Several days ago in Strasbourg, at a PACE session, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Konstantyn Hryshchenko explained that democracy in Ukraine, "is the same as in the British Parliament".
"We live in a country where democracy is a tool, a means of political competition. We live in a country where all political forces convey their [political] messages directly, " he said.
In Ukraine there exists, " a situation that allows all political forces to deliver their message and ideas to people, to those who support them or who challenge them."
"Thus, a situation exists where on weekly live television politicians answer the same questions. This is the same situation as in the British Parliament ," he said.
LEvko says this is bollocks.
Every week in the Westminister parliament, on live television, the British prime minister answers questions, frequently hostile, from the leader of the opposition and from opposition members of parliament, as well as from his own members of parliament. The leader of the opposition is allowed to ask six or seven questions, including follow-up questions in response to the PM's answers, during each session.
In the Ukrainian parliament, opposition deputies have been physically assaulted and intimidated on quite a few occasions by Party of Regions' deputies. in premeditated attacks. As a result, several have even had to be hospitalised.
Parliamentary voting is a farce. Multiple-voting 'piano-players' have turned the Verkhovna Rada into a laughing stock. Large numbers of deputies do not attend parliament for months at a time. Some never attend.
In Ukraine all leading television channels are owned by magnates linked to the Party of Regions.
In Great Britain television broadcast are scrupulously vetted to ensure that both government and opposition spokesmen of equal stature are granted equal airtime to air their views.
In contrast to Great Britain, in Ukraine the head of the ruling 'vertikal', Viktor Yanukovych never faces direct questions from the opposition. The rare television interviews that have taken place with him over the last year have been total 'brown nose' jobs.
During last year's presidential elections, Yanukovych 'chickened out' of live head-to-head television debates with his rival, Yulia Tymoshenko. She was left to debate with an empty chair.. [He didn't have the balls?]
Television talk-show debates are heavily biassed in favour of the ruling party. Representatives from right wing extremist parties, with no sitting parliamentary deputies, frequently feature more prominently that the parliamentary opposition. Air-time is heavily loaded in favour of ruling party representatives. [Detailed analysis about this here ]
Leader of the opposition, Yulia Tymoshenko has been virtually shut out from talk-shows for many months. She has been prevented from travelling at home and abroad to carry out her political duties.
The report by the US Trout Charteris and Akin Gump on Tymoshenko's alleged maladministration during her period in office, commissioned by the current administration, was given massive exposure in the Ukrainian media. In contrast, the recent US Covington and Burling preliminary report, commissioned by BYuT, which gave her a 'clean bill of health', was all but ignored by the mainstream Ukrainian media, even though both companies are comparable legal 'heavyweights'. [Links to these two reports here]
p.s. This is what Her Majesty's Government think about the democratic situation in Ukraine..
*Bollocks - testicles. Talking bollocks - speaking nonsense [UK English]
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