On the 30 th anniversary of the insurgency, Vclav Havels allies say the revolutions ideals are again at risk
Times have changed dramatically since Monsignor Vaclav Maly suffered interrogations, beatings and the indignities of being barred from the priesthood while being forced to clean toilets as the price of campaigning against Czechoslovakia's communist regime.
As a signatory and then spokesman for Charter 77, a civic initiative demanding respect for human rights that was led by, among others, the dissenter playwright Vaclav Havel, the preacher was on the frontline of opponents targeted by the detested secret police. Yet this weekend, precisely 30 years after the Velvet Revolution began, ushering in the overthrow of the totalitarian system, Maly- now Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop of Prague- is exhorting a new generation to fight new threats to their hard won freedom.
At a rally at the Czech capital's Letna field, the same site where he moderated a huge demonstration in November 1989 hailed as a pivotal moment in overthrowing communism, Maly warned a crowd of more than 200,000 that the revolution's achievements were endangered by politicians who wanted to divide society, limit freedom of expression, and concentrate political and media power in a few hands.
Saturday's demonstration, organised by the Million Moments for Democracy student movement, was held to celebrate the 30 th anniversary of the revolution but also draw attention to what critics argue is a dangerous drift away from its ideals.
It is the latest in a series of protests against the govern style of Andrej Babis, the country's billionaire tycoon prime minister, who has been accused of corruption and conflicts of interest, and the role of Milos Zeman, the populist chairman who has promoted close ties with Russia and China. Speaking to the Observer in the Prague archdiocese headquarters, adjacent to the city's magnificent castle, Maly said the pair failed to meet the standards of Havel, who became the first post-communist president of Czechoslovakia and later of the Czech Republic when it divide from Slovakia in 1993.
” They change their positions and they are in the hands of PR consultants ,” he said.” They give quite simple promises that are very dangerous and they speak about enemies and divide society. It is the worst act of their regulate .”
It was necessary to commemorate Havel's ideals- crystallised in his famous quote” truth and love will prevail over lies and hatred”- which, Maly argued, are as relevant today as in communist times. Tributes to the events of 1989- when Czechoslovakia shook off four decades of socialist rule after similar allied regimes had fallen in Poland, Hungary and Eastern germany- have been ubiquitous in recent days. Slovakia's president, Zuzana Caputova, last week laid a wreath at a shrine in Prague's Narodni Trida, where demonstrators were attacked by riot police 30 years ago in an episode that triggered mass street protests heralding the regime's downfall. Spectacular lighting displays, concerts and other events are planned for Sunday in the Czech capital and elsewhere.
Central to it is Havel, the softly-spoken former dissident who died in 2011but remains an icon for many liberals.
Amid the adulation, however, another former Havel ally, Jan Urban , now a prof and political analyst at New York University in Prague, dedicated a more critical assessment, blaming him for indecisiveness, which bequeathed the Czech Republic unprincipled politicians and an unrepentant socialist party that is still in parliament to this day, where it currently props up Babis's minority government.
” Vaclav was superb to the outside world. He put Czechoslovakia back on the map ,” said Urban, co-founder of the post-communist Civic Forum movement.
” But domestically he was a disaster. And I say that knowing he was a dear friend. He was a dreamer. He should never have gone into presidential politics and he never learned the rules of parliamentary politics.
” Havel's time stopped any chance of the fast delegitimisation of the communist party. These civil conflict situations always demand symbolic gestures because people want to believe that the new regime will do its utmost to give society a sense of justice. This was his biggest failing.
” I aways picture a simple comparison; the idea that members of[ the Nazi party] would have sat in the West German Bundestag in 1975 is unthinkable. Why is a comparable situation normal here ?”
Yet as vivid memories of life under communism resurfaced, Urban, 68, another Charter 77 signatory who was fired as a schoolteacher for refusing to sign official statements denouncing it, tempered his criticism of current developments.” I never expected to see the end of communism ,” he said.” I just wanted to inflict as much damage as possible before they got me. So I cannot be frustrated .”
The desire to inflict damage- driven by anger over the loss of an unborn infant after his wife miscarried following the trauma of a police interrogation- incurred huge personal strain.
After representing Charter 77 at a human rights conference in Moscow in December 1987, Urban returned to find himself under intense surveillance. Sessions with fellow dissidents had to be restricted to a few minutes or even seconds and convened on bridges, to foil secret police intervention.
In spring 1988, the StB, the socialist security services, sent a coffin with his name on it to Urban's flat in Prague's Mala Strana district, today a favoured tourist haunt. Anonymous death threats arrived by letter and phone. Determined not to go to jail, he took to sleeping with running shoes beside his bed and a rope by his window to escape any dreaded pre-dawn knock on the door.
Another personal drama arrived in August 1989, when a courier arrived with a letter ordering him to report for military training early next day. Fearing a trick, Urban persuaded a friend to hide him in a hospital emergency ward, under the pretext of a feigned heart attack.
” Two secret police guys proven up and sat in the passageway, demanding that the doctor report everything to do with Mr Urban's health ,' he said.” Unbelievably, there was another Mr Urban slowly dying in the room next door. After five days, hospital faculty helped me escape at 5am and I went into concealing for the next 10 days .”
By the eve of revolution, Urban- who was helping to run an underground news organization- was on his last warning. A judge had told him that his next misdemeanour would result in an indictment for subversion which are able to spell 12 years in jail.When the communist party leadership resigned, a few weeks after protests began, it was ” the most joyful few hours of my life”, Urban said.
But there was a catch:” I immediately realised we can do whatever we want- but we didn't know what we wanted. We were totally unprepared .”
Read more: www.theguardian.com
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