How
to lose the next elections in
Focus
just on language.
By Walter Derzko and Andrew Zhalko Tytarenko
Many people are
starting to recognize that the real reason for the timing of the language
bill (The Ukrainian Law “On the Principles of Language Policy”) [giving
Russian official status in some regions under certain circumstances] was
to create a deception, a diversion, a red herring, a cover-up, and a
smokescreen to pass over 20 bills passed on July 3, 2012, and steal
billions from Ukraine’s coffers by the Party of Regions.
How
much was stolen?
Kyiv
Post estimates that it’s over 300
billion Hryvnia or $37.5 billion USD:
•
Secret state procurements - Hr 250-270 billion (… likely to be laundered
into private accounts in
•
Chinese commodity loan - Hr 24.3 billion (… how much chornozem
farm land will the Chinese buy for this? This is already a grain-for-loans swap
deal. And why does
•
Video cameras for polling stations - Hr 1 billion (… gold plated web
cams? to film voter booths but not vote counting);
•
Tax-free construction of railway to
•
Subsidies for coal and peat mining - Hr 2.2 billion (… subsidy money
into the pockets of Renat Akhmetov and Yurij Ivanyushchenko and puts an end to
the myth that
•
Additional money for the General Prosecutor - Hr 174 million (… to pay
for more Yulia Tymoshenko and other opposition member trials?);
•
Additional money for the Justice Ministry - Hr 1 million;
•
New rules for sale/privatization of military property introduced (… to
•
The State Agrarian Fund is allowed to dole out state property that belongs to
the fund. (… to
The
key mistake of the Opposition is to concentrate exclusively on language. One
only has to look at the Party of Regions “talking heads” on the various
shows, to see that they urgently want to divert public attention away from the
gross violations of over 20 parliamentary procedures, and from the fact that
there were only about 50 MPs who were actually present in Parliament voting for
the language law and not the official 248, and to talk only about “language”.
Fundamentally, the Opposition needs to grab these cases of massive violations
and fraud, which have impact on language as well, and carry this “unabashed
corruption” message all the way to elections.
Professor
Roman Serbyn summarises this logic: “The mistake of the “opposition” was to
make the language (issue), rather than good government, the centre of their
campaign. It is good government, the rule of law, a civil society, and all
these other principles of democracy that can and should be the uniting glue for
the
Here
are some added facts:
1.
According to an earlier
2.
To achieve this goal, the Party of Regions needs to keep the topic “hot” at
least until the end of September. Meanwhile, approving the language law now
effectively “neutralizes” their game. It is early July, pre-vacation, and
by the end of October it will be all forgotten.
3.
While the topic mobilizes the opposition-minded electorate, the entire “game”
is to keep the “silent Ukrainian majority” passive, and to seed and grow the
opinion that “they are all the same”, which is, in fact, recycling the “Vote
Against All” or “ ” agenda of the 2010 Presidential Elections.
4.
Another odd factor is that they could have passed “this law” following regular
procedures. Nevertheless, they chose the scandalous approach.
We
believe that the scandal and timing was the actual goal, to conceal the massive
300 B Hr financial grab, and possibly drown out the ruling of the
We
encourage as many Ukrainians in the Diaspora, who care about the situation in