Czechs Prod Government to Step Up the Pace of Democratic Reforms

Vladimir Kreidl is among the many Czechs made immeasurably better off by the collapse of communism. Yet when about 50,000 demonstrators staged an anti-government protest in Wenceslas Square here last month, the successful young economist was among them.

The rally, which called for the resignations of the Czech Republic’s leading left-wing and right-wing politicians, was the largest such gathering here since the 1989 “Velvet Revolution.” It also marked the peak in a recent tide of citizen activism aimed at pressing the government to deal with problems ranging from endemic corruption to what many see as fading prospects for quick European Union membership.

No one expects the political leaders to resign because of the rally. But how effectively politicians respond in coming months to this new level of public pressure, many here say, will determine whether the Czech Republic’s stumbling effort for full integration with Western Europe gets back on track.

The grass-roots activism of the last year has included public manifestoes by economists and intellectuals seeking faster reforms, a massive petition drive critical of top leaders, commemorative events marking the 10th anniversary of the overthrow of communism and protests by labor unions angry that many firms tottering at the edge of bankruptcy are running weeks or months late in paying wages.

“This is a very crucial time in the Czech Republic’s transition,” John Shattuck, the U.S. ambassador here, said in a recent interview.

“For any country in transition from totalitarianism to democracy, from command-and-control economics to market economics, from total repression to open civil society, the biggest challenge is participation,” Shattuck explained. “I think what ’99 will represent, if it turns out right, is a growth in grass-roots political involvement by the Czech public. And in a country that right up until 1989 was under a severe totalitarian regime, this would be a big development.”

Dashed Hopes, New Sentiments

Kreidl, 26, who a decade ago helped lead pro-democracy protests by high school students, said he hopes last month’s rally helped push the country toward fresh solutions.

“My impression was, ‘I have to go, because things have to improve in the country,’ ” he said. “I feel very strongly about the situation, and sometimes I’m frustrated by what is happening here.”

Such sentiments are widespread today in the Czech Republic. They are fueled largely by dashed expectations that the country, which was accepted into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization last spring, would catch up to Western European living standards and easily integrate into the European Union.

Most Czechs still treasure the ways in which democratic freedoms, including the right to travel, have enriched their lives. A recent opinion poll published in Rude Pravo, a leading daily newspaper, found that 29% of Czechs say their material standard of living has improved since 1989 and 35% say it has worsened, but 55% say the change from communism was worthwhile.

Privatization of state-owned enterprises, however, has been especially messy, with an ill-formed legal structure leaving the door open to corruption. Many analysts agree that, unless the Czech Republic quickly puts its house in order, it will have no hope of meeting its Jan. 1, 2003, target date for joining the EU.

A broad consensus of mainstream politicians and the public supports the goals of boosting the country’s stagnant economy, fighting corruption and completing the transformation to capitalism. But agreement breaks down concerning how this should be done.

The Czech Republic has been governed since mid-1998 through an unwieldy arrangement in which the left-leaning Social Democrats run the executive branch of government--despite lacking a majority in Parliament--while right-wing parties dominate the legislative process.

The deal divided power between Prime Minister Milos Zeman, leader of the Social Democrats, and parliamentary Speaker Vaclav Klaus, head of the conservative Civic Democrats, while leaving right-leaning parties free to oppose legislation they don’t like.

President Vaclav Havel, a dissident playwright under communism, still enjoys considerable moral authority but has limited practical power. He was not a target of the December rally, which focused on calls for Zeman and Klaus to resign.

The practical result of what is called the “opposition agreement” between Zeman and Klaus often has been gridlock.

The Social Democrats won a plurality in the June 1998 elections by promising to fight corruption and revitalize the economy, which slipped 2.3% in 1998 and 1% last year.

“The Cabinet has been in power 1 1/2 years now, but in the eyes of the public nothing has changed, and it may actually have gotten worse,” Kreidl said. “For example, in significant parts of the economy, wages are two months late on average.”

Unions Joining the Protests

In the last decade, only one or two trade union gatherings have exceeded the recent Wenceslas Square protest in size. Now trade unions, angry about unpaid wages, also are critical of the Social Democratic government, which they helped bring to power in 1998.

While not an organizer of last month’s protest, Kreidl was among prominent economists who in March triggered the current wave of civic activism with what became known as the “Drevic Appeal.” It was a highly critical public commentary on the status of the country’s economic transformation.

“That was, I think, a major event that frustrated both Klaus and Zeman, as it was signed by very influential people--excluding myself, but the others were important people,” said Kreidl, who participated as a representative of analysts at brokerages and investment banks.

Next came the summer launch of Impulse 99, an initiative prompted partly by disappointment over the lack of any response by politicians to the Drevic Appeal. The Impulse 99 effort sought to pull larger numbers of intellectuals into greater activism, including public discussion and criticism of the direction taken by Czech society since the collapse of communism.

The goal of Impulse 99 “is to open up politics and make it a public domain,” said Jiri Pehe, a spokesman for the group, “because it has been totally monopolized by large parties who only need people to vote every four years, and beyond that they say, ‘What we do is none of your business.’ ”

Pehe, director of New York University’s Prague campus, is Havel’s former political advisor and remains close to him. A longtime advocate of the democratizing benefits of a strong civil society, Havel has been quietly supportive of citizens’ movements launched last year. He backed Impulse 99 and two events that came later: a 10th anniversary commemoration of the Velvet Revolution, organized in November by a group called Society 89; and a petition drive calling for Klaus and Zeman to resign, which was launched by prominent former student protesters from 1989.

Society 89 organized a high-level conference in November at Prague Castle, which was attended by dignitaries ranging from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

“We have the goal of a more transparent, more pluralistic and open society, where people would feel they are the player, the subject rather than the object of the game,” said Jan Bubenik, chairman of Society 89 and a former student leader. “One way to do that is to encourage people to speak up.”

The petition drive--which was dubbed “Thank You, Now Leave” and collected about 170,000 signatures in a few weeks--led directly to the December rally in Wenceslas Square. Zeman and Klaus, not surprisingly, have flatly dismissed any possibility of resigning.

But the point of these efforts has been more to push politicians to be responsive to citizens’ wishes than to see the immediate departure of the country’s most powerful leaders. Some activists see success in making more Czechs finally believe--a decade after democracy formally came to this country--that their government belongs to them.

“It’s only a few tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people who have become active, but I think it’s really a turning point,” Pehe said, looking back on all the events. “An increasing number of people now feel that politicians are here to serve them. [They accept] this very novel idea [for Czechs] that these politicians are on our payroll: Taxpayers pay them.”