Appeal to the Ukrainian intelligentsia
12.12.2001
Leonid Kuchma publicly declared that in 2001 a main political goal for him as a President of Ukraine is the implementation of the all-Ukrainian referendum results.
It is not an attempt to affirm truth, constitutional order and the rule of law in Ukraine, which is the main goal of the President, not the ensuring of the normal functioning of economics and the creation of convenient conditions for people’s work and life, but the wish to regain power by any means. This desire is even not hidden.
We know that the holding the referendum and implementation of its results is actually an attempt to usurp power by L. Kuchma and his camarilla. To make the usurpation legal they want to introduce changes needed by them to the Constitution.
The date of the referendum was chosen very symbolically. It was held on the 225th anniversary of the introduction of serfdom in Ukraine by Catherine II. The referendum was carried out like building of ’Potemkin’s villages’. This time, in fact, the referendum served not as a measure of expressing people’s will, but a test of new PR technologies: holding a people’s referendum without people. But it is impossible to keep the entire people in ignorance, to torment the people and to feed it with lies from TV screens. After all, it is always fatal.
Since the ground under the feet of today’s rulers started to shake, they openly attempt to throttle democracy, hoping that we shall remain passive. It will suffice to look at the preparation and conduction of the actions of ’people’s support’ of the President initiated by the authorities ’from people’s name’, using scornful for the people methods! Fidgeting of the power around the ’implementation’ of the referendum’s results is a challenge to all honest people in Ukraine.
We take this challenge!
We turn to the intelligentsia, to all citizens sensitive to truth: gather and organize in all Ukraine by the principles of morality, legality and not collaboration with alien dirty power. Gather honest people you know into groups of public disobedience. Spread truth among the people. People does not need the implementation of a pack of lies.
Let us counteract immoral authorities by the honest position.
Activists of human rights protection movement: S. Babich, M. Gorbal, M. Goryn, D. Grynkiv, E. Kontsevich, M. Kots, V. Lisovy, N. Marchenko, V. Ovsienko, G. Prykhodko, I. Rusin, E. Sverstiuk, O. Zalyvakha.
People’s deputies of Ukraine: D. Chobit, V.Panchenko, V. Stretovych, O. Sugoniako, A. Tkachuk and others.
It is not an attempt to affirm truth, constitutional order and the rule of law in Ukraine, which is the main goal of the President, not the ensuring of the normal functioning of economics and the creation of convenient conditions for people’s work and life, but the wish to regain power by any means. This desire is even not hidden.
We know that the holding the referendum and implementation of its results is actually an attempt to usurp power by L. Kuchma and his camarilla. To make the usurpation legal they want to introduce changes needed by them to the Constitution.
The date of the referendum was chosen very symbolically. It was held on the 225th anniversary of the introduction of serfdom in Ukraine by Catherine II. The referendum was carried out like building of ’Potemkin’s villages’. This time, in fact, the referendum served not as a measure of expressing people’s will, but a test of new PR technologies: holding a people’s referendum without people. But it is impossible to keep the entire people in ignorance, to torment the people and to feed it with lies from TV screens. After all, it is always fatal.
Since the ground under the feet of today’s rulers started to shake, they openly attempt to throttle democracy, hoping that we shall remain passive. It will suffice to look at the preparation and conduction of the actions of ’people’s support’ of the President initiated by the authorities ’from people’s name’, using scornful for the people methods! Fidgeting of the power around the ’implementation’ of the referendum’s results is a challenge to all honest people in Ukraine.
We take this challenge!
We turn to the intelligentsia, to all citizens sensitive to truth: gather and organize in all Ukraine by the principles of morality, legality and not collaboration with alien dirty power. Gather honest people you know into groups of public disobedience. Spread truth among the people. People does not need the implementation of a pack of lies.
Let us counteract immoral authorities by the honest position.
Activists of human rights protection movement: S. Babich, M. Gorbal, M. Goryn, D. Grynkiv, E. Kontsevich, M. Kots, V. Lisovy, N. Marchenko, V. Ovsienko, G. Prykhodko, I. Rusin, E. Sverstiuk, O. Zalyvakha.
People’s deputies of Ukraine: D. Chobit, V.Panchenko, V. Stretovych, O. Sugoniako, A. Tkachuk and others.