Editorial
The death of a president
Lech Kaczynski's belief in democracy was all
THE death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and scores of senior Polish government officials in a plane crash on Saturday is a tragedy that has stunned not only the people of Poland but also people across the world. That the crash occurred even as the president and his team were on their way to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of 20,000 Polish soldiers in the Katyn forest by Soviet forces makes the tragedy doubly heart-rending. More important is the fact that the plane crash has left almost the entire Polish government bereft of its key figures. It is one of those tragic instances which, in hindsight, leave a good number of thoughts for people to mull over. Fundamental among these thoughts is whether it is wise for a large team of government figures, in any country, to travel together. The probability of disaster overtaking the entire team becomes very real. In the Polish case, a combination of weather conditions and an inability on the part of the authorities to consider the chances of a disaster has now led to unmitigated tragedy.
Lech Kaczynski's career reads like, indeed is, the story of a man who consistently believed in the freedom of the individual. With his twin brother Jaroslaw, he demonstrated early on his opposition to communism in Poland during the days of the Cold War. As part of the Solidarity movement in the early 1980s, he was close to Lech Walesa and went to prison for his beliefs when the communist Jaruzelski regime imposed martial law in the country. With the crumbling of totalitarianism, Kaczynski went on to serve Poland's democratic government but often ran into trouble because of his consistency of belief in the rights of the individual. His mentor Walesa dismissed him from the government, but Kaczynski always found a way of coming back, thanks to the rapport he had established over the years with the masses. As a popular mayor of Warsaw, he saw his possibilities for presidential office brighten over a period of time. Of course, at a point he and his brother, who for sometime was prime minister, ran into criticism but that did little to dent the president's popularity.
We mourn the death of President Kaczynski, his wife and the members of his delegation. Our sympathies go out to the people of Poland. We believe that with its democratic system in place, Poland will emerge from the tragedy stronger and more confident about its place in the world, a goal towards which its late president worked ceaselessly.
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