Jocelyn Benson

Twenty-two years ago this month, the parliament of Czechoslovakia elected Vaclav Havel president. His death on Sunday marks the loss of one of the world’s most strident and poetic voices for democracy.

Havel demonstrated true political courage throughout his service as president – first of Czechoslovakia and then of the Czech Republic after the nation split.  And as the leader of the country’s Velvet Revolution in 1989 – his greatest legacy – he fought to give “Power to the Powerless,” toppling the communist regime that had ruled his people behind the Iron Curtain for more than 40 years.

Havel was a true public servant. Having no ambition for a career in politics, he sought to empower his fellow citizens through words that communicated the moral imperative of freedom. A self-taught playwright, Havel was denied the education he should have enjoyed. But he worked at his craft, usually having to simultaneously work a variety of odd jobs to make a living. Eventually, his work gained him notoriety and gave him a platform to advocate for basic human rights and freedoms.

He was a fighter dedicated to shining a light on injustice.  His plays were banned for decades. After he published Charter 77, a manifesto calling on Czechoslovakia’s communist regime to adhere to international standards of human rights, he was jailed three times.

Yet Havel persevered, fighting not just for his voice, but the voice of all of his countrymen.  In the fall of 1989, when the Soviet-backed regimes of Eastern Europe began to lose their grip on power, Havel led a peaceful and powerful movement in the streets of Prague. The same city had seen a brief glimpse of freedom some 21 years earlier during the Prague Spring of 1968, when then-leader Alexander Dubcek had tried to bring liberalization to the nation. Those efforts had been crushed by invading Soviet tanks. Havel’s freedom to publish his plays – and speak his voice freely – was among the casualties.

Surely, as Havel led the Velvet Revolution of 1989, he must have recalled the brutal events of 1968, and realized there was no guarantee it wouldn’t happen again. But for a man who sought no fame for himself, Havel had tremendous determination not to stand down in the face of oppression, believing that the suffocation of the human spirit under the communist regime would not and could not stand.

Havel demonstrated that his belief that a politician does not – and should not – lose intellectual independence upon taking office.  Indeed, he earned the respect of those with whom he served, and led, by maintaining his commitment to freedom and democracy, even when it limited his own power.

As president, he oversaw a nation making the transition from decades of oppression to free elections and free markets. He was attacked by political rivals. Sometimes he struck back. But Havel understood that this, too, came with the territory of freedom and democracy. He knew that the country’s prosperity ultimately depended on the preservation of that freedom.

Vaclav Havel was a hero to me and others who work to protect a democratic process that values, respects and protects the voice of the people.   He fought against any effort to limit the ability of another person to participate in their government, in their society, and in their economy.  Because he knew that a government that silences the voice of people, and takes away or limits the rights of self-governance, is ultimately harming its own moral and economic strength.

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