The team of Viktor Yanukovych should draw conclusions from the main mistakes that Viktor Yushchenko made. Specifically, the third president of independent Ukraine failed to become a true leader of the entire country. Furthermore, presidents Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma eventually managed to win over the hearts of people living in Western Ukraine. In short, Yanukovych should learn something from the experience of Ukraine’s previous three presidents
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Photo: PHL |
Yanukovych can make for himself a positive image in the eyes of Ukrainians living in the western regions of the country, which in the spring are typically prone to severe flooding. Going on an amphibian boat ride down the Dniester or Latoritsa rivers decked out in camouflage is a no-brainer and the effect will be almost immediate.
Aid to any town in Western Ukraine, where the locals are suffering the consequences of an environmental disaster, is also an effective way for the new president to win the hearts of local residents. The most suitable example is Kalush (read more about the problems of this once powerful industrial center in the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast on pages 56-58).
When forming the new local government, the Party of Regions must take into account the fact that the residents of oblasts in Western Ukraine that have no affinity for this party are highly suspect.
It will be very difficult, if at all possible, for a governor or even head of a county state administration, who has worked all his life in Kyiv, to find a common ground with the head honchos in the Ternopil or Volyn oblasts.
Precisely for this reason the PoR will seek the support of people residing in the western regions of Halychyna, Polissya and Bukovyna, taking into account that the current government (when it will be sacked remains to be seen) is proposing candidates to head oblast state administrations. In other words, promoting local activists by demonstrating loyalty to the slogan “East and West Together” can only be a feather in Yanukovych’s cap Experts surveyed by Weekly.ua say the revival of Special Economic Zones and Priority Development Territories (SEZ and PDT) will be an image booster for Yanukovych.
Based on the current stereotype, the notions of SEZ and PDT were apparently most popular in the southeastern parts of Ukraine (in Yanukovych’s native Donbas, the Mykolayiv oblast and Crimea). However, the Yavoriv SEZ in the Lviv oblast, which offered local businessmen a host of preferences, was extremely popular. Its revival or the creation of similar objects will be highly welcomed in business circles. Moreover, this will allow the PoR to strengthen its position and launch additional mechanisms for earning money, albeit not exactly in the most transparent way.
Learn from your elders
The most resounding and sensitive issue the new president will have to be very cautious about it is nationality and culture. On this issue, President Leonid Kuchma is an excellent example for Yanukovych to follow. Starting his rise to power with the affirmation that Russian will be the second official state language in Ukraine, Kuchma never again raised this issue during his tenure as president.
Most likely, the same should be expected from Yanukovych. It won’t be any more difficult for the Donetsk native to divert from the bilingual issue than it was for Kuchma, a native of Dnipropetrovsk. After all, Yanukovych managed to get a grasp of the Ukrainian language faster than Kuchma did.
The path of least resistance is to shift the issue to the provincial level by delegating the authority to permit the use of the Russian language to local councils. In this way the new president can clean his slate saying that the adoption of bilingual policy in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Odesa oblasts and Crimea is the initiative of the local councils. Such an idea was brewing in the Kuchma Administration, but was no time to bring it to fruition.
Experience shows that other sensitive topics such as World War II and making heroes of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (OUN-UPA) will fade into the background. The fact is these topics are traditionally raised during an election campaign.
MP Oleksandr Holub
(CPU)
I believe the strategy of Yanukovych’s drive to the west is detrimental right from the start. If he needs to win votes, Leonid Kuchma showed how to do this back in 1999. However, Kuchma’s experience proved that the West would not accept him into their inner circle. In my opinion, the same destiny awaits Yanukovych. Those pushing along this path seem to not understand that by trying to win over the love and support of the Western electorate (pretty ephemeral), Yanukovych will have to stop conveying the political and social messages he sent to the electorate in the eastern regions of Ukraine. With such a drive to the West, Yanukovych stands to gain less and lose more.
MP Petro Pysarchuk,
(PoR)
Viktor Yanukovych will try to conquer Western Ukraine through kindness, understanding and his own efforts. All the talk about repressions and persecutions is nothing but gibberish. His main steps will be to form a team, because local elites, for example, in the Lviv oblast, haven’t changed over the years of independence and aside from emotional statements about a passionate love for Ukraine they cannot boast any results that makes the region stand out among others. Responsible authorities need to be formed, which will love people not only in words, but also in actions. At the moment, the authorities in the Lviv oblast made up of local residents show a great disrespect towards the authorities that introduce taxes and humiliate them. The new team will rely on people that truly love Ukraine. We have already tried to form teams based on party affiliation… This is a remnant of the old Soviet mentality that you are “either one of ours or not “, meaning that if you belong to our party, hold on to your position even if you are a thief. This will no longer be. The approach will be based on the criteria of business-like manners, professionalism and efficiency on the job.
How Yushchenko conquered Donbas
“I don’t want tales circulate in Donetsk that I do not love Donbas, do not love the Russian language, the Russian church and do not respect integration to the East,” said presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko in Donetsk in November 2004. This happened less than a month after the city met the delegation of Our Ukraine headed by the future president with billboards where Yushchenko was depicted as a fascist officer.
During his tenure as president, Yushchenko visited Donbas on many occasions. For example, his visit in the spring of 2008, when he held the meeting With Love and Care for Children in Donetsk, can be singled out. That event dedicated to the problems of orphans for some reason ended with Yushchenko’s speech about the impossibility of the country’s accession to NATO without a nationwide declaration of will. After the meeting, the president again met with Ukraine’s wealthiest man Rinat Akhmetov.
But, of all things Yushchenko did in the East the electorate in Yanukovych’s native region best recalls Yushchenko’s intention of sending the governors of Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk, respectively Anatoliy Blyznyuk, Yevhen Kushnaryov and Oleksandr Yefremov, to jail for their separatist ways. The statement “Yushchenko needs Donbas, but Donbas doesn’t need Yushchenko” and Yushchenko’s alleged response to Blyznyuk: “My father sat in a concentration camp for you lackeys” became commonplace.
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