Beyond the Czech-Slovak Breakup
SHANOR, DONALD R.
THE PRICE OF INDEPENDENCE Beyond the Czech-slovak Breakup BY DONALD R. SHANOR Prague A few hours after Vaclav Havel resigned from the national Presidency last July, Czech Prime Minister Vaclav...
...Now that a split between the republics seems imminent, regret over the demise of the union in this capital is turning into anticipation of the fruits of independence...
...What is really behind minority grumbling, he added, is Budapest: "There are politicians there who say 'today territorial autonomy, in two to three years we will demand...
...annexation.'" Meciar has pledged to follow the human and civil rights standards set by his predecessors, the Public Against Violence and Christian Democratic parties, who joined with Havel's Civic Forum to overthrow the Communists...
...With long lines of newly democratic nations waiting for the economic advantages Community participation affords, Slovakia is taking a considerable risk...
...He points out that the republic's record in this regard will be closely scrutinized as a condition for an independent Slovakia's entry into European organizations, and he blames Prague for trying to smear the whole of Slovakia with accusations of fascism and anti-Semitism...
...Slovakia, the initiator of the split, will be the one to suffer...
...Separatist leader Stanislav Panis is an irrefutable example...
...street brawling had replaced restrained debate...
...Moreover, Meciar's vote-getting platform, promising continued subsidies to these industrial dinosaurs to prevent further joblessness, is likely to make it difficult for Slovakia to get support from the International Monetary Fund...
...The eastern republic is disadvantaged in every respect, from its smaller size, inferior industry and infrastructure, lower education levels, ethnic tensions, and high unemployment , to its critical lack of any links to the outside world...
...To the dismay of some of his extremist followers, he has promised that Hungarian-speaking children will receive instruction in their own language as well as Slovak...
...Havel's decision shortly afterward to step down before his term expired in early October was the final signal that the Czechoslovak federation, a marriage of convenience arranged in 1918, is almost certain not to last until its 75th anniversary...
...Slovaks shrug off unfavorable reports about their leaders as one more illustration of Czech attempts to dominate them...
...I, as a realist, have no right to be disappointed by this fact, and must respect it...
...The sole slim hope of averting a breakup, tentatively scheduled for January 1, appears to be a referendum...
...Some of his remarks after leaving office demonstrate how he could put that power to effect in calming Czech-Slovak tensions...
...Where Slovakia has conducted its own foreign relations, however, the results have not been notably successful...
...I think that a common state would be better than two states...
...He made the mistake of letting Norwegian television record the message he has been conveying to his followers for some time: that the Holocaust never happened...
...Meciar has been quarreling with Budapest over Slovakia's 600,000 ethnic Hungarians...
...Still, a sampling of the rhetoric at recent separatist rallies in Bratislava shows an ugly change from the good-natured arguments and slogans of the previous year...
...Independence, they believe, would free them from encumbrances like Slovak quotas in the ministries and handouts to Slovakia's backward economy...
...Two weeks later the Slovak Parliament declared the republic's sovereignty...
...A reluctant Klaus concedes such a vote is still a possibility among the 10.4 million Czechs, while Havel, once a strong referendum advocate, now wearily dismisses it as too late...
...The Czechs are likely to do well in the new Europe, though not so well as they did in the great Moravian Empire of the 9th century...
...Although they are hardly political allies, Klaus was quick to back a Havel candidacy, and, with no Slovak bloc to oppose him, the onetime playwright and dissident could win by 60 per cent or more in a new Parliament...
...Donald R. Shanor, a frequent contributor to The New Leader, is Director of the International Division of Columbia University's Journalism School...
...Meciar is willing to let his 5.3 million citizens vote on the issue...
...In the transition period, at least, the Czech lands will endure some hardship, but it will be minor compared to the throes in Slovakia...
...I still do, but I see the existing political trends," Havel told his radio audience in his 99th and final Sunday Conversations program...
...But the greatest potential asset an independent Czech republic would have is Vaclav Havel as its President...
...I, as a democrat, must also respect the will of the voters...
...Vladimir Mlynar, an investigative journalist for the Prague weekly Respekt, says there is a strong current of anti-Semitism in the Slovak independence movement...
...The new Czech state would be slightly larger than Belgium or Greece, and a significant commercial competitor...
...Should the divorce ultimately take place, the republics can expect the resulting political and economic turmoil to erase many of the gains made since the Velvet Revolution, nearly three years ago...
...Havel has written and spoken often about the power of words...
...But he rejects all demands for greater autonomy...
...At one demonstration, held in a broad downtown square in front of a monument to the 1944 Slovak national uprising, anti-Semitic language was as common as anti-Czech slurs...
...Of course, 80 per cent of the investment is going to the Czech lands, thanks to their relatively developed automobile, textile and electronics industries...
...THE PRICE OF INDEPENDENCE Beyond the Czech-slovak Breakup BY DONALD R. SHANOR Prague A few hours after Vaclav Havel resigned from the national Presidency last July, Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus, on acourtesy call, presented him with copies of ancient documents showing the important role Czechs played in European history without the Slovaks...
...In his resignation speech, he spoke of future service to the nation "wherever, in my opinion, it will be meaningful, and where I will be given the opportunity to do so...
...The emancipation efforts of Slovak society are obviously stronger than we federalists thought," he concluded...
...The Foreign Ministry, the ambassadors, the export officials are all Czech," a Bratislava lawyer complains, "and that means Czech interests first...
...If the aim is self-administration, it already exists," the former Communist who built his new political career on winning autonomy from the Czechs told Parliament...
...He is a great admirer of Margaret Thatcher (a picture of her hangs in his office), yet he has managed to avoid much of the trouble she brought about when selling off state industries...
...If and when the separation comes, his insistence on deferring to the people and maintaining a policy of tolerance and nonviolence in interrepublic relations would stand in marked contrast to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's support for the deadly campaign of "ethnic cleansing...
...On July 3, two attempts in the national Parliament to re-elect him were defeated by Slovak nationalists, led by their newly chosen Prime Minister, Vladimir Meciar...
...Nonetheless, a European Community source, speaking on background, says he is not convinced that both successor states will be automatically accorded the associate membership Czechoslovakia was promised...
...Perhaps understandably, the reaction to that prospect here is more and more "serves 'em right,'' whether the commentator is an official or an ordinary citizen...
...Havel's resignation followed a banner month for separatists...
...Last March, for instance, Prague papers headlined charges that Meciar had been a secret police informer...
...In fact, his coupon privatization plan has put Czechoslovakia at the head of the former Eastern bloc countries in converting the economy and attracting foreign capital...
...I have assurances from 12 or 13 countries of Western Europe that if the division of Czechoslovakia is conducted in a democratic and peaceful way, Slovakia will be acknowledged equally with the Czech republic," Meciar said in a speech to his Parliament after its declaration of sovereignty...
...A Slovak student said nobody he talked to believed the accusations, and the Bratislava media barely mentioned the story...
...Unemployment is consequently only 4 per cent, compared to 12 per cent in Slovakia, where huge weapons plants and outmoded state petrochemical concerns attract little money from abroad...
...Slovaks blame the governments in Prague??prewar, Communist, Havel and Klaus??for their country-cousin status in Europe...
...In Prague, meanwhile, people are beginning to share their Prime Minister's enthusiasm for a Czech nation...
...Its industrial performance, among Europe's best before World War II occupation and Communism, has led the region since the democratic forces took over...
...Part of the present well-being can be credited to Klaus, who was federal Finance Minister prior to taking the Czech republic's top office...
Vol. 75 • September 1992 • No. 11
