Comments from Mikhail

This essay was contributed by Mikhail, who describes himself as an American in Poland.

From an American's point of view, the current political situation in Poland is fascinating; it seems to teeter at the edge of chaos in fact. The twin rulers (in itself hard to believe), the Brothers Kaczynski, come with an incredible past. They are the children of resistance fighters, born in 1948. Before they were teen-agers, they starred in a crazy film where they wanted to steal the moon. But their careers were not to be in the movies but rather in politics, totally devoted to Poland, past and present. They were Solidarity activists who later broke with Lech Walesa. This not unusual, for now Walesa is one of the most unpopular political figures in the country. One brother, Lech was once a law professor, and once a Minister of Justice.

The Boys formed their own political party with the unfortunate acronym of PiS. It believes in traditional Polish values; its principles are tied to Catholic precepts. Not in itself a bad thing if it is catholic with a small c, for everyone, religious or not. Also, given Poland's long history, they've an engrained distrust of Russia. Given the Putin semi-dictatorship there, this seem quite sensible to me. They're also wary of the EU, but personally seeing what it hasn't done for the common folk of Holland and France, I agree with them there also. In particular, the euro is a disaster for most of the people of the Eurozone.

At times PiS can be very old fashioned, but basically this is a party with no other ideas than improving life in Poland for ALL the people. The Kaczynski Boys are not tied at all to any special interests, especially business interests. This seems incredible in a world where almost every leader is beholding to Big Money, for example our former First Couple, Bill and Hillary Clinton. The Boys could use a little training in modernity, but considering how new they are, and especially how new they are at governance, they should be given a chance I believe, I hope.

In my conversations with Poles I get the feeling that many prefer the other new party, called in short, Platforma. This is the businessman's party. It has all the slick, very attractive Madison Ave. approach to politics that we know so well in America. Its leaders are cool, like our former sax-playing President. And, also like Clinton, the press loves them. In contrast, the founder-leader of PiS actually lives at home with his mother, and has no car. I love that, no wonder he can't be bought. The leader of Platforma is the telegenic Donald Tusk, who can address a crowd like the best of demagogues; I've seen his political TV ad too many times. An oilier politician would be hard to find but fortunately for him, he's much taller than the Brother Kaczynski, which seems all important to a lot of people. Not being tall myself, I admire short people who get ahead in life and am not sorry at all to see little people in power. But for too many, this is a big negative for the Kaczynski Boys. Ah modern politics, in my country it's the same. Bush is the first newly elected President in decades who was shorter than his opponent. I've always thought, thank God Kennedy was taller than Nixon.

For the whole life of the PiS government Tusk has been urging them to resign. He even made this demand when 2 policemen went missing, as if the government was responsible for a car that ended up in a swamp. Platforma's other suggestion is that PiS form a coalition government with them. But their price is to be given the Ministry of Justice. The reason for that is obvious : one of the Kaczynski Boys' big objectives is to investigate who got what when communism fell, how state property and contracts were sold or bided out. On a deeper level they would like to investigate the crimes of the communists and their agents that were never really looked into at all by the Walesa and then the following "new" leftist government of Alexander Kwasniewski. These are great and dangerous areas that should be treated with great care, but treated nonetheless.

Poland after communism left a lot of unanswered questions and while it's possible, they should be addressed. Most of the press is also not researching these issues. Like in Russia, oligarchs, Polish oligarchs, got into some of the honey pot here and got very rich. And more important even is that many people were hurt here, killed here, fighting for freedom, recently, as the 25th Anniversary re-wind of Martial Law showed on the TV; and No one's paid for that. And no Truth and Reconciliation discussions like in South Africa. Nothing. There are shades of many Pinochets here.

As in previous periods of Polish independence, representative government here seems very problematic, very messy. Poles have very strong and differing ideas of governance. But I believe, I hope, that the current government if it proceeds carefully, has a chance to right the wrongs of the past 15 years. In fact, it probably is the last chance to correct historic wrongs that span the whole post-war period. As difficult, as painful as that would be, like investigating the archbishop of Warsaw recently, it should be done for the good of all the Polish people, for their future. As a life-long history student, it would be amazing to see a new country start out with a truly clean slate. I think the Kaczynski government could be the best thing for Poland, and an amazing example of how an Eastern Europe ex-Communist state could start all over again. And to do it with Christian values and compassion for the former enemies of the people would be a tribute to the last Polish pope, whose ideals are sorely needed here now.