My dear fellow citizens,
For forty years you heard from my predecessors on this day different
variations on the same theme: how our country was flourishing,
how many million tons of steel we produced, how happy we all were,
how we trusted our government, and what bright perspectives were
unfolding in front of us.
I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too,
would lie to you.
Our country is not flourishing. The enormous creative and spiritual
potential of our nations is not being used sensibly. Entire branches
of industry are producing goods that are of no interest to anyone,
while we are lacking the things we need. A state which calls itself
a workers' state humiliates and exploits workers. Our obsolete
economy is wasting the little energy we have available. A country
that once could be proud of the educational level of its citizens
spends so little on education that it ranks today as seventy-second
in the world. We have polluted the soil, rivers and forests bequeathed
to us by our ancestors, and we have today the most contaminated
environment in Europe. Adults in our country die earlier than
in most other European countries.
Allow me a small personal observation. When I flew recently to
Bratislava, I found some time during discussions to look out of
the plane window. I saw the industrial complex of Slovnaft chemical
factory and the giant Petr_alka housing estate right behind it.
The view was enough for me to understand that for decades our
statesmen and political leaders did not look or did not want to
look out of the windows of their planes. No study of statistics
available to me would enable me to understand faster and better
the situation in which we find ourselves.
But all this is still not the main problem. The worst thing is
that we live in a contaminated moral environment. We fell morally
ill because we became used to saying something different from
what we thought. We learned not to believe in anything, to ignore
one another, to care only about ourselves. Concepts such as love,
friendship, compassion, humility or forgiveness lost their depth
and dimension, and for many of us they represented only psychological
peculiarities, or they resembled goneastray greetings from ancient
times, a little ridiculous in the era of computers and spaceships.
Only a few of us were able to cry out loudly that the powers that
be should not be allpowerful and that the special farms, which
produced ecologically pure and topquality food just for them,
should send their produce to schools, children's homes and hospitals
if our agriculture was unable to offer them to all.
The previous regime armed with its arrogant and intolerant ideology
reduced man to a force of production, and nature to a tool of
production. In this it attacked both their very substance and
their mutual relationship. It reduced gifted and autonomous people,
skillfully working in their own country, to the nuts and bolts
of some monstrously huge, noisy and stinking machine, whose real
meaning was not clear to anyone. It could not do more than slowly
but inexorably wear out itself and all its nuts and bolts.
When I talk about the contaminated moral atmosphere, I am not
talking just about the gentlemen who eat organic vegetables and
do not look out of the plane windows. I am talking about all of
us. We had all become used to the totalitarian system and accepted
it as an unchangeable fact and thus helped to perpetuate it. In
other words, we are all though naturally to differing extents
responsible for the operation of the totalitarian machinery. None
of us is just its victim. We are all also its cocreators.
Why do I say this? It would be very unreasonable to understand
the sad legacy of the last forty years as something alien, which
some distant relative bequeathed to us. On the contrary, we have
to accept this legacy as a sin we committed against ourselves.
If we accept it as such, we will understand that it is up to us
all, and up to us alone to do something about it. We cannot blame
the previous rulers for everything, not only because it would
be untrue, but also because it would blunt the duty that each
of us faces today: namely, the obligation to act independently,
freely, reasonably and quickly. Let us not be mistaken: the best
government in the world, the best parliament and the best president,
cannot achieve much on their own. And it would be wrong to expect
a general remedy from them alone. Freedom and democracy include
participation and therefore responsibility from us all.
If we realize this, then all the horrors that the new Czechoslovak
democracy inherited will cease to appear so terrible. If we realize
this, hope will return to our hearts.
In the effort to rectify matters of common concern, we have something
to lean on. The recent period and in particular the last six weeks
of our peaceful revolution has shown the enormous human, moral
and spiritual potential, and the civic culture that slumbered
in our society under the enforced mask of apathy. Whenever someone
categorically claimed that we were this or that, I always objected
that society is a very mysterious creature and that it is unwise
to trust only the face it presents to you. I am happy that I was
not mistaken. Everywhere in the world people wonder where those
meek, humiliated, skeptical and seemingly cynical citizens of
Czechoslovakia found the marvelous strength to shake the totalitarian
yoke from their shoulders in several weeks, and in a decent and
peaceful way. And let us ask: Where did the young people who never
knew another system get their desire for truth, their love of
free thought, their political ideas, their civic courage and civic
prudence? How did it happen that their parents the very generation
that had been considered lost joined them? How is it that so many
people immediately knew what to do and none needed any advice
or instruction?
