Voter hunting season opens
Since
the official start of the election campaign on July 30, both the government and
the opposition have joined in the battle for voters’ hearts. Experts believe
that the biggest issues during this election campaign will be direct
administrative pressure on candidates and their businesses; as well as outright
vote buying. The current elections law “On Elections of People’s Deputies of
Ukraine” is riddled with defects, allowing the government to abuse their powers
when registering candidates, organising the election process and counting
votes.
The
introduction of video surveillance will not have a substantial impact on the
voting process. At the moment the majority of government members who are
participating in the election campaign, including the prime minister are campaigning skipping summer vacation.
Vote buying has already reared its ugly head in the form of free music
concerts, give away grocery baskets, school packs ahead of Sept. 1, other
presents such as glasses and mobile phones and even direct cash payments of Hr 100-200
($15-$25).
Rural
citizens are usually bribed through repair of roads and schools and the
construction of new churches. Despite such blatant tactics, one might be
surprised to discover that Ukrainian legislation actually views vote buying as
a criminal offence. Experts specifically mention the importance of educating
the population in order to prevent vote buying.
A
recent sociological survey revealed the following issues as top priority for
the people: unemployment (59% of respondents), economic crises and development
(51%), increasing the general level of salaries, retirement benefit, education
allowance (51%), reduction of prices (43%), social protection of the
disadvantaged (40%), improvement of medical care (40%) and fighting corruption
(39%). Currently only 18% of Ukrainians
are concerned over political repressions(3). Overcoming of economic
hardships will have a priority influence on the people’s choice of candidates
at the forthcoming elections.
People First Comment: Nothing illustrates more graphically the sorry state
of democracy in Ukraine than candidates and political parties in the
forthcoming elections planning on how they intend to buy votes. Nothing illustrates more clearly the level of
democratic understanding than those who are prepared to sell out their country
and their future for a few dollars or a miserly bag of basics whilst the elite
look foolish trying to build the nation’s future on the basis of such reprehensible
practices. It is time for Ukrainians to stop deluding themselves, this is not
democracy, it is simply corruption on a truly massive scale, but is it really
any wonder.
Ukraine
changed from Soviet totalitarianism to free market democracy overnight. There was no mass public education or schools
programme in understanding democracy and how it works. There was no manual on
how to make the transition, there were no guidelines on the fundamentals such
as the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary thus for the past 20
years the world has simply expected Ukraine to muddle through. Well here is the result, a corrupted
electoral system designed to elect self-serving criminality into positions of
such power that they can determine the future of 45 million people and
influence the lives of millions more in surrounding countries.
So
who is responsible for this crime? You
could blame the people for not determining their future more forcefully but how
were they to know? You could blame the
President’s and the political leadership but they were all the product of a
highly specialised political system designed to sustain communism and nobody
ever checked to see what they actually understood about democratic
process. The real blame lies at the feet
of those who engineered the fall of the Soviet Union as whilst they spent
billions on privatisation and market economics education, democracy education
was relegated to the education of the few in the hope that they would somehow
become the new Messiahs. They failed and
now all that the Western powers do is whistle through their teeth and send in
observers. It has taken the United
Kingdom over 350 years to perfect its democratic system; at this rate it will
take Ukraine just as long.
A government obsessed
with fireworks
The European football
championship, Euro 2012, has just finished and the government of Ukraine is already
on the hunt for new major sports and economic projects, including the Winter
Olympic Games of 2022. Ukrainian Prime Minister has already reported to the
media that Ukraine has every chance of winning the right to host the Winter
Olympic Games in 2022. The Head of the Ukrainian government has assured that
the President of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge gave a
positive evaluation of Ukraine’s chances of winning the right to host the 2022
Olympics. If so the government will have 10 years to develop the required
facilities(4).
