"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT"
In-Depth Ukrainian News, Analysis, and Commentary
"The Art of Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" Year 04, Number 112
Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC), Washington, D.C.
Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA), Huntingdon Valley, PA
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
Washington, D.C.; Kyiv, Ukraine, SATURDAY, July 10, 2004
-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. THE PROGRAMME OF UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
YUSHCHENKO VICTOR ANDRIYOVYCH
Victor Yushchenko's Action Plan: "Ten Steps for the People"
Press service of Victor Yushchenko's central headquarters
"Our Ukraine" Website, Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, July 9, 2004
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 112: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
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THE PROGRAMME OF UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
YUSHCHENKO VICTOR ANDRIYOVYCH
YUSHCHENKO VICTOR ANDRIYOVYCH:
Born in 1954, economist, people's deputy of Ukraine - independent, lives in
Kyiv, the head of the National Bank of Ukraine (1993-1999), Prime Minister
of Ukraine (1999-2001), the leader of the largest parliamentary faction,
father of five
HOW I SEE UKRAINE
I see Ukraine as a just and prosperous European state in which all persons
can realize their abilities without having to look for better life abroad;
in which everyone who wishes to work can have a job and deserving pay; in
which every child can get quality education; in which every citizen has
access to necessary medical treatment and every retired person receives
adequate pension; in which life is secure: family, motherhood, and
childhood; in which veterans are esteemed; in which the government has the
confidence and the respect of the people; in which government officials are
competent, obey laws, have high salaries and do not take bribes; in which
all are equal in the eyes of law so that everyone of us and not just the
rich can defend our rights in the court of law; in which the freedom of
speech, the freedom of thinking, and the freedom of conscience are
guaranteed effectively.
I see Ukraine as a state, which is esteemed and valued by its citizens and
has the respect of the international community. I see Ukraine in which the
people live, as Oleksandr Dovzhenko once said, "according to the law of
God and to the human law."
FOR
Creating millions of new jobs. Economic growth, which is reflected
on the well-being of every citizen. Sharp increase of monthly
salaries and pensions. Access to quality education and medical
treatment. Providing decent housing for all families
The state that protects the interests of the common citizens instead
of attending to a handful of oligarchs. Decreasing taxes and
stimulating production. Limited government interference into people's
lives. Independent court that reliably defends the rights of the
common people.
AGAINST
Abasement of human dignity. Poverty and unemployment. Plundering
of state property and state budget. Repressive taxation that does
not allow businesses to work and to pay deserving salaries to the
people.
Abuse of government authority. Limiting the rights and freedoms of
the common citizens. Prevalent corruption and bribery, which are the
foundation of the sitting government.
As an economist by education, having experience as the head of the National
Bank of Ukraine and the Prime Minister of Ukraine, as the leader of the
largest parliamentary faction I know how to achieve all that. In a year and
a half my government succeeded in restoring order in the budget sphere and
ending barter settlements. The money flow was made transparent, massive
blackouts stopped.
We raised salaries and pensions for all categories of the people; ensured
timely payments and got rid of pensions arrears. And, the main thing - we
managed to do that without borrowing from abroad, by relying strictly on
domestic resources.
After winning presidential elections, I pledge to the people of Ukraine to
implement the following Action Plan.
VICTOR YUSHCHENKO'S ACTION PLAN
"TEN STEPS FOR THE PEOPLE"
1. CREATE FIVE MILLION NEW JOBS.
To achieve that we will:
· Make the creation of new well-paid work places the determining
criteria in evaluating government work at all levels.
· Focus the economic policy on the development of domestic market.
· Implement the system of government contracts and public work in
order to create new jobs.
· Guarantee a job for everyone who earned a degree under state order.
· Get rid of all obstacles for those who want to open private
businesses and support their initiative.
· Decrease credit rates. Guarantee the availability of credit for
small and medium businesses.
· Promote the development of advanced technologies to ensure
Ukraine's presence on international labor market.
