| Viktor Yushchenko decided to disperse the Ukrainian traffic police President Viktor Yushchenko made a sensational demand yesterday at an extended meeting of the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. He demanded in just 24 hours to prepare a draft decree on the liquidation of the traffic police, becoming, following Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili, the second head of state in the post-Soviet space, who decided to rid his compatriots of the state structure inherited from the USSR, which has a bad reputation as perhaps the most corrupt. “I warned the ministers three times: if the traffic police continue to sit under the elderberry bushes, the traffic police will not be in this country,” Yushchenko said decisively. - You discredited this service. Therefore, I decided that from today there will be no traffic police in Ukraine, and let a draft decree on this matter be prepared in one day.” According to the Ukrainian president, traffic inspectors “on the road should be the first assistant for technical breakdowns or some other assistance.” “You go out onto the road only to torture people,” Yushchenko reproachfully remarked to employees of the state traffic inspectorate (in Ukraine, which bears the abbreviation DAI).
It is believed that the President of Ukraine was prompted to take these extreme measures by a conversation that took place four days ago with a driver from the village of Khoruzhivki, where Viktor Yushchenko himself is from. The driver complained to the president that immediately after the change of power, the traffic police were afraid to take bribes, but now everything was the same, only “the risk rate has increased.” The indignant president scolded the head of the traffic police department, saying that he had “no prospects.” And he decided to save all drivers from the need to constantly fight with the workers of the whistle and striped baton. At the same time, Yushchenko accused the traffic police of unwillingness to implement the decree on the elimination of privileged special license plates for government agencies.
It is noteworthy that no one openly contradicted the head of state, although we are talking not only about order on the roads, but also about the fate of almost 23 thousand employees of the Ukrainian DAI. True, it is impossible in principle to meet the reform within the allotted time frame. At the end of the meeting, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko promised only that within a week “radical proposals” would be prepared to create a new European-style road service in the country, which would care “exclusively about the safety of citizens and patrol functions in cities.”
However, it seems that they have no idea about such transformations in the Ukrainian security forces yet. “There is no information yet about the concept of reorganizing the traffic police, because the Ministry of Internal Affairs received the presidential order literally an hour ago,” Oleg Venzhik, deputy head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs department for media relations, told a Vremya Novostey correspondent. According to him, the traffic police will not be dissolved, and its employees will not be reduced until there is a clear plan for the reform of this structure and the creation of a corresponding new one. So “there will be no chaos on Ukrainian roads,” Mr. Venzhik assured us.
“The fact that the president intends to sign a decree on the liquidation of DAI suggests that not everything is in order with the implementation of government orders. After all, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Yuriy Lutsenko, has been talking about the reorganization of this service for several months now,” Vladimir Fesenko, a political scientist at the Ukrainian center “Penta,” said in a comment to a Vremya Novostei correspondent. The not very professional service really needs to be reorganized. In addition, this structure, which lives on extortions on the roads, has become a “symbol of corruption.” However, the expert believes, “the president’s personal intervention in the fate of DAI certainly has an element of populism.” The president is “trying to compensate for the decline in popularity” of the new government, from which much was expected. Mr. Fesenko expressed hope that the authorities will not destroy the only structure that maintains order on the roads.
The populist nature of the president’s attack on the DAI and the Ministry of Internal Affairs is evidenced by the reaction of Yushchenko’s entourage to demands to eliminate special license plates for everyone, “starting with the president.” A few minutes after the president’s stormy speech, his Secretary of State Alexander Zinchenko explained to reporters that three special numbers would still be left: for the president, prime minister and speaker. After some time, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Yuriy Lutsenko, spoke in favor of special license plates for the police so that they could monitor whether “Ministry of Internal Affairs vehicles are parked under restaurants.”
It is not for nothing that Mr. Lutsenko cares so much about the reputation of his department. At yesterday's meeting, President Yushchenko did not limit himself to just criticizing the traffic police department, but also demanded that all necessary personnel changes in the bodies be completed by September 1. He noted that “people who discredited themselves in past years should not return to the police.” “The police from now on must be fit, neat, without bellies. The police, which does not take a bath together with criminals, which does not go to enterprises and does not “protect” certain structures,” Viktor Yushchenko emphasized. The personnel purge should serve as evidence to the public “that the authorities are beginning to radically change their work.”
At the same time, Viktor Yushchenko called on law enforcement officials to refrain from using profanity: “Let’s agree: you should leave swear words at home, although it is advisable that you don’t have it at home either.” According to the president, those who neglect this requirement will be required to report their dismissal. “You are civil servants, try to communicate without swearing. If someone does not learn this, submit reports,” said the Ukrainian president. Svetlana STEPANENKO, Kyiv |
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