VACLAV KLAUS
Czech president prizes freedom above all
BY FRANK CALZON
frankcalzon@cubacenter.org
Czech President Vaclav Klaus is an economist with an open but
well-disciplined mind. Schooled in communism, he converted to capitalism
and became an advocate of free markets after watching the Marxist model
fail. Having represented Czechoslovakia's communist government at
international financial meetings, he had ample opportunities to make
comparisons.
Klaus joined the ``Velvet Revolution'' led by Vaclav Havel and became
minister of finance overseeing Czechoslovakia's transition to a
free-market economy. The Czech Republic and Slovakia split in a ``Velvet
Divorce'' in 1993, but neither has retreated to communism.
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the
end of the Cold War, Klaus was in Washington last week, meeting with
Vice President Joe Biden and State Department officials and hosting a
reception.
Playwright and former Czech President Vaclav Havel earned his
appellation as a ``man for all seasons'' with his strong continuing
advocacy of human rights and ethical politics. Klaus, known as ``the
professor'' in Prague, projects the image of a statesman --
knowledgeable, engaging and willing to answer questions even when he
knows his answers will be politically incorrect.
Addressing Georgetown University students, he warned against ``utopian
thinking'' that perfect societies can be created and sustained. ``Let's
recognize that great suffering has been inflicted by efforts to
implement ideas,'' he said. The issue in world politics remains
``freedom'' and the threat to freedom remains ``dangerous
collectivism.'' He insists the integration of Europe ``to enable the
free movement of capital, people and ideas is not the same thing as
unification.''
Countering a question about global warning, he asked: ``What is in
danger: the climate or freedom?'' The clamor for a centrally directed
effort ``to control the climate, is another utopian idea'' one that
``will endanger growth,'' he added.
The Czech Republic has ``the best growth rate of the post-communist
nations'' he said. ``We would not be happy to go back to the
centralized, unnecessarily organized system we got rid of 20 years
ago.'' The ``current economic crisis . . . is not the result of market
failure, but of politics playing with the market, a failure resulting
from immoderate ambitions.''
Klaus was introduced at Georgetown by Spain's former Prime Minister José
María Aznar, who took a hard line against the Castro government in Cuba
but lost reelection after supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Klaus
criticized the current Spanish government's ``soft'' approach to Cuban
issues adding, ``In the Czech Republic we have much more radical
thoughts. Those of us in former communist countries were not helped by
the soft talk of the Helsinki process and dreams of achieving something
by friendliness. [Spain's current Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez]
Zapatero's soft talk to Cuban leaders is not the way out.''
Klaus was carefully circumspect when talking about President Obama's
decision not to deploy missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic. He
said he ``accepts'' the policy change, ``the Czech Republic is part of
the trans-Atlantic world, and friendship with the United States is
crucial.''
Klaus will soon travel to Brazil and Peru ``where I see a chance to
carry on discussions rationally.'' Seeing no chance for rational
discussions in Venezuela where President Hugo Chávez has seized control
of the nation's oil, steel, cement and sugar industries, ``is precisely
the reason, I am not traveling to Caracas.''
So add ``blunt'' and ``outspoken'' to the list of adjectives behind
Klaus's name. He is no man of pretense.
Frank Calzon is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba, based
in Arlington.
Czech president prizes freedom above all - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com
(16 November 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/1335522.html
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