NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/bit/listserv/mideurl/992

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Date:         Tue, 26 Jan 1993 11:49:12 MDT
Sender:       Discussion of Middle Europe topics <[e-mail]>
From:         Pavel Vachek <[e-mail]>
Subject:      On today's Presidential Voting in CR
Lines: 106

The following article is almost three months old but still I think
that it is worth reading.
Yours,
          Pavel Vachek, Prague.
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From   the   'Prognosis'   -    English   language   newspaper  in
Czechoslovakia, vol.2, issue 18 (October 30 - November 12,  1992).
Reprinted without permission.

                     The Once and Future King
                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                          By Brenon Daly


Greatness stirs again.

After  modest  political activity  - meetings  with Czech  Premier
Vaclav Klaus, with Filip Sedivy, the Federal Assembly's first vice
chair,  and  various  political  briefings  -  Havel unequivocally
announced in Brno that, if nominated, he will run for President of
the Czech Republic.

Though his  July resignation  was ill-timed,  the return  of Havel
comes at the right  hour. The  Czech people  are exhausted  by the
constant bickering of Klaus  and Slovak  Premier Vladimir  Meciar,
they are skeptical of  the unproductive  nay-saying of  opposition
parties, their confidence in  politicians has  been shaken  by the
conflict of interest scandal involving Miroslav Macek, and  in the
last three rounds of presidential elections in federal Parliament,
not a single candidate has been put forward.

So it is time to end the uncertainty and in-fighting  by elevating
Havel to his rightful role as president. After all, Havel  has the
tacit  endorsement  of  perhaps  the  greatest  political thinker:
Socrates. In "The Republic", Socrates writes that the ideal leader
would be a "philosopher king", having both the rational, cognitive
wisdom of a monarch and the enlightened creativity of a thinker.

Too many of the current leaders in Czechoslovakia - and  the world
- have only the first half of Socrates' equation, ruling  with dry
and uninspiring pragmatism. These leaders are concerned only  with
the statistics of the people, as they dryly recite facts about the
standard  of  living.  In  contrast, Havel  is concerned  with the
spirit of the people, as he passionately speaks  about "living  in
truth". Ultimately, the leaders  see their  highest allegiance  to
Power, while the paramount concern for Havel is Humanity.

Yet  Havel's  detractors  say  these abstractions  show him  to be
unrealistic and impractical - traits that  are antipodal  to those
he should have as president. Moreover, they add,  Havel is  only a
so-so essayist and playwright, and lacks the political  experience
to be an effective leader. However, it is precisely because  Havel
is an anti-politician that he should be elevated to the  status of
president.  He  has  not   been  indoctrinated   into  the   back-
patting/back-peddling/back-stabbing world of politics.

FEW  LEADERS  HAVE  RULED  SO  ELOQUENTLY  in  such   tremendously
difficult times. Rather than  dodge the  arduous problems  through
hackneyed, vacuous  "politico-speak" (as  in George  Bush's "We'll
turn our country around, we've got plans"), Havel  has spoken  the
truth. Instead of using  his considerable  gift for  expression to
avoid  issues,  Havel  has  addressed  his   tasks  candidly   and
inspiringly. Consider this eloquent analogy in his 1991 New Year's
Address:

"We knew that the house we  had inherited  was not  in order:  the
plaster was cracking and falling off, the roof looked as though it
might leak and we had doubts about other  parts as  well. After  a
year of careful inspection, we are  shocked to  discover that  all
the pipes  are rusting,  the beams  are rotten,  the wiring  is in
terrible  shape  and  the  reconstruction we  had planned  for and
looked forward to will take longer and cost far more than we first
thought. What a year ago appeared to be a rundown house is in fact
a ruin. This is not a pleasant discovery, and not  surprisingly it
has made us feel disappointed and out of sorts."

His words found resonance not because  they obscured,  but because
they illuminated.  They spoke  of the  problems more  honestly and
effectively than any simple, prosaic assessment could, and as such
touched people deeper. Though  Havel's diction  may be  idealistic
and wafty, it is anchored in humanity and  human experience.  When
Havel speaks of justice, for example, it is the voice of a man who
has been  persecuted for  much of  his life,  and jailed  for five
years because  of things  he thought  and said.  Thus, when  Havel
calls  for  an  end  to  the  unbearably  unfair  'lustrace',  the
political screening process, it is due  to his  timeless sense  of
justice. On the other hand, Vladimir Meciar, who  has been  linked
with the  Secret Police,  wants to  scrap the  law only  out of  a
cowardly sense of self-preservation.

Because Havel's words transcend the moment, they inspire  not only
those they are directed to but also those who hear them. As former
Polish  Solidarity   activist  Zbygniew   Bujak  once   commented:
"[Havel's] ideas  strengthened us  and persuaded  us that  what we
were doing would not evaporate without a trace, that this  was the
source of our power  and that  one day  this power  would manifest
itself. ...  When I  look at  the victories  of Solidarity  and of
Charter  77,  I  see  in them  an astonishing  fulfillment of  the
prophecies in Havel's essays."

New challenges - in some ways more difficult than those of  before
- now face Czechoslovakia. Havel has shown that he can  invigorate
and inspire in difficult times, and he should  again be  given the
chance to serve as the spiritual leader of this country.

                  -- Brenon Daly is Opinion Editor for 'Prognosis'