· Attract ten times more investment into Ukrainian economy than there
is at present, which will mean new jobs and new technologies.
2. PRIORITIZE THE FINANCING OF SOCIAL PROGRAMMES.
To achieve that we will:
· Raise the minimum pension - it will be higher than the cost of
living. Abolish wage-leveling and discrimination in the provision of
pensions.
· Pay back wages arrears within a year.
· Rebuild the ruined health system in every town and village.
Guarantee certain treatments for every citizen free of charge.
· Prioritize health-improvement treatment for war and labor veterans
who dedicated their best years of life to serving our country - this is our
sacred responsibility.
· Create equal social conditions for invalids.
· Renew public respect for Teachers; guarantee salary for educators
that is not lower than the average in the industrial sphere.
· Every child, regardless of the parents' income, will be able to get
quality education. Give priority to providing free higher education to
children from low-income families.
· Return to ten-year system of education with 5-point grading scale.
· Build public housing for low-income citizens instead of building
government structures and buying expensive automobiles for government
officials.
3. INCREASE BUDGET BY DECREASING TAXATION.
To achieve that we will:
· Decrease taxes. When taxes are fair, they will be paid by everybody
so that the shadow economy will see the sun and fill the budget.
· Decrease taxation of the salary fund - in five years it will not
exceed 20%.
· Simplify taxation procedures, make them transparent.
· Separate business from government; protect entrepreneurs from
extortion. End the practice of using law-enforcement organs for exerting
pressure on businesses.
· Rid tax administration of corrupt officials; raise salaries for
honest professionals who will collect taxes in full and based strictly on
law. Abolish tax militia - this correcting organ will be made obsolete.
· Force oligarchs to pay all taxes. I am against the new
redistribution of property but the oligarchs will have to pay the full price
for the businesses that had been bought up at "advantageous" prices and the
acquired billions will be directed towards reimbursing the savings of the
robbed people.
4. MAKE THE GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE PEOPLE;
FIGHT CORRUPTION DECISIVELY.
To achieve that we will:
· Sack those who embezzle public funds and take bribes in executive
government; appoint honest and respectable professionals instead.
· Abolish useless government structures; reduce the number of
officials. Fort eh rest - ensure quality working conditions and deserving
salaries. A cheap bureaucrat costs too much for the people. Every official
will sign "The state official's code of honor " and observe it invariably.
· Clearly define the competences of the renovated government
institutions. The state will not interfere into people's lives in the
spheres they can manage much better without it.
· Sack those judges that stained themselves with corruption and
decisions made to satisfy oligarchs. The courts will rejuvenate the feeling
of justice in society: they will not punish but will defend the rights of
the people.
· Conduct a real political reform: everyone will feel that the
government is working for the people and is working effectively. Changes
to the Constitution will be adopted transparently and legally and will be
implemented in 2006 after the election of the new Verkhovna Rada in free
and honest elections.
· Expand the rights and strengthen financial basis for effective
local self-governing at the city, town, and village levels. Direct more
money to the regions and regional communities for resolving the most
pressing public issues.
5. CREATE SAFE LIVING CONDITIONS.
To achieve that we will:
· Change the priorities of the law-enforcement organs: their main
goal will not be ensuring the security of the state officials but of all
common citizens.
· Cleanse law-enforcement institutions of corruption, appoint honest
and professional officers to command them, and provide them with appropriate
political and material support. Start decisive campaign against the criminal
elements and organized crime.
· Raise the level of public protection from natural and technological
disasters and catastrophes. Gradually solve the problems of the victims of
the Chornobyl disaster. I guarantee that information about the state ecology
will be completely open to the public.
6. PROTECT FAMILY VALUES, RESPECT FOR PARENTS,
AND CHILDREN'S RIGHTS.
To achieve that we will:
· Reverse the tendency of population decline.
· Increase financial aid to mothers on the birth of children tenfold.