Let us remind ourselves
that the government of Ukraine spent at least 5 billion USD on preparations for
Euro-2012. According to Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure
Borys Kolesnikov the Championship has brought in only 1 billion USD to the
budget(5). The government spent more than half on the construction
and reparation of roads (about 3 billion USD). According to the government,
Ukraine since achieved 2 thousand kilometres of quality roads. Even after the
championship, the reconstruction of roads continues due to schedule delays.
Brand new high-speed trains have proved to be another source of difficulties.
They regularly break down on Ukrainian railways causing passengers a lot of
difficulties. The Ukrainian media have highlighted the facts of inappropriate
expenditures in connection with Euro-2012 on multiple occasions. Perhaps, the
government would do better to take more care of the people and their social
protection after the Euro 2012, instead of searching for new mega- projects
requiring billions of dollars of investment.
People First Comment: Just in case the political elite haven’t noticed the
hospital system of Ukraine is falling apart, the mortality rate is now the
highest in Europe, the birth rate is such that the nation is no longer
sustainable in the long-term, the education system is in tatters, prices are
rising, wages are falling and the minimum state salary is now only $4.3 a
day. Euro 2012 cost each and every
household in this country $350 that they could not afford and the damage to
Ukraine’s political image was immense… So why one has to wonder would the
political elite want to even consider bidding for the winter Olympics when the
nation is in such a deplorable condition.
Firstly, it shows just how spectacularly out of touch the politicians in
power and opposition are with the reality of the nation they manage. In most Western democracies members of
parliament are legally required to meet with their constituents on a monthly
basis. In Ukraine they would rarely even
consider soiling themselves with such irrelevancies thus they have absolutely
no idea how the people live or the difficulties they encounter. Ministers, whilst having full control over
their budgets, have no responsibility or liability for their actions thus they
too have no idea of the consequences of their decisions and woe betide anybody
who would dare to question the decision of a Minister in this government.
Secondly, it’s all about the mathematics.
Euro 2012 cost about double what it should have if the government’s own
tender-based purchasing legislation had been adhered to. It was not and as a result it is safe to say
that somebody made a great deal of money at the taxpayer’s expense. The same will be true of the 2022 Winter
Olympics should the IOC in their wisdom award the Games to Ukraine. Perhaps it is time for the people of Ukraine
to advise Mr. Jacques Rogge of the
economic realities so that any Ukrainian bid is either made dependent on a
massive improvement in living conditions or is rejected for what it is, a
licence to rape the nation once again.
Ukrainians choose internal withdrawal
The
inability of the present and previous governments of Ukraine to set a concrete
vision or development plan for the nation has resulted in an enormous amount of
frustration and anger amongst the population.
Sociological
research shows that about 30% of the population have felt frustration and anger
towards the governing authorities for many years; 16% of respondents feel
contempt for the government and 11% of Ukrainians actually hate those in power.
After those rather negative statistics come more positive emotions such as
compassion (10%), desire to help (9%), respect (4%) and sympathy (3%). The
government’s disregard for social problems has become the third most alarming
problem which Ukrainians face, after price increases and financial pressures –
90% of the population believe that the rich are only getting richer and the
poor are getting even poorer(6).
The
relations between the state and the people have come to the point when the
people no longer want to get involved in the government’s business and civil
initiatives. In essence Ukrainians no longer have any confidence in their
ruling regime. They chose to wait until the situation changes for the better,
yet the economic and social development of Ukraine remains at a standstill. Protest
activity also remains considerably low. Experts believe that the people will
only protest after the governing authorities start to take away their social
and economic rights and freedoms. Currently only 10% of Ukrainians are ready to
protest for political reasons. So the people of Ukraine today detach themselves
from politics and public activity and care only about their personal lives.
People First Comment: In 1945 the ardent British socialist and writer
George Orwell wrote a political satire on the Stalinist system called ‘Animal
Farm’ where the animals overthrew the oppressive capitalist farmer and set up a
Utopian workers collective… only to have the pigs take over, put on the
farmers’ clothes and walk upright… The parallels with modern day Ukraine are
uncannily similar thus it is hardly surprising that 30% of the population feel
frustration, 16% feel contempt and 11% feel hatred when the political elite are
seeking to re-establish many Stalinist values.
