Dear Mr. Simon Smith.
I should like to express some comments to your article in Internet journal Britske listy from 15-th December concerning role of civic society.
Reading your paper, I cannot mention, that your knowledge of the contemporary Czech society is based upon propagandistic materials produced by our present establishment, not on the reality. If you had true personal experience with it, you would probably recognize, that idea of "civic society" promoted by Vaclav Havel and his companions are more related to new totalitarian system than to democracy, and that their "Civic Forum" has been nothing but slight modification of communistic "National Front" or the classical Benito Mussolini's fascism. Even the main slogan of Civic Forum: "Parties are for their members, Civic Forum (originally fasces) are for all" is of Italian origin.
By my experience, Civic Forum was no guaranty of democracy according to statements of its creators, but the main tool against creation of the true pluralistic democracy based on activities of the independent political subjects. I personally had taken presence in the creation of one of such alternative political party – the Green Party – in winter 1989, and I had opportunity to study methods of disintegration of the only true bases of the pluralistic democracy, independent political parties, by incorporating of the secret police agents (often the same agents having already been used by communistic StB), creating artificial quarrels etc.
Reluctance to any dialogue or cooperation with any democratic civic groups, to say nothing of their admittance for creation of political program and their portion of the power was basic idea of fascistic Civic Forum gained from its creators from Charta77 (in fact informal fraction of the communist party and its members excluded during "normalization"), has been typical for Civic Forum. And the internal struggle of various fractions inside of Civic Forum was for me nothing but the struggle between two fractions of this fascistic block, similarly as I considered "Prague spring" in 1968 like struggle of various communistic fractions.
After gaining power, the new totality fixed it using terrible methods, including e.g. the crime of torture on dr. Bartoncik, representative of the independent Peoples Party, condemned personally by fuehrer Vaclav Havel and his three ketches. According to George Orwell, the Upper (old-fashioned communists) were replaced by the Middle (fascists from Charta77) giving no chance the Lower (people) to take part in. The result is present "silly mood". Like in the Orwell's Animal farm: animals looked in turn on the pigs an on the people, but it was difficult to recognize who is who.
In the past, we have studied various democratic societies with epithets like peoples democracy, socialistic democracy, now civic society, all of them representing rough sham hiding its totalitarian character behind beautiful worlds; now I can accept only the true democracy with no epithets, may be with the exception of direct democracy (or, more precisely, elements of it).
May I believe "democrats" giving Czech people no chance to express its meaning to fascistic disintegration of Czechoslovakia in 1992 (in accordance to disintegration in 1939 with participation of Havel's parents), no chance to express its meaning to our annex to fascistic NATO alliance, giving people no chance to express its opinion to inhuman attack against our Serbian brothers?
You refer to "civic initiative " Impuls99. But if you see the list of its signatories, you can recognize old communists and fascists from Charta and Civic Forum loosing their former positions, old communistic and chartist denunciators like Rudolf Zahradnik (president of the Czech Academy of Sciences established by Havel), old profaned Havel's comrades. You refer to former student leaders. But they are not able to name the main factor of present situation – non-democratic activities of fascistic leader Vaclav Havel and his apologists. Excluding his name from the list of profaned politicians, they lost last confidence. They collected signatories of vague declaration, called them to public demonstration, and than presented another declaration abusing them. Who can still believe them?
You are often right in your conclusion in your article. But you did not recognize the main constrain of true democracy in Czech Republic: Havel's fascistic establishment. In fact, the chance for the democratic society in Czech Republic lead by Vaclav Havel is similar as chance of democratic Third German Empire under leadership of Adolf Hitler.
With greeting
STOP NAZI – STOP HAVEL.
Jiri Soler