core sector communique

Vaclav Havel Exposed Emptiness of Repressive Ideology

By Stephen Kaufman

Staff Writer

Washington - As an artist, Vaclav Havel spoke the truth to his country about one-party rule and the denial of basic human rights in the former Czechoslovakia during its four decades of Communist rule. As a dissident, he was jailed, blacklisted and harassed until the 1989 Velvet Revolution that overthrew Communism made him president of Czechoslovakia and then the Czech Republic.

Havel, who died December 18 at age 75 in the Czech Republic, "lived with a spirit of hope," President Obama said in a December 18 statement , adding that the Czech writer-turned-political-leader had defined that spirit as "the ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed."

"His peaceful resistance shook the foundations of an empire, exposed the emptiness of a repressive ideology, and proved that moral leadership is more powerful than any weapon," the president said.

During his lifetime, Havel wrote 19 plays, and was an organizer of the Charter 77 group, which in 1977 called for Czechoslovakia's Communist regime to implement the human rights provisions it had signed onto in the 1975 Helsinki accords . Charter 77 would later inspire more than 300 Chinese citizens to sign the Charter '08  declaration in 2008 that calls on their government to show greater respect for human rights and political freedom.

HAVEL URGED OPPRESSED TO RECONNECT WITH THEIR IDENTITY AND DIGNITY

In his most famous political essay, "The Power of the Powerless," published in 1978 and circulated underground, Havel contrasted the "aims of life," which include independence, free expression, diversity and "the fulfillment of its own freedom," with the aims of what he called "the post-totalitarian system" and its need for conformity, uniformity and discipline.

The system considers anything that causes people to "overstep their predetermined roles" as an attack, because free expression and dissent are in their essence "a genuine denial of the system," he wrote.

The rulers are held captive by the lies they must tell in a futile effort to bridge the gap between the requirements of the system they are upholding and those of real life. They have been forced to create "a world of appearances trying to pass for reality," and must coerce their people to "live within a lie," he said.

Havel advised his countrymen and others living under oppressive regimes to rebel by "living in truth," by rediscovering their suppressed identity and dignity, and by having the courage to attach a "concrete significance" to the cause of their own freedom.

Through their actions, they will expose the regime's world of lies and appearances and show everyone that "the emperor is in fact naked," he said.

In a December 18 statement , Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Havel's writings were "so powerful they changed the course of history and created new democratic opportunity for millions."

Havel "spent his life removing chains of oppression, standing up for the downtrodden, and advancing the tenants of democracy and freedom," but modestly said he hoped history would simply remember him "as having done something useful."

"He did something more than useful," Clinton said, "he did something extraordinary, and history will remember it."

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)