By Pavel Tigrid, a former assistant to Vaclav Havel. From "Lidove Noviny" (independent) Prague.

About a year ago, former Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel confided in this Polish friend from dissent, editor Adam Michnik, "The fact that I have been in jail several times is just as absurd to me as my now being president. And I do not know what absurdities await me in the future when they remove me from this official position, or perhaps call me back to assume it again, or maybe put me in jail again--everything is possible."

It is tempting to add "in this country" to the end of these clairvoyant words. Havel, though he was not recalled from his high office by some dark force, has abdicated because he could not fulfill his duty in accordance with his conscience and conviction. Period.

The president stepped down because the state on whose constitution he took his oath began to fall apart. And because he knew that this constitution, inherited from communism and however patched up with amendments, was far from suitable. He submitted to Parliament a new version--in vain. He called for greater responsibility by members of Parliament--in vain. And he urged greater responsibility by citizens, or at least by those people who know how to complain diligently about the situation but not how to work diligently. He warned against impatience, malice, envy, petty political battles--even that was often shouting in the desert.

By far, we have not lost everything. The man who left Prague Castle was the first to emphasize this: Presidents come and go; all the rest remains. It is up to us, free citizens, to decide what to choose from it. Probably separately, at least for some time, in Slovakia and in the Czech republic. No one is dictating anything to us. No one in endangering us from up close or from far away. There is no more "they," those others who caused everything. It is only us, you and me. Excuses do not count, because there are not any.