I think there are two main reasons for the hopeful face of our
present situation. First of all, people are never just a product
of the external world; they are also able to relate themselves
to something superior, however systematically the external world
tries to kill that ability in them. Secondly, the humanistic and
democratic traditions, about which there had been so much idle
talk, did after all slumber in the unconsciousness of our nations
and ethnic minorities, and were inconspicuously passed from one
generation to another, so that each of us could discover them
at the right time and transform them into deeds.
We had to pay, however, for our present freedom. Many citizens
perished in jails in the 1950s, many were executed, thousands
of human lives were destroyed, hundreds of thousands of talented
people were forced to leave the country. Those who defended the
honor of our nations during the Second World War, those who rebelled
against totalitarian rule and those who simply managed to remain
themselves and think freely, were all persecuted. We should not
forget any of those who paid for our present freedom in one way
or another. Independent courts should impartially consider the
possible guilt of those who were responsible for the persecutions,
so that the truth about our recent past might be fully revealed.
We must also bear in mind that other nations have paid even more
dearly for their present freedom, and that indirectly they have
also paid for ours. The rivers of blood that have flowed in Hungary,
Poland, Germany and recently in such a horrific manner in Romania,
as well as the sea of blood shed by the nations of the Soviet
Union, must not be forgotten. First of all because all human suffering
concerns every other human being. But more than this, they must
also not be forgotten because it is these great sacrifices that
form the tragic background of today's freedom or the gradual emancipation
of the nations of the Soviet Bloc, and thus the background of
our own newfound freedom. Without the changes in the Soviet Union,
Poland, Hungary, and the German Democratic Republic, what has
happened in our country would have scarcely happened. And if it
did, it certainly would not have followed such a peaceful course.
The fact that we enjoyed optimal international conditions does
not mean that anyone else has directly helped us during the recent
weeks. In fact, after hundreds of years, both our nations have
raised their heads high of their own initiative without relying
on the help of stronger nations or powers. It seems to me that
this constitutes the great moral asset of the present moment.
This moment holds within itself the hope that in the future we
will no longer suffer from the complex of those who must always
express their gratitude to somebody. It now depends only on us
whether this hope will be realized and whether our civic, national,
and political selfconfidence will be awakened in a historically
new way.
Selfconfidence is not pride. Just the contrary: only a person
or a nation that is selfconfident, in the best sense of the word,
is capable of listening to others, accepting them as equals, forgiving
its enemies and regretting its own guilt. Let us try to introduce
this kind of selfconfidence into the life of our community and,
as nations, into our behavior on the international stage. Only
thus can we restore our selfrespect and our respect for one another
as well as the respect of other nations.
Our state should never again be an appendage or a poor relative
of anyone else. It is true that we must accept and learn many
things from others, but we must do this in the future as their
equal partners, who also have something to offer.
Our first president wrote: "Jesus, not Caesar." In this
he followed our philosophers Chel_icky and Komensky. I dare to
say that we may even have an opportunity to spread this idea further
and introduce a new element into European and global politics.
Our country, if that is what we want, can now permanently radiate
love, understanding, the power of the spirit and of ideas. It
is precisely this glow that we can offer as our specific contribution
to international politics.
Masaryk based his politics on morality. Let us try, in a new time
and in a new way, to restore this concept of politics. Let us
teach ourselves and others that politics should be an expression
of a desire to contribute to the happiness of the community rather
than of a need to cheat or rape the community. Let us teach ourselves
and others that politics can be not simply the art of the possible,
especially if this means the art of speculation, calculation,
intrigue, secret deals and pragmatic maneuvering, but that it
can also be the art of the impossible, that is, the art of improving
ourselves and the world.
We are a small country, yet at one time we were the spiritual
crossroads of Europe. Is there a reason why we could not again
become one? Would it not be another asset with which to repay
the help of others that we are going to need?
Our homegrown Mafia, those who do not look out of the plane windows
and who eat specially fed pigs, may still be around and at times
may muddy the waters, but they are no longer our main enemy. Even
less so is our main enemy any kind of international Mafia. Our
main enemy today is our own bad traits: indifference to the common
good, vanity, personal ambition, selfishness, and rivalry. The
main struggle will have to be fought on this field.
