The President of Ukraine: twelve challenges to Independence

On 23 August 2003 President of Ukraine L.D.Kuchma addressed solemn meeting on the occasion of the 12^th anniversary of the Independence of Ukraine.

Addressing the participants of the meeting, the President of Ukraine noted that this event is not only the time when it is necessary to sum up what has been accomplished by the country, but also the day when one should answer the most vital questions of nowadays.

President L.D.Kuchma underlined that Ukraine was at a critical juncture of its development as the first “twelve-year turn around the sun of our Independence” has been made.

The President named twelve challenges, which accompanied the formation of Ukraine as an independent state.

The first challenge – gaining independence by Ukraine, which became an outstanding event in the history of the country as a whole as well as in the life of every Ukrainian.

The second - building of the state. The first stage of this process did not exhaust, but strengthened the Ukrainian people. As L.D.Kuchma noted, the next period requires from Ukraine higher executive skill and radical renewal of power, which will allow to overcome obstacles on the way to the creation of a strong Ukrainian state.

The President called democracy with elections as its evident manifestation the third challenge for the revived Ukrainian state. L.D.Kuchma urged not to focus excessive attention on presidential elections as such, but to view them as a complex element of everyday life, when people’s well-being depends first of all on themselves, not on a mythical “messiah”.

The fourth challenge, as defined by the President, is political culture as a distinct dimension of the post-totalitarian transformation of Ukraine. According to the Head of State, for Ukraine, like twelve years ago, continues to be vital the problem of absence of political forces capable of assuming full responsibility for state-building and implementation of reforms. The President called upon the opposition to compete in a civilized way, and stressed that political maturity of a state can be most effectively measured by how it treats public opinion, with which both the power and the opposition have to count.

The fifth challenge is the significant quantity of political parties in Ukraine. L.D.Kuchma argued for the need to employ legal mechanisms to catalyze the evolution of political parties from one-time electoral projects to standing political institutions. As the President noted, mature parties, which assume full political accountability before the society, are pivotal to democratic systems.

The sixth challenge represents the transition of Ukraine to market economy. The Ukrainian state has managed to renew the notion of “private property” and to create a new entrepreneurial stratum. The main task at this stage is the transition to systemic and transparent ways of conducting business. In the opinion of the Head of State, decisive legal and administrative measures aimed at separating power from property and politics from capital would contribute to that end.

As the President has put it, the seventh challenge for modern Ukraine is to establish the rule of law, to enhance the level of security for Ukrainian citizens. The President stressed that Ukraine belongs to the zone of security and stability on the European continent and makes its own history within the framework of its legal field. The Ukrainian state has been actively combating those negative phenomena, which it inherited from the past, such as shadow economy, corruption and organized crime.

The eighth challenge, according to L.D.Kuchma, is the human being as the highest value in the state. The President emphasized that this should be reflected not only in politicians’ declarations, but also in real life, in implementation of a set of measures in the interests of the poor and people with average income, in caring for salaries, pensions, education, health, opportunities for leisure, in meeting spiritual needs.

The ninth challenge is the foreign policy choice of Ukraine, which is grounded on the country’s national interests. The President emphasized the active position of Ukraine on the international arena and its contribution in support of the international stability. The approval of a decision to dispatch Ukrainian peacekeepers to Iraq became one of the recent examples thereof. L.D.Kuchma called the peacekeeping mission one of the determining factors of the foreign policy of Ukraine and of its role in the world processes.

The President also stressed the importance of overcoming stereotypes of the past, and in this context drew particular attention to the positive experience of Ukrainian-Polish relations. Ukraine and Poland, as L.D.Kuchma stressed, demonstrated wisdom of good-neighborliness, taking reconciliation in the past as the basis for cooperation in the future.

Touching upon the question of the European choice of Ukraine, President L.D.Kuchma pointed out that for Ukraine it was a return to the basics of national identity, which determined more than one thousand year historic way of our country, from Baptizing of Rus-Ukraine to the post-communist times. The Head of State noted that today for Ukraine it was not so important to outline the time framework of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union as to pay more attention to increasing the living standards, rendering social guarantees for Ukrainian citizens, development of democracy, which is the very sense of the European choice for our society.

The President of Ukraine particularly stressed the need of developing relations with the CIS partners, first of all with Russia, and also emphasized the importance of deepening cooperation with the USA, a country, in relations with which today prevails the logic of mutual interest, strategic unity of interests and adherence to common values of democracy and humanism.

The tenth challenge – spiritual life of society, moral and psychological health of our nation. The President of Ukraine expressed hope that this year, which was proclaimed a year of culture in Ukraine, will begin a whole epoch, when the spiritual sphere will forever take its top place in the hierarchy of the national priorities. At the same time the President of Ukraine underlined the importance of creation of adequate perception of Ukraine in the world and in this regard emphasized the need to fill the information vacuum that still exists around the Ukrainian state with truth instead of speculations.

The eleventh challenge, as defined by the President, is unity of Ukraine in the contemporary multidimensional sense, from territorial integrity to civil consolidation. Ukraine as one entity, as a stable society, as a peaceful territory and a predictable state rose primarily thanks to a powerful consolidating force of the national idea of statehood, highly professional management, wisdom of the people and the sense of responsibility of mature representatives of its elite. The Ukrainian state, according to L.D.Kuchma, has chosen its fairway, which goes through unshakable national consensus and ongoing public dialogue.

The twelfth challenge – national dignity. Ukrainians, says President L.D.Kuchma, should create in their own society an atmosphere of civil dignity and national pride, because only in such ground will root the strong shoots of social optimism, which is a condition for historic success.

In conclusion of his statement the Head of the Ukrainian State mentioned to the audience that Ukrainians come to the new thresholds with the feeling of self-confidence and pride for Ukraine, which took its dignified place among free peoples of the world with a bright and happy destiny awaiting ahead.