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The Dissident as President
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17862 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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3 / 1990 |
2,173 Words |
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Interview With Václav Havel
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On December 12, 1989, on a sunny afternoon in mild winter, a speaker for Civic Forum, a coalition of political groups that came together to support the Czech student demonstrations for freedom that began November 17, addressed a hundred thousand people in Wenceslas Square. Announcing the Civic Forum candidate for president, he said, "Our candidate is a man who is, was, and will be clean." The people shouted, "Havel!" The spokesman went on, "Our candidate is one who overcame fear." The crowd shouted, "Havel!" The speaker declared, "He is a free man, an able man, who was not broken by jails or persecution. A man who never lied." The people thundered, "Havel!”
Only a few months earlier, in May 1989, Václav Havel had been released from prison, where he was serving a term for dissident activities. He was set free only because he was so seriously ill with pneumonia that the government feared he would become a martyr in the cause of Czech freedom. Czechoslovakians were unaware of Havel's dissident activities beyond a vague knowledge of the Charter 77 proclamations of civil and human rights. Charter 77, the work of Havel and a small group of his dissident friends, was very actively opposed by the government, which had mounted such a large campaign denouncing it that it had become famous. Havel's political thought, penned after publication of his writing was prohibited, was deeply understood only by those intellectuals, artists, and students who had been lucky enough to read him in underground editions. Productions of his plays had been prohibited since 1969, and so they, too, were familiar only to older theatergoers or to readers who encountered them in smuggled editions.
In December, however, Havel was able to address millions of citizens, asking them, to support him for president until full-scale, democratic elections could be held in the summer. Supported overwhelmingly by the people, who had unshakable confidence in his personal integrity, he was elected by a parliament whose members had been ready only a few months earlier to jail him. By that time, however, too many people had taken to the streets to bring the communist regime to an end.
In the interview that follows, Václav Havel discusses his expectations for his presidency with Czech novelist Arnoöt Lustig, who interviewed Havel for The World & I.
WORLD & I: Now that you are to be president of Czechoslovakia, what are your plans for the nation?
Havel: I would like to protect the peaceful and decent development of Czechoslovakia until we have free elections. I told the citizens of this country in high regard for acting out of such a high political culture, showing such tolerance and discipline. Our revolution was very quick, as if history was running ahead of us, and this country's citizens managed to react with wit and refinement. This has earned them affection from the world. I hope that nothing will soil the quality of the revolution, which was impressed on it by the young people at the beginning. This revolution was not only swift but even loving, and I hope our future will be a continuation of it.
W & I: Do you feel prepared for the leading political role?
Havel: I cannot evaluate myself. The people who want me to be president have some conception of my qualifications.
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