Furthermore
the modern day Ukrainian elite wear designer clothes, live in designer houses,
drive luxury designer cars and spend a fortune on designer entertainment whilst
a state worker is expected feed and keep a family on $130 a month. The elite brag about their power and flaunt
their wealth all over the television stations they either own or control whilst
the viewers live in poverty. In many
less temperate nations at the very least this would be a recipe for protest but
in Ukraine there seems to be a general acceptance of poverty and control as if
it is some kind of national destiny. As
one Minister of Social Protection rather condescendingly put it; ‘… in times of
trouble Ukrainians do not protest, they simply go to their dachas and pickle
more vegetables…’
However
the elite should not be guided by any sense of false security as history proves
that every nation has its tipping point and Ukraine is no different. As elitist contempt for the people grows so
too does the level of discontent as is clearly illustrated by the research in
that respect garners only 4% and the fact that the people have reached the
point where they have no enthusiasm for business or civil activity.
Watching the watchmen
Copwatch, a worldwide
movement for public control over law enforcement in order to counter abuses of
power, has reached Ukraine. The main weapons against the unlawful actions of
the militia are cameras to record the violations and the Internet to publish
the recorded videos. Copwatch activists say that it was the people’s distrust
in law enforcement officials and the wish to teach people to defend their
rights that made them start a new movement in Ukraine. The first region to
start is Kyiv where activists have been attending special trainings on
interaction with militia to anchor their theoretical skills into practice. The
founders of Ukrainian Copwatch have learned to interact with militia from their
colleagues at the Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors in law
enforcement. Participants of the movement, which consists mostly of young
people, act strictly within the boundaries of the law when performing public
monitoring of militia. Starting this summer, the movement plans to extend its
activity to all over Ukraine(8).
The Copwatch movement
confirms the awakening of Ukrainians’ civil activity, especially among the
young. It is the younger generation that demonstrates less and less fear of law
enforcement officials and the greatest wish to protect their rights. This takes
place during the time in which, according to the latest sociological surveys:
20% of Ukrainians think that militia guarantees public safety while over 30%
consider it a danger(9). A public rising up to protect itself, legally, using
new and widely available technologies sets the scene for a future Ukraine in
which citizens are not so easy for the corrupt to exploit.
People First comment: The ongoing technological revolution may have
left nearly 1 billion of us carrying more technology around in our pockets than
was used to put man on the moon, but can simply filming and popularising crimes
really be enough to bring down corrupt authorities?
Ukraine already has an example of the filmed exposure
of a crime, spread through social media, resulting in the fall of an official. Then
a Lugansk city councillor from the PoR regime was secretly filmed assaulting a
young girl who turned down his advances in a restaurant – footage which was
then leaked to Youtube. The resultant public outcry was significant and
attempts to spin the story in his favour seemed ridiculous when the full CCTV
footage was available online. An arrest warrant was issued; he was stripped of
his council seat and was apprehended attempting to flee into Russia.
Success… to a point. Six months later, when much of
public attention had moved on to newer subjects, the ‘action man’ was sentenced
with the crime of hooliganism, less serious than assault, and given a three
year sentence with two year suspension; meaning that if he manages not to get
filmed committing any other crimes before January 2014 he won’t have to serve a
second of his sentence.
In Ukraine, failure to prosecute criminal authorities
is not about lack of evidence – see for example the near daily videos of
politicians multiple voting in the Rada – but about serving the interests of
the powerful. We can only hope that the crimes documented by Copwatch can be
channelled into a public demand for systemic change – not just used to fan
flames and widen the already dangerous and hate-filled gap between the people
and the state.
Viktor Tkachuk is chief executive officer of the People First
Foundation, which seeks to strengthen Ukrainian democracy. The
organization’s website is: www.peoplefirst.org.ua and the e-mail address is: [email protected]
