Jen z ODS?!?
Perhaps Klaus and Kalousek could tell us under whose control exactly Robert Šlachta and Ivo Ištvan are meant to have fallen?
Politicians make good use of our cynicism. In recent days, Václav Klaus and Miroslav Kalousek, to name just two of the more prominent among them, have implied that the state prosecutor and police are either out of control or under the control of the wrong people. The doubt can be expressed simply as 'jen z ODS?!'
However, no politician has yet been bold enough to state under whose influence exactly the boss of ÚOOZ and the Olomouc prosecutor are meant to have fallen. And indeed for the purposes of a vulnerable politician, there is no need to do so. It is sufficient to insinuate and let our cynicism do the rest.
Klaus wants ‘politics returned to politicians’; Kalousek wants to know if we would really prefer to be ruled by prosecutors. Both want us to doubt the professional competence and, much more insiduous, the good faith of Robert Šlachta and Ivo Ištvan.
It may be that the law enforcement agencies should have moved much earlier against Nagyová et al., thereby avoiding the abuse of the intelligence services that is said to have occurred, and the risks (and embarrassment) that this creates.
It may well be that in other countries, national security concerns would have trumped suspected criminal behaviour at the top of government, and the suspected crimes would have been quietly and quickly covered up. This may indeed have been the wiser way.
These are weighty matters. However, I refuse to see a Red under the Bed in this particular case. And I repeat the words of the radio broadcaster and McCarthy critic, Edward R Murrow, who refused to see them either: “If you aren’t confused, you really don’t understand the situation”.
There is no conspiracy to look for –other than the commonplace conspiring of greedy politicians as they struggle to cling on to power.
The single most revealing fact in the Nagyová scandal is the concerted effort by politicians to persuade us into thinking that the prosecutor and police are undermining our freedoms and the good name of the country.
Nothing damages the national security of a state more than the wilful destruction of trust in the Rule of Law.
In my opinion, Klaus with his amnesty and Kalousek with his countless public condemnations of the police and prosecutor have done much more harm to the national security of this country than the arrest of Ms Nagyová and her too accommodating spooks.
Politicians make good use of our cynicism. In recent days, Václav Klaus and Miroslav Kalousek, to name just two of the more prominent among them, have implied that the state prosecutor and police are either out of control or under the control of the wrong people. The doubt can be expressed simply as 'jen z ODS?!'
However, no politician has yet been bold enough to state under whose influence exactly the boss of ÚOOZ and the Olomouc prosecutor are meant to have fallen. And indeed for the purposes of a vulnerable politician, there is no need to do so. It is sufficient to insinuate and let our cynicism do the rest.
Klaus wants ‘politics returned to politicians’; Kalousek wants to know if we would really prefer to be ruled by prosecutors. Both want us to doubt the professional competence and, much more insiduous, the good faith of Robert Šlachta and Ivo Ištvan.
It may be that the law enforcement agencies should have moved much earlier against Nagyová et al., thereby avoiding the abuse of the intelligence services that is said to have occurred, and the risks (and embarrassment) that this creates.
It may well be that in other countries, national security concerns would have trumped suspected criminal behaviour at the top of government, and the suspected crimes would have been quietly and quickly covered up. This may indeed have been the wiser way.
These are weighty matters. However, I refuse to see a Red under the Bed in this particular case. And I repeat the words of the radio broadcaster and McCarthy critic, Edward R Murrow, who refused to see them either: “If you aren’t confused, you really don’t understand the situation”.
There is no conspiracy to look for –other than the commonplace conspiring of greedy politicians as they struggle to cling on to power.
The single most revealing fact in the Nagyová scandal is the concerted effort by politicians to persuade us into thinking that the prosecutor and police are undermining our freedoms and the good name of the country.
Nothing damages the national security of a state more than the wilful destruction of trust in the Rule of Law.
In my opinion, Klaus with his amnesty and Kalousek with his countless public condemnations of the police and prosecutor have done much more harm to the national security of this country than the arrest of Ms Nagyová and her too accommodating spooks.