Bible Day Celebration: Strategy or Legislative Spam by People’s Deputy Heorhiy Mazurash
The legislative process in Ukraine during the war demonstrates a tendency to submit a large number of dubious projects that combine cultural, moral or religious topics with regulatory norms. Often, these initiatives are not accompanied by a calculation of practical benefits for society in modern conditions, creating situations where people’s deputies cause even greater indignation among Ukrainians. In the latest series of initiatives, the bill on the introduction of Bible Day, submitted by Heorhiy Mazurashu, was particularly noticeable.
Initiative on the introduction of Bible Day
On February 24, the people’s deputy from the “Servant of the People” faction Heorhiy Mazurashu registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine draft law No. 15045, which proposes to establish October 31 as Bible Day, but without introducing an additional day off.
The People’s Deputy chose this day in connection with with the fact that on October 31, 1903, the first Bible in modern Ukrainian was published. The bill does not provide for expenditures from the State Budget and allows enterprises and state bodies to operate in the usual mode.
Celebrating such days without creating real mechanisms to support culture or education is perceived by society as declarative, which increases criticism from experts and citizens.
Other legislative initiatives by Mazuras
The Mazuras bill repeats a series of previous initiatives by the deputy, which are symbolic or religious in nature, but do not change the functioning of state or economic mechanisms. Previous examples include a bill to place the inscription “We Trust in God” on banknotes and a proposal to establish Thanksgiving Day as a non-working day. The vast majority of these initiatives did not pass a parliamentary vote, but demonstrate the feasibility of such legislation.
During the five years of his term, Mazuraş authored or co-authored 887 legislative initiatives, of which only 19% were adopted. This approach highlights the problem of legislative “spam”, when the number of initiatives outweighs their quality and effectiveness, and at the same time forms an ambiguous attitude of society towards the activities of individual deputies. At the same time, public attention is often focused on the resonance of the topic, rather than on the consequences of its implementation.
The activities of Heorhiy Mazurash, using the example of the draft law on Bible Day, illustrate the complexity of assessing symbolic initiatives in the modern parliament of Ukraine, where the high number of submitted projects does not always correspond to their practical value. Such initiatives form an ambiguous attitude towards the legislative system and demonstrate the need for a clearer approach to assessing the economic, social and cultural consequences of draft laws before their introduction. At the same time, the analysis shows that the main result of such initiatives remains the media effect and public attention, rather than real changes in state processes or infrastructure.
