How to lose the next elections in Ukraine?

Focus just on language by Walter De rzko and Andrew Zhalko Tytarenko Many people are starting to recognize that the real reason for the timing of la nguage bill (THE UKRAINIAN LAW "ON THE PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE POLICY") was to create a deception, a diversion, a red herring and a smokescreen to pass over 20 bills and steal billions from Ukraine's coffers by the Party of Regions. How much was stolen?

Kyiv Post estimates that its over 300 Billion Hr or $37.5 Billion USD by analyz ing the laws passed on July 3, 2012.

Secret state procurements Hr 250- 270 billion (.likely to be laundered into priva te accounts in Cypriot Banks) Chinese commodity loan Hr 24.3 billion (.how much chornozem farm land will the Ch inese buy for this? This is already a grain-for-loans swap deal. And why does U kraine need any external loans when oligarchs last year laundered over $50 Billi on into EU banks) Video cameras for polling stations Hr 1 billion (.gold plated web cams?) Tax-free construction of railway to Boryspil Hr 320 million (why? .untendered?) Subsidies for coal and peat mining Hr 2.2 billion (.subsidy money into the pocket s of Renat Akhmetov and Yurij Ivanyushchenko and puts an end to the myth that Do nbass financially feeds the rest of Ukraine) Additional money for the General Prosecutor Hr 174 million (to pay for more Tymos henko and other oppositionist trials ?) Additional money for the Justice Ministry Hr 1 million New rules for sale/privatization of military property introduced. (.to China? Rus sia? Oligarchs?) The state Agrarian Fund is allowed to dole out state property that belongs to th e fund. (..to China?)

The key mistake of the opposition is to concentrate exclusively on just languag e. 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 the re were only about 50 MPs who were actually present in parliament voting and not the official 248, and to talk only about language". Fundamentally, the oppositio n needs to grab these cases of massive violations and fraud, which impact on la nguage as well, and carry this unabashed corruption message all the way to elect ions.

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 ca

mpaign. It is good government, the rule of law, a civil society, and all these o ther principles of democracy that can and should be the uniting glue for the Ukr ainian state. Ukrainians in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Lviv and everywhere else wan t to have a country in which they and their children can have a decent life with a reasonable future. It is only on this basis (and not the language issue) that the opposition could get itself elected into Verhovna Rada (parliament), and ev entually get rid of Yanukovych and his kleptokracy. After getting rid of this cr iminal regime, Ukraine could then solve its linguistic problems in a satisfactor y manner for most if not all its citizens.

Some added facts: 1. According to a recent Gallup poll, only 3% of Ukrainians named the issue of l anguage among top-3 priorities. Because of this, language is seen as a distracti on, and election ploy, rather then a real daily concern. If the opposition foc uses on language solely, it s candidates will look like fringe right wing lunati cs. Thats exactly what the Party of Regions wants. 2. To achieve this goal, the Party of Regions needs to keep the topic "hot" at l east until the end of September. Meanwhile approving the Law now effectively neut ralizes 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 op inion that "they are all the same", which is, in fact, recycling the Vote against All or " " agenda of 2010 elections. 4. Another odd factor is that they could have passed "this law" following regu lar procedures. Nevertheless they chose the scandalous approach.

We believe that the scandal and timing was the actual goal, to conceal the mass ive $300 B Hr financial grab, and possibly drown out the ruling of the European Court on the Lutsenko case and the Freedom House report in the 24 hour news cyc le. If this assertion is correct, the matter will be left "hanging" until Septem ber, with no signature by Lytvyn and/or Yanukovych, and it will be re-activated closer to the elections.

I encourage as many Ukrainians in the Diaspora, who care about the situation in Ukraine to support any of the planned demonstrations in front of Ukrainian consu lates or embassies worldwide, such as the one planned on July 18, 2012 at 6pm a t 2275 Lakeshore Ave West in Toronto. http://www.lucorg.com/news.php/lang/en B ut focusing just on the language issue would be a tactical and strategic mistake for both the Diaspora and for the Opposition in Ukraine.

Walter Derzko is the Executive Director of the Strategic Foresight Institute (SF i) in Toronto. Dr Andrew Zhalko-Tytarenko is the Research Director of SFi.