Muck-Rakers and Apology-Makers

In line with their attack on all things not identical to them, the Kaczynskis are championing their new law - introduced in March - which requires some 730,000 Poles to sign a legal document stating whether or not they collaborated with the ex-communist secret police. The Polish Parliament is currently hearing a case brought by the ex-communist Social Democrats which would hopefully result in the demise of this new legislation which many have condemned as 'humiliating' and smacks of McCarthyism (which smacked of what now?) if you ask us. Meanwhile, the throng of targeted individuals - lawmakers, judges, academics, lawyers, journalists, school teachers, diplomats, etc. - wait for a verdict before signing the issued affidavits. The legal battle over the new law has given these individuals a grace period before signing the affidavit or losing their jobs - the Kaczynskis' consequence for those that don't comply (only 5% have so far). The master plan of the twins is to collect the affidavits and compare them with the secret police archives, which have not yet been made public (unlike in neighboring Czech Republic and former East Germany) and may or may not exist or include the evidence the Kaczynskis would have us think will incriminate everyone in Poland except themselves.

A first victim (could there be a more obvious one?) of the current Polish president and prime ministers' agenda of purging communism from 'public life' has been former Polish president (under communism), Wojciech Jaruzelski. The 83-year-old general has been accused of committing a 'communist crime' by declaring martial law in 1981 in compliance with Moscow's orders to crush the growing Solidarity movement. During the following decade of martial law, thousands of arrests were made (many of which were arbitrary) and dozens died during clashes with Soviet police. Put in the hotseat again, despite being cleared by the Polish parliament in 1996 of constitutional responsibility for declaring martial law, Jaruzelski issued an apology to the victims of communist Poland's 80s crackdown: "I was under pressure from internal and external forces. I offer my apologies to those who unduly suffered, to those who may have been unjustly arrested. I apologise to all the victims." Careful not to name names and earn himself double prosecution from the Kaczynskis (who recently sued Lech Walsea for defamation), Jaruzelski indirectly accused the twins of wanting "absolute power" and "vengeance," but failed to point out the irony of their affidavit roundups of Poland's present intellectuals, two decades after the fall of communism.