With my third post I would like to conclude the meaning and perception of events that took place during last days. Apart from mourning for the plane crash victims I suggest changing a little bit point of view - from emotional to political and national. Only tyrannies or regimes fall apart when their superiors pass away, in the countries with stable democracy positions are taken over by their deputies and when it is needed - special elections are announced.
By looking at the death toll list we can see that PiS has lost a lot of it's clue politians only to mention: Lech Kaczyński, Krzysztof Putra, Grażyna Gęsicka, Przemysław Gosiewski, Zbigniew Wassermann, Aleksandra Natalli-Świat. Other politcal parties also lost prominent politicians like Grzegorz Dolniak, Sebastian Karpiniuk from PO or Jerzy Szmajdziński, Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka from SLD. Surely it has moved all the polish politicians and should somehow change paradigm of polish policy discourse. The question is how and how long will the effects last?
Many medias and commentators mentioned that such a dramatic event could eventually unite Polish nation. Obviously many of these gestures are manifestation of human compassion and after emotions will fade away, oppositive parties can again start to offend each other. I hope this will not happen and everybody will get a lesson from this fatal accident. It's main message should be not dividing but uniting with an ultimate goal in mind - welfare of the country.
Another aspect are our relations with Russia. Russian officials made much more than diplomatic protocol assumes. They also mourned for victims. This is a right moment in history to finally bury the all the hatchets.
How do you think will look the next 60-70 days until presidential elections? Note the very difficult situation of Bronislaw Komorowski, who is a candidate for president and now he is acting a president due to constitution. SLD and PiS candidates are dead - will Jaroslaw Kaczynski try to accomplish his brothers goal?
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I would like to focus your attention on another side of this tragedy.
ReplyDeletePoland is probably the only country in the modern Europe and the modern World that does not have any special regulations regarding many VIPs boarding a single plane. You have mentioned the politicians that were killed but the crash has also claimed the whole general command of the Polish Army: Commander of the Joint Forces, Commander of the Naval Forces, Commander of the Air Forces, Commander of the Ground Forces and the Commander of the Special Forces. This means that the whole nation was left without it's chief military staff in an instant. Let's not forget that apart rom the military personnel, the head of Narodowy Bank Polski and the head of Naczelna Rada Adwokacka were aboard that plane.
We, the country, have to immediately come up with some new regulations that are similar to those used around the world, where so many important people are prohibited from entering a single plane. For the safety of us all.
I'm afraid it's rather temporary cease-fire then peace treaty and sooner or later everything will go back to normal.
ReplyDeleteHowever for me it's almost sure that
Bronislaw Komorowski will be the next president and Civic Platform which has only lost two minor members of parliament and will take all power in incoming years since Law and Justice is effectively decapitated and SLD have also lost many top figures.
However I hope that this disaster might start a new stage in relations between Poland and Russia as the behavior of Russian authorities is just great and our government is willing to cooperate which makes me very optimistic.
And yes we have to make some regulations to prevent disasters such as this.
Well - maybe security regulations are necessary but one should bear in mind that other procedures (e.g. succession) worked in this case and country is still functioning.
ReplyDeleteRapid finding of the culprits by all means necessary isn't the wisest choice. It's not about finding a fall guy, isn't it?
Well it's not about someone's personal fault but rather procedural problems like allowing top 6 military commanders to travel in one plane...
ReplyDeletePlanes with country leaders did crashed in history and such things can happen but never with leader and so many important people and highest military command which can be easily prevented.
That's the problem which should be solved asap.
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ReplyDeleteShould be and surely will be solved. However, the media are pretty dishonest about one fact now. Didn't the media moan and argue about the situation in which the president and the prime minister travelled in two separate planes almost half a year ago?
ReplyDeleteNot to sound proofless:
"Premier i prezydent na szczyt Rady Unii Europejskiej udadzą się razem, ale... osobno. Polecą dwoma lotami. Co stanie się na miejscu? Czy spór przeniesie się na szczyt?"
from gazeta.pl
I also hope that this disaster start a new era in our relations with Russia.
ReplyDeleteI think / hope that next 60 days will be very calm.
I agree with Krzysztof about the situation in polish politic area and our relation with Russia.
ReplyDeleteEvents of the fateful Saturday must take effects, we can’t be and will not be the same.
What can I say. Situation is sad, but it is probably not our role to judge it. We have zero knowledge about VIP planes and so on. All we know is from media, which is not a very trustworthy source, especially when it comes to politics. If politicians fly together it is bad, because it is dangerous, if the fly separately it is bad, as they use "our" money. I don't really think this tragedy will change anything.
ReplyDeleteI think the J.M. is wrong. Russia tries to change from communist, totalitarian country, to kind of free economy country.
ReplyDeleteThe eleventh of April – this is the date which all Polish people will remember. The tragedy of presidential plane, which took place in Smoleńsk was shocking for people all around the world, but especially for Polish people. We can say that is was another tragedy that happened in the same place but 70 years ago. The tragedy moved people even those whose hearts seemed to be as cold as ice. What is more, Russian people finally took responsibility for Katyń massacre.
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact that we did not know in person either the presidential couple or people on the board we all felt sorrow and sadness. Even now when I think about it I feel like it happened just a minute ago. People still try to answer the question WHY?. We do not know why but at the same time I need to tell you that I was wondering whether Russian people did it or some kind of plot. One day I thought that the pilots made some sort of mistake but now I know that there is no point in such suggestions because they might hurt somebody's feelings. Even if they made a mistake they did not do it on purpose it is obvious. Another point is, the old machine, we all know that the presidential plane was a very old one. We can look for some other reasons why did it happen but I think that we should pray for all these people and their families.