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The Czech E Xp Erience

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The Czech E Xp Erience …Today, fifteen years on, we are trying to learn from both our achievements and our failures. We try to imagine the position of those who will take power tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, somewhere close or a world apart. In doing so, we assume responsibility for the future of those countries setting out on the difficult road to freedom, countries that will find themselves on a stage, thrust into the spotlight… Petr Pithart The Czech Experience BBurma_cover_ORANZ.inddurma_cover_ORANZ.indd 1 99/26/06/26/06 99:32:41:32:41 PMPM Transformation: The Czech Experience Published by People in Need with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Prague 2006 Printed by Hugo printing company Pražská 16, 102 21 Praha 10, Czech Republic ISBN 80-86961-12-5 (English version) ISBN 80-86961-05-2 (Spanish version) ISBN 80-86961-06-0 (Belarus version) Transformation: The Czech Experience Table of contents Preface: The First Days Petr Pithart 7 Czechoslovakia’s Return to Democracy Jiří Suk 9 Constitutionality and Retroactivity in Central Europe Jiří Přibáň 29 The Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia Ján Čarnogurský 43 Changes in the Judiciary Jaroslav Marek 51 My Reflections on the Transformation of the Judiciary Otakar Motejl 57 Economic Reforms Viktor Hanzlík 61 Privatisation Tomáš Ježek 81 The Seamy Side of Banking Sector Transformation Jan Hájek 89 Army Transformation Jan Eichler 99 Transformation of the Interior Ministry and Security Forces Jan Frolík 103 My Time at the Interior Ministry Jan Ruml 111 The Transformation of the Intelligence Services Petr Zeman 115 Czech Media during the Transformation Period Tomáš Klvaňa 127 The Changing Face of Czech Media Petruška Šustrová 135 Changes to the Legal Position of Local Government Richard Pomahač 143 Experiences of Local Politics Jiří Růžek 147 Transformation of the Czech Health System after Petr Holub, Vratislav Řehák 155 My Reflections on the Transformation of the Czech Healthcare System, Years On Martin Bojar 159 Environmental Protection before and after Viktor Třebický 165 Trade Unions Past and Present Jana Kašparová 171 Transitions to Democracy and the “Lustration” Screening Process Petr Blažek 173 Coming to Terms with the Past – the Czech Middle Way Pavel Žáček 181 The Assets of the Communist Party Pavel Molek 193 Preface: The First Days Petr Pithart In the days, weeks and months following November 17, 1989, those of us in the Co-ordination Centre of the Civic Forum were highly focused yet blind. Whilst focused on the developments in the country, we were blind to what was going on PREFACE: THE FIRST DAYS PREFACE: abroad, to the way the world outside viewed us and how it evaluated our actions. Initially, our headquarters were literally underground. The “Laterna Magika” (“Magic Lantern”) theatre in the centre of Prague served as our fortress, with its long corridors leading to overheated dressing, storage and rehearsal rooms. Our fortress was strengthened against the hostile world of external power but at the same time was isolated from external stimuli. Fifteen years later, we can see that we made many mistakes in that early stage. Though it is difficult for us to agree on the exact nature of our mistakes, it is clear that we underestimated the unique, unrepeatable and original nature of our situation. Leaders of coups and revolutions typically regard themselves as the focal points of the universe, or, as we say in Czech, as the world’s navel. Leaders act accordingly, often in what we may refer to as an autistic manner. To feel like that is both exciting and irresponsible. Once a revolution or coup begins and its proponents populate a theatre, the odds are that matters have already gone too far. Future leaders of a society which is fit for a radical transition to democracy should acquire the experiences of those that came before them. Certain experiences may be generalised. Free societies are much more diverse than those that lack freedom. Societies ruled by authoritarian or totalitarian regimes are in fact surprisingly alike in the way in which they respond to any movements in society beyond their control. Let us not be fooled by the different backdrops and the bizarre characteristics of different dictators, especially “our own”. Today, fifteen years on, we are trying to learn from both our achievements and our failures. We try to imagine the position of those who will take power tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, somewhere close or a world apart. In doing so, we assume responsibility for the future of those countries setting out on the difficult road to freedom, countries that will find themselves on a stage, thrust into the spotlight. I wish to urgently advise them that they will be neither the first nor the last to play this role, though that might be their impression. It has been said that people never learn from the past. This is not the case. It is an understandable excuse made by those who, too dazzled by the light of the moment, refused