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It was a gloomy day for the Czech nation to learn on the morning of 18 December
2011 that our former President and highly respected public figure, who led the
Czechoslovakian “Velvet Revolution”, had died at the age of 75. As the Czech
nation and international community mourns the loss of one of the fathers of the
East European democracy movement, which helped end Europe’s Cold War divide, I
assume this is the right time to recall Vaclav Havel’s outstanding achievements
and unsurpassed legacy.
Formative Years
Vaclav Havel was born into a well-to-do family of architects and entrepreneurs.
After the communists took power in 1948, he suffered the discomforts of class
discrimination, due to his ‘capitalist’ background, and was forbidden to study.
Havel came to political consciousness in the 1960s when he started to write
politically motivated plays with an absurd touch (such as The Garden Party or
The Memorandum), which won him an international reputation as one of the world’s
most talented young playwrights.
Havel’s beliefs crystallized into a mixture of political liberalism of pre-war
Czechoslovakia, social democracy and a philosophy of his own derived from his
reading of Edmund Husserl, and concerns posed by materialism and
post-industrialism.
Leader of East-European Pro-Democracy Freedom Movement
After the Russian’s brought ‘winter’ to the Prague spring and the Soviet army
invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, Vaclav Havel became increasingly drawn into the
political struggle against Czechoslovakian communist dictatorship, which he
called Absurdistan. He quickly became the leader of Czechoslovakia’s opposition
and the founder of the “Charter 77” manifesto movement for freedom of speech,
which won him vast respect abroad and harsh persecutions from the regime at
home. For his bold dissent, he spent many years in prison which badly affected
his delicate health.
‘Velvet Revolution’ in 1989 and fall of the Communist Regime
The disintegration of the Soviet empire in Poland, East Germany and USSR in 1989
impelled Czechs and Slovaks to come out en masse into the streets. During this
period, Vaclav Havel (six months after completing a jail sentence) emerged as
the major voice of the Czech crowds.
Havel, whose role in the east European revolutions of 1989 is broadly compared
to Poland’s Lech Walesa, was deeply committed to non-violent resistance. His
influence and moral standards were indispensable factors that ensured that the
revolution in 1989 was purely “velvet” and not bloodless. The final, peaceful
toppling of the Communist regime in November 1989 put an end to four decades of
Soviet-backed rule and contributed to the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Havel the Politician
Within weeks, the soft-spoken, intellectual Havel was elected the first
democratic President of Czechoslovakia. He was President of Czechoslovakia from
December 1989 until 1992, and then of the Czech Republic, from 1993 until he
retired in 2003, due to bouts of ill health. Though Vaclav Havel strongly
opposed the split of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and
stepped down in protest from his position as President in 1992, his
non-aggressive approach also helped ensure the equally peaceful “velvet divorce”
of Czechoslovakia in 1993.
There is absolutely no doubt that Havel shaped the young Czech democracy
significantly and brought both moral authority and prestige to the presidency of
the Czech Republic. He was able to speak on many difficult issues, such as
globalization, religion, human rights, the past, arts etc. In fact, Havel has
become a well-known icon of the Czech Republic abroad. His most important
achievements have been in foreign policy. He was a committed “euro-optimist” and
his strong pro-EU views influenced Czech politicians considerably in pushing for
EU membership. He also helped to lay the foundations of a rapprochement between
the Czechs and Germany and facilitated the country’s entry into NATO. He
strongly advocated for a special place for central Europe at the heart, and not
the edge, of Europe.
His “Truth and Love Must Prevail Over Lies and Hate” Legacy
Vaclav Havel’s approach aspired for more humane politics – capitalism with a
human face, as he distrusted the market’s “hidden hand”. He once stated,
“Politics should be ethics put into practice. This means taking a moral stand
not for practical purposes, in the hope that it will bring political results,
but as a matter of principle”. Havel rejected narrow nationalism and materialism
and was similarly concerned about environmental issues.
Havel’s motto, which defined the velvet revolution for many Czechs, was – “Truth
and love must prevail over lies and hate”. Though during the post-Communist
years, his words became a kind of a cliché as enthusiasm for new freedoms
collided with disillusion at state spending cuts and political corruption, his
legacy is not about to disappear soon. His thoughts and human approach to
politics is the source inspiration for Czech, Europeans and international policy
makers as well as for other pro-democracy movements around the world that are
involved in a non-violent opposition to tyranny. In these perilous years of
economic crisis, Havel’s idealism surely leaves us with some reason.
That the Czech Republic and Europe owes Vaclav Havel a profound debt has proved
true after his death on December 18, when thousands of Czech citizens streamed
in to sign condolence books and bid farewell to him. The Czech Government
announced a three-day national mourning, which culminated in a state funeral
attended by many international leaders and statesmen like U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas
Sarkozy.
Havel’s voice has fallen silent, but his model of living in truth amid all the
disarray and compromises of democratic politics will live on forever. He was an
inspiration and will remain so.
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