going to be dishonest. They will trust in him and will get the futility at hand. So if someone tells that this way the right is being given to people it is not true, of course. I would like you to realize from the pragmatic point of view what is going to happen to the Parliament in that case. Just realize our Parliament is absolutely unstructured. About 30 parties work now in out Parliament.

If every day we have a new coalition each new coalition of such a Parliament charged to elect the real leader of the country instead of the nation will show up with a new candidate for the position of the Prime Minister every day. A Prime Minister of the kind will have his own problem. He will never serve the nation but think how to satisfy those 226 Deputies that let him occupy the position. He will bribe every day. Besides, Ministers of such a Cabinet will not submit to the Prime Minister because the influence upon them will be concentrated in parties that gave them an opportunity to occupy their positions. So, such a government will be quite unable to function. So when some people say that we need the change of the authority system them I can answer that sometimes a person needs a surgical operation but it can preserve life of a man as weel as stop it. Besides there is such a surgical operation as castration. We cannot say that any operation can be considered as a positive one. The same is with the change of the authority system.

It is a very delicate thing and we have to come to it after careful consideration. Besides, I understand left-wing parties that want to return back the tradition of political bureau. It was the political bureau that elected the leader of the country but not people earlier. However, today we have not the political bureau as under the Soviet time. Today's Parliament will consist of three clans' godfathers and the leaders of the left wing will fail to join that political bureau in order to elect the leader of the country. We have quite different division today in the country and in the Parliament. So today we have to think not only about the events I have already mentioned but also about another conception according to which the present President is planning to occupy the position of the Prime Minister of Ukraine through the election in the Parliament after the reform approving. Medevedchuk is planning to become the Speaker of the Parliament after the reform approved and an absolutely shallow President's of the country position who will have less plenary powers than a governor of the Donetsk region is being prepared for Viktor Yanukovych.

Dear friends, we have to consider everything using common sense. So I want to address today those people who belong to the majority and who can solve an issue of today's reform today. I would like to remind you that sometimes destiny of a whole country depends upon courage of one person.

Speech from http://www.tymoshenko.com.ua/eng/news/first/1372.