By L.F. Brown
23 September 2004
"This election, ladies and gentlemen, will be about trust."
John Howard on 29 August 2004, opening the Australian federal election campaign.
"So I say we need trust in government. We need a government that comes clean under all circumstances of the Australian people. We teach our children to tell the truth. We need a government that is willing to do the same, for the benefit of the Australian people."
Mark Latham on 29 August 2004, the first day of the Australian federal election campaign.
Q: Please tell me how much you trust your national government to operate in the best interests of our society. Would you say you tend to trust, or tend not to trust?A: Australia
Trust 64%
Not Trust 35%
GlobeScan / Program on International Policy Attitudes, 30 June 2004
The reputation of the Seimas has suffered a steep decline due to recent corruption scandals. In a recent poll, only 16% of Lithuanians expressed trust in the Seimas.
CNN Election Watch on the upcoming Lithuanian Parliamentary election
Under normal circumstances there is one certainty about elections: no matter which political party wins or loses power, parliament will still be around. And from parliament can a national government be formed. Which is okay for most Australians on the 9th of October who trust the process and institution enough. But pity most Lithuanians a day later when they come to vote for their new parliament for the next four years, the Seimas.
Lithuanians haven't had that many reasons for trusting anyone throughout their history. At the end of the 18th century the Russians occupied them, persecuting Catholics and suppressing the Lithuanian's language. The First World War saw it occupied by the Germans. She gained independence for the next two decades, albeit with Poland occupying its capital, Vilnius, for most of the time. With the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact being signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, Lithuania was handed over to the Nazis. After refusing to join in the attack on Poland, it was handed over to the Soviets in 1940 and in came the Soviet military, with communists taking power of the government. Caught in the middle between two monstrous powers, Lithuania was invaded by the Nazis in 1941 where her Jews, amongst others, were slaughtered. In 1944 back came the Soviets and kept the heel firmly on her neck until Lithuania became the first Baltic State to declare independence from the Soviet Union in March 1990, a decision which the Soviets predictably tried to suppress with an economic blockade and troops being deployed, until September 1991 when she was granted independence by the Soviet government. Still, Russian troops remained on Lithuania's soil and it would take an agreement in September 1992 for the troops to leave by August 1993, which they were to do. (The ultimate affirmation of Lithuania's secession from the Russians came when they joined NATO in March of this year, followed by membership of the EU in May.)
Lithuania (population 3.6 million; GDP per capita of $11,200 - purchasing power parity), surrounded by Poland, Belarus, Latvia, Kaliningrad (the Russian enclave) and the Baltic Sea, has had interesting times since she gained her latest independence. Algirdas Brazauskas, now Prime Minister, became Lithuania's first president in 1993 and resigned as leader of the Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party (now the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party), the party which broke away from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He stayed in power until 1998, after not seeking re-election. Instead he bided his time until July 2001 when he became Prime Minister. He appointed the economist Adolfas Slezevicius as Prime Minister in 1993, who began to implement economic and political reforms away from the former policies of the Soviet Union. He was succeeded in 1996 by Laurynas Mindaugas Stankevicius, also from the Democratic Labor Party, who then was replaced by Gediminas Vagnoriusa of the conservative Homeland Union (which grew out of the "movement for independence" the Lithuanian Movement for Restructuring or Sajudis), until 1999.
If you think the names are complicated enough, national politics, with its inordinate amount of parliamentary factions, will turn you into Linda Blair. Lithuania has a unicameral system of parliament (one house, as opposed to Australia's bicameral system of a Senate or upper house) with the Seimas consisting of 141 members, with 71 of them being elected in single seat constituencies and the other 70 on a proportional representation basis (that is, if the party gains 5% of the vote). The head of state is the President, currently Valdas Adamkus, who holds office for a five year term based on a popular vote, with a maximum of two terms allowable. The President chooses the Prime Minister subject to the approval of the Seimas, can dismiss the Prime Minister, accept resignations from Ministers and the Government, as well as appoint Ministers subject to the recommendations of the Prime Minister. He or she appoints the head of the army and secret service, has quite a large say in the composition of the judicial branch and represents Lithuania internationally. The Government is the executive power and decides on the policies and programs of the country, implements the law, prepares the budget, as well as ensuring the safety of the nation and constitution, subject to approval of the Seimas. As the polls stand now, the newly formed Labor Party, led by Belarus-born Victor Uspaskich, is way ahead, with the contest for coalitions firmly underway.
The record of Lithuania's economy has been mixed, as is its form. While not much was heard about her economy during the 1990s, in 1998 the economy tanked after the Russian economic meltdown but managed, during the ushering in of the new millennium, to recover, thanks to increased foreign investment and cuts in government spending. Lithuania joined the WTO in 2001. A real growth rate of 6.7% put it at the top of the economic pile in Europe in 2002 and the stats have continued to be positive. While it led the other two Baltic states in growth rates, the Baltic Tigers still have some way to go to even come close to catching the EU in economic terms, with per capital incomes around one-fifth the level of their new mother.
A controversial aspect of Lithuania's political system has been the privatising of former state industries, with 80% of them now having been sold off, with many deals being botched. The biggest sale was in 1999 of 33% of Mazeikiu Naftu, which operated the Mazeikiai oil refinery, to the American company Williams, which gained management control and the right to buy a majority stake in the company within five years. (In 2002, Yukos, a Russian oil company acquired a controlling interest in Mazeikiu Nafta and became the operator of the refinery.)
Then Prime Minister Rolandas Paksas, who began his tenure in May 1999, resigned in October 1999 over the deal, which he said was unfavourable. In November 2000 he again became Prime Minister using the outrage over the deal to propel him into power. He was to lose power in June 2001. In March 2002 he became chairman of the new Liberal Democratic Party and was elected in January 2003 as President, beating out incumbent Valdus Adamkus (the current President). In January 2004, impeachment proceedings by the parliament were brought against Paksas for corruption (which is widespread in Lithuanian life), as well as allegations that he had close links to the Russian secret service and Russian mafia. In March 2004, the Constitutional Court of Lithuania found him guilty of violating the Lithuanian Constitution: for leaking state secrets, rewarding a financial supporter with citizenship and illegally influencing companies. Ironically, another controversial privatisation deal, this time over an alcohol company, led to his ultimate demise. The Lithuanian company underbid a Latvian competitor and was charged with getting leaks from the office of Paksas.
The Seimas chucked him out in April 2004. He tried to run for the June 2004 elections for President but this was scuppered by the Seimas bringing in a law in May 2004 preventing impeached presidents from running for 5 years; the Constitutional Court then banned him for life. Undeterred, his supporters registered a coalition for the general elections, promising to have a referendum amending the constitution to bring him back. He then informed reporters that the number eight position of the coalition on the ballot would get them 50 seats for “numerological reasons,” because “everyone knows that eight is an auspicious number.” This barking at the moon behaviour was not atypical for Paksas who has been accused in the past of being unduly under the influence of a Rasputin-life faith healer and mystic, Lena Lolisvili, who it is alleged candidates had to meet before going to Paksas, a scenario that didn't go down too well in this Catholic country.
So former parliamentarian and leader Paksas is gone, for now. And perhaps this election will be the start of new things to come. But then again, maybe not, if this recent dispatch from the Baltic Times is any indication:
22.09.2004Police chief: Kaunas mafia bosses eyeing parliamentary seats
By Milda Seputyte
VILNIUS - Another foray in the fight against corruption and the criminal underworld has apparently started off on a wrong foot again after police commissioner General Vytautas Grigaravicius announced on Sept. 20 that the Kaunas mob was trying to implant some of its people in the Parliament.
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