to learn a lesson. This privileged moment will be followed by a long fifteen, thirty or fifty years. Now we know. The spotlight is no longer on us, but on the consequences of all the things we could have done better or failed to do at all, dazzled by the feeling that we were pioneers with nothing to learn. Petr Pithart was involved in numerous activities of the Czech dissident movement before 1989. From February 1990 to July 1992, he was the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. From autumn 1992, for two years, he worked at the Central European University in Prague; since 1994 he has been lecturing at the Law Faculty of Charles University. In November 1996, he was elected to the Senate PREFACE: THE FIRST DAYS PREFACE: of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, becoming its first President in December of the same year. From December 1998, he was the Vice-President of the Senate; in 2000 he was re-elected into the Senate and became, once again, its President. After Václav Havel’s term of office as President of the Czech Republic ended, Petr Pithart ran for the office but was not elected. After the 2004 Senate elections, he was elected the 1st Vice-President of the Senate. Czechoslovakia’s Return to Democracy Jiří Suk “1989 – The Miraculous Year” In the second half of the 1980s, the Soviet Communist empire, built to last “for all time”, was undergoing changes that eventually led to its disintegration and the realignment of power and values in the entire world. Although its role was mostly passive, Czechoslovakia played its part in these changes and at the end of 1989 and the DEMOCRACY TO RETURN CZECHOSLOVAKIA’S beginning of 1990, shaped events substantially. The Soviet “perestroika” programme was not intended to be the trigger for this turn of events. Yet this attempt at deeper reforms of a corrupt and rigid bureaucratic system, closely associated with the name of Mikhail Gorbachev, prepared the ground for what came next. It loosened the Iron Curtain spanning both the “inner” and “outer” Soviet empire and allowed nations and countries to break free of its yoke. In the first years of “perestroika”, changes took place within those Communist parties which (with different extents and motivations) identified with the new wind blowing from Moscow: in the nation states of the USSR, in Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. Romania and East Germany took a reserved stance towards “perestroika”. However, between 1987 and 1988, developments went beyond the scope of the “enlightened” centres (or those pretending to be enlightened) and moved beyond their control. Political, economic and nationalist problems that had long been taboo were forcing their way to the surface and events of a revolutionary nature were escalating, creating synergies and accelerating political developments. The main reason for the tendency of Soviet bloc countries to move away from the centre of the Soviet Union lay in the leadership’s reform plans. These advocated the freedom of speech (“glasnost”) as well as the intention of democratising the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, replacing the nomenclature-led bureaucratic control of the economy with managerial control and reshaping East-West relations (“new thinking”). Efforts got under way to find ways to reconcile democratic, pluralist and market principles with the realities of a state controlled by the Communist Party and based on Marxist-Leninist ideology. However, liberalisation and democratisation tendencies largely failed to produce the expected results. Rather, they exacerbated the social and economic crisis, as well as undermining the Soviet bloc’s integrity. Gorbachev and his people started losing popularity. Opinions in the party leadership polarised sharply. The reforms became stuck due to structural disputes. Tendencies towards disintegration abounded in the Soviet bloc; as a result, its leadership had no other choice but to declare the subordinated nations free and give up its strict policing role. In 1989, the outer empire, which included the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, fell apart. Poland The new “spring of nations” began in Poland. As early as 1988, the strong and independent Solidarity trade union set up its Citizens’ Committee, made up of 119 opposition representatives. The state accepted Solidarity as a political partner, hoping that it would at least partially discredit itself once given a share of responsibility. The Committee was divided into fifteen groups headed by chairmen responsible for preparing Solidarity for the difficult “Round Table Talks”, which were to deal with the CZECHOSLOVAKIA’S RETURN TO DEMOCRACY TO RETURN CZECHOSLOVAKIA’S principal political, social and economic issues. Most of the demands it wanted to put forward followed the lines of those made in 1980/81: the elimination of censorship, freedom of the press, access of the opposition to the media, dissolution of the nomenclature and monopoly organisations, the freedom of association, independent territorial self-governance, economic reform and so on.
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