There are free elections and an election campaign ahead of us.
Let us not allow this struggle to dirty the sofar clean face of
our gentle revolution. Let us not allow the sympathies of the
world, which we have won so fast, to be equally rapidly lost through
our becoming entangled in the jungle of skirmishes for power.
Let us not allow the desire to serve oneself to bloom once again
under the stately garb of the desire to serve the common good.
It is not really important now which party, club or group prevails
in the elections. The important thing is that the winners will
be the best of us, in the moral, civic, political and professional
sense, regardless of their political affiliations. The future
policies and prestige of our state will depend on the personalities
we select, and later, elect to our representative bodies.
My dear fellow citizens!
Three days ago I became the president of the republic as a consequence
of your will, expressed through the deputies of the Federal Assembly.
You have a right to expect me to mention the tasks I see before
me as president.
The first of these is to use all my power and influence to ensure
that we soon step up to the ballot boxes in a free election, and
that our path toward this historic milestone will be dignified
and peaceful.
My second task is to guarantee that we approach these elections
as two self-governing nations who respect each other's interests,
national identity, religious traditions, and symbols. As a Czech
who has given his presidential oath to an important Slovak who
is personally close to him, I feel a special obligation -- after
the bitter experiences that Slovaks had in the past -- to see
that all the interests of the Slovak nation are respected and
that no state office, including the highest one, will ever be
barred to it in the future.
My third task is to support everything that will lead to better
circumstances for our children, the elderly, women, the sick,
the hardworking laborers, the national minorities and all citizens
who are for any reason worse off than others. High-quality food
or hospitals must no longer be a prerogative of the powerful;
they must be available to those who need them the most.
As supreme commander of the armed forces I want to guarantee that
the defensive capability of our country will no longer be used
as a pretext for anyone to stand in the way of courageous peace
initiatives, the reduction of military service, the establishment
of alternative military service and the overall humanization of
military life.
In our country there are many prisoners who, though they may have
committed serious crimes and have been punished for them, have
had to submit -- despite the goodwill of some investigators, judges
and above all defense lawyers -- to a debased judiciary process
that curtailed their rights. They now have to live in prisons
that do not strive to awaken the better qualities contained in
every person, but rather humiliate them and destroy them physically
and mentally. In a view of this fact, I have decided to declare
a relatively extensive amnesty. At the same time I call on the
prisoners to understand that forty years of unjust investigations,
trials and imprisonments cannot be put right overnight, and to
understand that the changes that are being speedily prepared still
require time to implement. By rebelling, the prisoners would help
neither society nor themselves. I also call on the public not
to fear the prisoners once they are released, not to make their
lives difficult, to help them, in the Christian spirit, after
their return among us to find within themselves that which jails
could not find in them: the capacity to repent and the desire
to live a respectable life.
My honorable task is to strengthen the authority of our country
in the world. I would be glad if other states respected us for
showing understanding, tolerance and love for peace. I would be
happy if Pope John Paul II and the Dalai Lama of Tibet could visit
our country before the elections, if only for a day. I would be
happy if our friendly relations with all nations were strengthened.
I would be happy if we succeeded before the elections in establishing
diplomatic relations with the Vatican and Israel. I would also
like to contribute to peace by briefly visiting our close neighbors,
the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany.
Neither shall I forget our other neighbors -- fraternal Poland
and the ever-closer countries of Hungary and Austria.
In conclusion, I would like to say that I want to be a president
who will speak less and work more. To be a president who will
not only look out of the windows of his airplane but who, first
and foremost, will always be present among his fellow citizens
and listen to them well.
You may ask what kind of republic I dream of. Let me reply: I
dream of a republic independent, free, and democratic, of a republic
economically prosperous and yet socially just; in short, of a
humane republic that serves the individual and that therefore
holds the hope that the individual will serve it in turn. Of a
republic of wellrounded people, because without such people it
is impossible to solve any of our problems -- human, economic,
ecological, social, or political.
The most distinguished of my predecessors opened his first speech
with a quotation from the great Czech educator Komensky. Allow
me to conclude my first speech with my own paraphrase of the same
statement:
People, your government has returned to you!
* Edited by Paul Wilson