Saturday, July 19, 2025
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Death of a freedom fighter

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The Arab Spring today is a sequel to another spring-the original spring of the 20th century-the Prague Spring which led to the Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia. It brought down Communist rule in that country without a shot being fired, truly a glorious revolution. The person who led the movement was Vaclav Havel who passed away at the age of 75 only the other day. Havel will be remembered for his monumental treatise against totalitarianism entitled ‘The Power of the Powerless’. He was a great admirer of his compatriot novelist, Franz Kafka, who was a voice of freedom. He claimed that he was the only one who understood the enigmatic novelist. Havel was a dissenter, a humanist and a reluctant President who chose freedom. To the rest of the world, he trumpeted a political philosophy of his own.

President Havel set an example to the leaders of other countries by cycling around the Castle in the initial days of his rule. He gave Prague an assertive role in NATO and the EU. He could in the 1990s enjoy a relaxed evening with President Bill Clinton who played the saxophone in a city which was previously behind the iron curtain. With his death, the world has lost a voice which thundered against dictatorships, an emergent evil in the new world order. He represented truth and launched a crusade which was symbolised by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the liquidation of the Soviet empire. The huge crowd milling round the centre of the ancient city of Prague was plunged in genuine sorrow. The world today faces a trial and his passing away is a blow to the forces trying to overcome it.

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