When Vaclav Havel steps down as president of the Czech Republic today, a political era in Eastern Europe will come to an end. Havel is the last remaining head of state who symbolizes the dissident culture of the Cold War, and his exit breaks a last direct link with the revolutions that swept Eastern Europe in 1989.
Havel distinguished himself from his resistance-era counterparts in two main ways: by introducing a moral dimension to Eastern European politics, and by influencing politics through culture.
The fact that Havel was a first-rate dissident played a key role in making his writings influential not only in literary circles, but also in political circles long before he took office. From the time he became a playwright in the 1950s, his initial writings consisted of absurdist plays in which he criticized and satirized the oppressive bureaucracy under communism.
The ideas passing through the Czechoslovak theater where Havel worked contributed to the Prague Spring of May 1968 when hopes of increased liberties soared following the announcement of President Alexander Dubcek’s agenda of “socialism with a human face.”
However, after Soviet tanks entered Prague and smashed all hopes four months later, Havel gradually moved to more philosophical ruminations about political affairs. He appealed to the president to institute democratic reforms, but once his ideas became uncomfortable for the authorities and began to echo beyond the literary circles of Czechoslovakia, he became a banned writer.
When Havel led the protests against the arrest of a rock group in 1976, he became a “public enemy” and began a movement that led to the signing of Charter 77, which demanded that the government respect the basic human rights and freedoms to which Czechoslovakia had committed itself with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, signed in Helsinki in 1975.
Havel subsequently went through a pattern of arrest and release, and constant police surveillance.
In his “Power of the Powerless,” written under house arrest in 1978, Havel analyzed the essence of communist totalitarian oppression and described the means and mechanisms used by the communist regime in its effort to create a powerless, resigned society consisting of timid and morally corrupt individuals. To counter such a regime, he argued for moral resistance through a life of truth and inner freedom. The impact of the essay reached beyond the scope of the Czechoslovak dissent, influencing also the opposition movements in other then-socialist countries, notably Poland.
Leader of special status
The impact of Havel’s ideas of moral politics and his transformation from dissident playwright into a key political figure gave him special status in Western capitals. His counterparts who emerged as leaders from the resistance era in other countries of the region proved less enduring or effective once in office, were too corrupt or tied to the communist past, or simply did not command the moral authority and intellectual independence to match Havel’s role of philosopher-king.
It is not a coincidence that he was the first head of state from the Warsaw Pact to be invited to speak to a joint session of the U.S. Congress in 1990. He also was the first Eastern European leader to request the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. His crowning success, however, was to see his country become fully integrated in the European family of nations when it formally joined NATO in 1999; the Czech Republic will also likely join the European Union in 2004.
Despite his consistent international success, Havel has endured vacillating popularity at home, where his 13 years in office were not free of controversy.
His apology for the expulsion of Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II led to passionate political debate, and the general amnesty he declared immediately after taking office was severely criticized.
In 1990, many politicians accused him of lacking skill and sensitivity in relations with China when he invited the Dalai Lama to visit Prague. In addition, he also encountered ill health, the collapse of the Czech economy and a decade characterized by serious clashes with the former Czech prime minister, Vaclav Klaus, who advocated more drastic reforms and dismissed Havel as a socialist.
Even though Havel does not enjoy the same popularity he did in the aftermath of communism’s collapse, slightly more than half of Czech citizens still view him in a positive light, and even his most staunch domestic detractors agree that the moral and intellectual dimension he brought to international politics resulted in an enormous amount of good on behalf of the Czech Republic abroad.
While proud of the international popularity and stature of Havel, most Czechs regret his emphasis on external relations to the detriment of domestic politics. They see him as awkward and intellectual, and as a result, too detached from the problems of ordinary Czechs. Serving as a moral and ethical force in his country’s politics, his mainly ceremonial job did not require the building of a political base and no current party represents his blend of liberal and humanitarian ideas. Consequently, one of the biggest criticisms is over Havel’s lack of a political heir and legacy.
This is due largely to his particular style of exercising politics through culture and philosophy. If earlier he was a philosophical playwright and philosophical essayist, as president he became a philosophical politician. In his 1991 political testament “Summer Meditations” he conceded “how immensely difficult it is to be guided in practice by the principles and ideals in which I believe.” This is a reference to his difficulty in embracing the politics of either the left or the right. For while he believes that Marxist philosophy failed because it was founded on lies that denied humans their fundamental rights and freedoms, he also warns against a pragmatic techno-culture and believes that capitalistic systems overemphasize politics and economics at the expense of the individual and community.
It seems that however improbable it was that he became president, maybe the bigger surprise is that he succeeded.
Deep sense of his role
Havel’s moral authority is unique not only because of his values and philosophy, but also because of his deep sense of proportion about his role in the history of his country. His progression as a playwright, dissident and his country’s first post-communist president surprised no one more than Havel himself, who humbly claimed that as a playwright, he was a reluctant dissident, and as a dissident he became a reluctant president. He credited whatever success he had to a constant doubt about himself and the right to hold the office.
Even though Havel will soon depart from office, his unparalleled stature gained from the moral authority he commanded, especially when he stood outside and against illegitimate power, leaves an indelible mark on the history of Eastern European politics. With him, the spirit of Eastern European dissidence, when courageous literary and artistic figures played a critical role in questioning communist dogma, will depart forever into the history books.
