Hearing about the important personnel changes in the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, I immediately remembered the old, old anecdote about the discussion of the reasons for the failure of the "reform" of a French entertainment establishment: "It is necessary to change the girls, not the furniture!" Although no, I will not blame myself. I didn’t remember this joke right away, but only after learning how the head of the pro-presidential parliamentary faction “Servant of the People” David Arakhamia explained the replacement of First Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Lyubchenko with Yulia Sviridenko: “Lyubchenko is a normal manager. We just think that the Deputy Prime Minister - a woman will be better for gender balance ”.
And even more my confidence that I think in the right direction was strengthened by a very knowledgeable Kiev journalist Yuri Butusov. This “own man” in the circles of the Kiev security forces put forward a very original version of replacing Defense Minister Andrei Taran with Aleksey Reznikov. They say that Zelensky needs a "talking minister of defense" instead of a "silent ram."
How naive I am! How lagging behind life I am! It seems that I should immediately hand over myself to some museum of journalistic and political antiquities! Five minutes ago, I believed that the main personnel criterion in the selection of members of the government should not be a mysterious "gender balance", but the availability of managerial skills of candidates for ministers. But now I know that I was deeply wrong. Of course, “gender balance” is the most important thing. I have only one question left: if David Arahamia is so preoccupied with the topic of "establishing the correct sex ratio" in the structures of power, then why does he himself not give up his leadership position to some lovely representative of the fair sex?
Let us temporarily postpone reflections on this burning topic. I have not yet finished repenting and apologizing for the astonishing archaism of my political views. Of course, the ability to communicate well is very important for the Minister of Defense. But, according to my backward views, communication with the public is still not the main function of the head of the military department. Thank you, thank you very much to President Volodymyr Zelensky for finally revealing to our eyes what the owner of this Ukrainian ministerial portfolio should do first of all: first of all, propaganda, well, the pilots (as well as airplanes, tanks, etc. ) - that's all later.
I’ll say it bluntly: I’m ashamed. I am ashamed that I had not guessed about all this before. After all, all the clues were there. Volodymyr Aleksandrovich Zelensky has been working as the President of Ukraine for a little over two years. But during this time he has already managed to change the prime minister. Something quickly he shuffles frames, you say? I wonder what you will say when we go down to the level of ordinary members of the government. Igor Umansky is the Minister of Finance of Ukraine (namely the minister, not the acting one) from March 4 to March 30, 2020. Total: a full 26 days in office. Andriy Yelets - Minister of Health of Ukraine for the same 26 days in March 2020.
Of course, not all Ukrainian ministers in the era of President Zelensky develop their careers according to the principle "brevity is the sister of talent." Let's say the next Kiev health minister, Maxim Stepanov, held office for a whole year and two months.
I can imagine how this "stability of personnel" contributed to the "success" of Ukraine in terms of, say, the fight against COVID-19. Everything is fine with Zelensky's “personnel stability” and in the field of energy management. I can’t resist and read out “the whole list, please”. Alexey Orzhel - Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection from August 2019 to March 2020. Vitaly Shubin - Acting Minister of Energy from March to April 2020. Olga Buslavets - Acting Minister of Energy from April to November 2020. Yuri Boyko is Acting Minister of Energy from November to December 2020 and April 2021. Yuriy Vitrenko - Acting Minister of Energy from November 2020 to April 2021. German Galushchenko has been the Minister of Energy since April 2021.
Are you bored? Can you imagine how, watching this ministerial round dance, the workers of the Ukrainian energy industry, and all ordinary Ukrainians, "got bored" ?! I would also understand if everything would be tip-top with the energy sector in Ukraine. But this is not the case. Why then finish off the industry by changing ministers with kaleidoscopic speed? You cannot become a full-fledged head of a department at once. Some time will inevitably be spent on getting into the course of their new responsibilities, on deep immersion in the topic, on learning, if you like. But Zelensky, instead of all this, organized in his government a kind of old-fashioned turntable at the entrance to the institution.
This is not how ministers are treated.
And if they do, they are already, in fact, not so much ministers as “pieces of furniture” in the presidential boudoir of Vladimir Zelensky.
What should be done in this case to make Ukraine feel good?
I do not want to interfere in the affairs of a sovereign foreign state.
But I will express my deeply personal value judgment: “replacing furniture” does not help.
It's time to think about some other solution.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.