Children Question the Parliament

By Vyacheslav DARPINIANTS, The Day Photo by Mykola LAZARENKO, The Day

http://www.day.kiev.ua/258391/

NO DOUBLE VOTING

Without exaggeration, the January 22, 2002 event in the Ukrainian parliament could have moved
even the most callous of hearts. Let’s make it clear — no landmark laws were adopted
because the people’s deputies were in recess, gearing up for the forthcoming elections.
Their seats in the session hall were taken by 130 orphans who live and study in 21 boarding
schools all over Ukraine. Vice Speaker Stepan Havrysh who organized and chaired the event
could not expect that children would treat playing the deputy game so seriously, something
many of the grownup Solons definitely miss.

Mr. Havrysh organized the event according to parliament’s standing procedure: an opening address
 by a chairman, three minute speeches by orphans turned deputies, question time, and voting
 using the Verkhovna Rada electronic system. Everything was quite real and the vice speaker
showed some good acting, making children officially address him only by name or title.
Treating children as equals, Stepan Havrysh informed them (in a mock report) that many of
the laws that turned Ukraine into a European state have been enacted in the same hall.
Lawmakers did much, he added, for the children not only to get an education, but to have
a hope for a better future.

It is hard to say whether Stepan Havrysh realized that each of his words and smiles, as well
as his wish to present Verkhovna Rada as parent for all children had a profound effect on his
listeners aged 5 through 16. “I trust every word Stepan Havrysh says. This is my first time
in Kyiv. I am happy that there are people who want to take care of us. I trust such people
because I have no choice,” Volodymyr, 15, from the Tulchyn orphanage told The Day.

“Ukraine’s future will depend on how well we study and work. Let me tell you about our
school,” Taya Koval began her speech and, overwhelmed with emotion, broke into tears on
the rostrum. Surprisingly, none of the orphans present in the session hall had even a
vague idea about the functions of parliament or laws enacted by Verkhovna Rada. Only the
students of an elite Kyiv lyceum took the game in Verkhovna Rada with a pinch of commonsense
salt: giving credit to Havrysh’s educational project, as many of the orphans came to the
capital for the first time in their lives, they were quick to notice to us the propaganda edge
of the whole event.

In general, the sitting went smoothly. Orphanage tutors excelled in exerting administrative
pressure on the orphans turned deputies. In all fairness, Stepan Havrysh was almost stumped
by many of the questions put by the children, as it is not easy to give answers to naive
children’s questions like “Do you want to be president?” or “Do you also help deputies, the
same as you help children?” and such. It is common knowledge that children are even more
sensitive to insincerity than journalists. Faced with many awkward questions, Deputy Havrysh
finally won the day, telling the children that any serious politician dreams of becoming
president and help should be given not only to the weak but also to the strong. The strong may
be in greater need of help, from the moral point of view, of course, he added. Hopefully, the
warmth of the children’s hearts that will stay behind in the Verkhovna Rada session hall will
help our Solons, one of the boarding school tutors said. While the ideas unanimously implanted
and approved by children deputies in their laws On The Right of Children to Free Medical
Treatment and Education, On State Subsidies (in the amount of a minister’s pay) For Orphans,
and On the Love of Ukraine for Its Children will be picked up by deputies in their future
legislative work.