A LESSON OF DEMOCRACY FROM THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF UKRAINE

July 7, 2016 at the building of the National Parliamentary Library was held the Constituent Assembly of the Public Council under the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.

The Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine, Mazur Tamara opened the meeting. Tamara Mazur immediately decided to dot the “i’s” and cross the “t’s”, she explained that the election of the members of the Public Council will be conducted according to the rules of the Public Council that was developed by the previous staff and it was approved with the Order № 292 of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, May 4, 2016.

Elections will be secret and rating, the voters were divided into 4 groups according to the directions of work of the Ministry of Culture. The audience made remarks that at the moment the Constituent Assembly is passing and it is not the general meeting of members of the Public Council; and that the only normative document for regulating the Constituent Assembly work is a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine № 996 from November 3, 2010 with the amendments that were made in accordance with the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers № 1109 from 20.10.2011; № 688 from 11.26.2014; № 234 dated 08.04.2015 and № 301 dated 14.05.2015. On this remark the Deputy Minister of Culture explained that it is the decision of the Ministry of Culture, and not satisfied persons should appeal this decision according to the established order.

After that the chairman and secretary of the meeting were elected, who also refused to take into account and put on the voting the questions about quantitative and qualitative composition of the Public Council; and the questions about the form of voting for members, it directly violates the point 7 “The Typical Rules on the Public Council at the Ministry, the other central body of executive power; the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous republic of Crimea, the regional state administration, Kyiv and Sevastopol city state administration, district state administration in Kiev and Sevastopol ” that was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine from November 3,2010 № 996, more specifically:” 7. The Composition of the Public Council is formed on the Constituent assembly by the way of preferential voting for the individuals, who are personally present at the Constituent assembly and the candidates who are put by the institutions of civil society. “

The real lesson of democracy and openness was made by the representatives of the Ministry of Culture. The candidates were given ballots on 4 groups – in three groups the number of candidates corresponded to the number of seats in the Public Council, but in the fourth group – 32 people at 11 seats. It has been announced that the candidates expressed such a desire themselves, but it was lie(nothing like this has happened). With a great stretch of the expression of such desire could be considered the indication of the direction of the work during the document application, but a big number of the candidates indicated 2-3 directions.

According to the already mentioned resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers № 996 from November 3, 2010, the Constituent Assembly defined the qualitative and quantitative composition of members. The Election of the Chairman, the Deputy Chairman and the Secretary and the structure are in the competence of the General Meeting of the Public Council.

Next lesson of transparency was given to the representatives of civil society institutions: an urn with the ballots was safely taken and carried away in an unknown direction from the room for 1.5-2 hours. After this period of time, the members of the counting commission appeared and read out a list of members that join to the Public Council under the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.

It was impossible to accept the absurdity and the comicality of this situation to a normal conscious man. Such a “negotiated democracy” continues to operate and to be elected on the governmental top.

The international organization “Shield” and the International Union of Journalists and Writers are strongly against the results of the last Constituent Assembly and think that the occurred situation was the falsification of results and the direct violation of the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine № 996 from November 3, 2010 with its changes. According to such situation many questions to the Minister of Culture of Ukraine appear:

1.Why was it necessary to organize the Constituent Assembly? It was possible to appoint the Public Council with the appropriate order.

2. According to the information that is published on the official website of the Ministry of Culture, the last General Meeting was held 16.01.2015, it means a half years ago. In accordance with the ” The Typical Rules on the Public Council at the Ministry, the other central body of executive power; the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous republic of Crimea, the regional state administration, Kyiv and Sevastopol city state administration, district state administration in Kiev and Sevastopol “, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine from November 3, 2010 , № 996: “The early termination of work of the public Council is carried out in a case when the meeting of the public council was not held during 6 months.” How did the Public Council work, if its existence is considered to be illegal, according to the Rules?

3. Does the Ministry of Culture follow to the laws of Ukraine and transparently work as at the last meeting?

4. If the answer “yes”, then why do we need such leadership of the Ministry?