Mother's renunciation of professional activity for the sake of taking care
of the children has to find appropriate social acknowledgement.
· Guarantee quality free medical care to women at childbirth.
· Develop conditions for ensuring that families instead of
educational institutions create harmonious environment for raising children.
· Provide government aid for those who are raising children or caring
for elderly people.
· Revive the network of state and communal kindergartens and
nurseries, first of all in villages. Prohibit the sale of preschool
institutions.
· Establish conditions for parents to raise children and have
deserving income not abroad but at home.
· Financing for buying or building housing will be available for
every young family in villages as well as in towns and cities.
· Abolish child homelessness. Give priority to the development of
family-type orphanages.
· Provide medicine, medical equipment, special food, and
health-improvement treatment to handicapped children free of charge;
create normal social conditions for them.
· Establish family doctors institute.
· Ensure strict observance of laws that prohibit the spread of
amorality and violence: our children will be protected from harmful
influences.
7. PROMOTE SPIRITUALITY AND STRENGTHEN MORAL VALUES.
To achieve that we will:
· Create conditions for developing personality, high level of
education and culture.
· Promote the unity of the people of Ukraine, societal and state
focus on general human values: freedom; democracy; interdenominational
accord, mutual respect and tolerance; justice and goodness.
· Support public initiative and activeness in solving state problems.
The freedom of speech, active work of civic organizations and political
opposition will guarantee that state policies are carried out in the
interests of the people in the improved Ukraine.
8. PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF UKRAINIAN COUNTRYSIDE.
To achieve that we will:
· End speculations on the land market. Land will be owned by those
who work it.
· Double agricultural productivity; sharply increase the income of
agricultural workers.
· Make financial resources available to agricultural workers instead
of officials and intermediaries. Guarantee just prices on agricultural
products.
· Raise the income of rural inhabitants to the state average.
· Develop contemporary transportation system, complete gasification,
improve telephone communication, and reopen schools, clubs, medical and
obstetrical stations in every village. The youth will have opportunities for
applying their skills and will not abandon the countryside.
9. RAISE THE CAPABILITY OF THE ARMY AND RESPECT
FOR THE MILITARY.
To achieve that we will:
· Mobilize resources for creating effective army in Ukraine and for
the development of defense technologies.
· Reduce the length of military service to 12 months immediately -
starting with the spring 2005 draft.
· Abolish conscription in favor of professional contract-based army
starting in 2010.
· Provide housing for military personnel. Guarantee deserving housing
and social conditions for all military personnel, transferring to the
reserve.
10. CONDUCT FOREIGN POLICY THAT BENEFITS THE PEOPLE
OF UKRAINE.
· Ukrainian foreign policy will be honest, transparent, consistent,
and profitable.
· We will not evaluate its success on the number of visits and
declarations. The main indicators will be the volume of attracted
investments, penetration of Ukrainian goods and services into international
markets, and the security of the rights of Ukrainian citizens abroad.
· Relations with Russia will be mutually beneficial, friendly, and
stable.
· Our partners both in the East and in the West will see a different
Ukraine: strong and reliable, which fulfills its obligations and is capable
of defending its national interests.
I am participating in the elections in order to overcome poverty and
unemployment in Ukraine and ensure high standards of living for common
people. I know the concerns of every Ukrainian citizen. I know how to solve
these problems and I can solve these problems. All my actions as the
president will be legal, transparent and understandable.
My actions will be decisive, consistent, and effective. As soon as the next
year we will all feel that we are living in a completely different country,
which cares about all of its people and not just about its officials and
oligarchs.
I guarantee to those who will support me in the elections and to those who
will not that I will defend the rights of every one of you. My main
responsibility is to make Ukraine safe and appealing for each and everyone.
Ivan Franko said: "Millions are waiting for good changes." There are 48
million of us in Ukraine. We will change life for the better together! (END)
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LINK: "Our Ukraine" Website: http://www.razom.org.ua
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