Lech Walesa And Us — Poland’s Strange Relationship With Its Revolutionary Hero

-OpEd-

WARSAW — “Don’t bite, support.” That was former Polish President Lech Wałęsa’s call to action at the European New Ideas Forum in Sopot, Poland, in mid-October.

The goal of the legendary founder of Poland’s Solidarity Movement in the 1980s was to reproach those who are criticizing the current Polish government for their lateness in “cleaning up” the mess made by eight years of rule by the Law and Justice (PiS) party rule.

“It’s clear,” he said, “if we put power into the hands of ‘colonels,’ then they would ‘clean’ it up in a few weeks. Lawlessly, but just as effectively as PiS.”

Ruling democratically is indeed time-consuming. What’s more, a true democracy does not tolerate “colonels” or strongmen. With enthusiasm, Wałęsa praised Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Justice Minister Adam Bodnar and, with some embarrassment, recalled his own methods of falsification of the law.

He didn’t say a single word about the “war on the mountain” (an infamous internal conflict between within the Solidarity movement in 1990) caused, and the hated character “Kaczor” (PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński) was mentioned only once in his surprisingly common sense speech.

This is because Wałęsa thinks a lot less about the political past, and a lot more about the political future. And for an 81-year-old, he is remarkably modern in his thinking.

Not a cosmopolitan

For the past few years, he has thought about leaving behind thinking about politics solely regarding the country and its national interests alone, and turned it into thinking about planning for the future on a continental and global scale.

He is certainly not a cosmopolitan, but he explains most of our present-day political problems with our 19th-century style thinking about nations and countries, at a time when all of the powers truly controlling the modern world (business interests, the Internet, and arms manufacturers, among others) had a character beneath that of the nation.

Competent and honest people gave way to various losers who surrounded our democracy from all sides.

This mentality has led to the idea that this 19th-century way of thinking should influence our present-day politics. These are more than simple generalizations: Wałęsa is happy to lend his political knowledge and advise leaders regarding specifics. And he is capable of having good ideas.

Bringing back democracy

The former president expressed his disappointment that competent and honest people gave way to various losers who surrounded our democracy from all sides, destroying it through their actions. For that reason, he provided a three-step framework for bringing back democracy:

The first step: the term of office of all functions (in the executive and legislative authorities), should be five years long, followed by a mandatory break, after which you can return to politics. The second piece of advice: the recall of any function that was related to a democratic election. And the third: total financial transparency at all positions.

I could go on summarizing Wałęsa’s brilliant speech. He was in good shape, full of plans, wit and self-confidence. I listened to him with pleasure and watched him with admiration. In his speech, Wałęsa did not allow himself to be destroyed, even though he was persistently thrown under the rug and scapegoated for many years and in various ways.

A Polish icon

As Poles, we belong to a group of nations that worship their heroes. Sometimes they appear “naturally,” because they deserve it, and sometimes they ride on a wave of propaganda.

We had Wałęsa and his Solidarity movement: a source of national pride and an ideological export. Any other country would cultivate Wałęsa, marginalizing his failures, mistakes and weaknesses — just like the Czechs did to Václav Havel.

Yet we marginalized his greatness, exposing his weaknesses. And PiS bent over backwards to produce another hero, on whose streets, squares and avenues we can now walk, bumping into its (usually terribly ugly) monuments. Former Polish President Lech Kaczyński will not remain a national hero. Many such figureheads have already been overthrown, and not only because the political system has changed.

And Wałęsa needs to be loved again. If not him, then his and our great legend.