Political parties' use of agencies a worrying sign
Recently, the two main parties - the ruling Civic Platform (PO) and the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) - have followed a consistent plot in their hurling of dirt. PO accuses PiS of being a bunch of rash, uneducated country bumpkins, while PiS accuses PO of corruption and protecting only the interests of the rich.
"Theirs" and "ours"
But recently, this polemic has taken a dangerous turn. Both parties have wrapped their tentacles around domestic intelligence agencies - the Central Anti-corruption Bureau (CBA) and the Internal Security Agency (ABW) - and seem to be using them against each other. In a recent interview with Rzeczpospolita, Prime Minister Donald Tusk of PO was quoted as saying that the CBA was more "theirs" meaning PiS's, while the ABW was more "ours" meaning PO's. If true, this is a bad sign for Polish democracy.
A couple of weeks ago, the CBA accused the head of the ABW, Krzysztof Bondaryk, of not revealing the full extent of payments he was receiving from his former employer, mobile-phone service provider PTC. While it is yet to be determined whether Mr. Bondaryk has really received a severance package three-times higher than he declared on his income disclosure statement, opposition members jumped on the news as evidence of corruption.
The whole affair may have been an unseemly attempt by the CBA to simply publicize these completely legal payments. Mr. Bondaryk receives them as part of a non-compete clause in his contract with his former employer. The government rushed to his defense, while the opposition claimed that the governing coalition was tainted by the affair.
Spy games
Meanwhile, the ABW seems to be engaging in some undermining of its own. Dziennik reported that the ABW's investigation of last week's incident in Georgia - where Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's and President Lech Kaczynski's motorcade seemed to have been fired upon by either Russian troops or South Ossetian fighters while driving near the South Ossetian border - had been staged by the Georgian government. Though the details reported in the paper included only circumstantial evidence, the incident cast President Kaczyński, who had immediately accused Russia of "provocation," as quick to anger and easily duped. Just the image the ruling party would like voters to have of him.
Later the ABW denied that such conclusions had been reached in its confidential report, yet said that it would launch an investigation into the leaking of secret information. Whether the information was true or not, the damage was done.
While it is normal and healthy for opposing political parties to vie for the upper hand, using public investigative agencies as political instruments can only lead to disaster. These agencies are supposed to serve the state and the people - not the parties' own agendas. If political parties continue to use these agencies as conduits for their own goals, Poland's brand of democracy may start to look a lot more like that of "provocative" Russia.
