The buck stops somewhere else

Sooner than anybody expected, Prime Minister Leszek Miller experienced his first serious setback to his authority last week. It was not to do with the economy or relations with the troublesome Peasants Party (PSL) coalition partner, but from a more unexpected corner: the Justice Ministry, and the resignation of recently appointed Deputy Prosecutor General Andrzej Kaucz after a week-long media campaign. Yet the story is interesting, not only because of the short-term damage it has done to the government's image, but because of the deeper issues it raises of responsibility in Polish politics - now and in the past.

Few were paying close attention when new Justice Minister Barbara Piwnik made Kaucz's appointment a couple of weeks after the election, giving him effective responsibility for supervising the prosecution system and judges. But one person did notice - Barbara Labuda, undersecretary of state in the chancellery of President Aleksander Kwaśniewski.

Back in 1983, Labuda was an activist in the then-underground Solidarity trade union movement, which in 1981 had been declared illegal after the imposition of martial law. That was a bad time for Poland, when thousands of pro-democracy activists were facing imprisonment or in hiding from the communist military rulers of the country. Labuda was not one of the lucky ones: she was arrested, and in 1983 sentenced to a prison term for "anti-state activities." And who was the prosecuting judge? Why, none other than Andrzej Kaucz, now apparently a pillar of the judicial establishment in democratic Poland. Labuda let this be known to her media allies, and then the row became public.

The last couple of weeks have been a fascinating spectacle of political maneuvering and moral weaseling of the highest order. First, there was the curious spectacle of a high-ranking official in the president's chancellory - which is supposed to be on the same side as the government - campaigning for the removal of a recent government appointee. Indeed, many observers see in the affair a deeper issue of latent tensions between Kwaśniewki and Miller and hidden struggles for influence, and it is no secret that Ryszard Kalisz, Kwaśniewski's former head of chancellory and chief legal adviser, had coveted the job as justice minister.

This all paled, however, with the maneuverings employed by Kaucz and Piwnik to prevent the former from losing his job. First, Kaucz argued that he was never Labuda's prosecutor. Then, when witnesses started to come forward remembering clearly the facts of the trial, Kaucz bizarrely claimed that he had only "dropped in" to the courtroom for Labuda's sentencing. Inevitably, however, the truth emerged when a Polish daily uncovered the original court records, showing Kaucz to be very much what Labuda had accused him of.

That revelation was a great embarrassment to Miller, who the previous week had heavily defended Kaucz on the basis that Piwnik assured him that Kaucz was telling the truth about his non-involvement in Labuda's trial. Once Kaucz was exposed as a liar, Miller had no choice but to demand that he be removed.

On the surface, that is probably the end of the matter. But this apparently minor spat raises some deeper issues. The first is that of immediate political responsibility. As is typical in Poland, there seems to be none. Not only had Piwnik appointed Kaucz, she defended him when it was clear that he had publicly lied about his past. She also misled Miller, who allowed himself to publicly defend Kaucz on the basis of her assurances. Yet Piwnik remains in her post, her credibility undermined at the start of her term, at a time when the morale and image of Poland's judiciary is at an all-time low.

Yet more awkward for Miller, and indeed the entire Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) establishment, are the possible logical conclusions of the Kaucz affair. What, after all, is the issue here? That a man who had been an active part of the communist system of repression has no moral right to head the judiciary in democracy. So far, so good. But were not a whole swathe of people responsible for the communist system that denied Poles their freedom and dignity for over 40 years? Who are they, and where might they be now? Er ... actually, in charge of Poland today. Everyone in the current SLD government, from Miller on down, were key figures in the communist party of the 1980s. Kaucz's only weakness, as he himself admits, was to have been taking political orders from them.

No wonder Miller was flummoxed last week and so defensive about Kaucz in the first place. By sacking Kaucz he implicitly admitted that there was something morally wrong in what Kaucz had undertaken in the past. But taking this to its logical conclusion would challenge the legitmacy of the SLD as a participant in democratic politics. Of course, that will not happen. The buck will stop with stooges like Kaucz. As for the ex-prosecutor, it is ironic that the factors that brought Kaucz down - public opinion, a free press and, above all, Barbara Labuda herself - were all those things that Kaucz has devoted a large part of his life to combating. Perhaps there is such a thing as historical justice after all.

Marek Matraszek is the Warsaw director of CEC Government Relations. He can be e-mailed at director@cec.com.pl

Marek Matraszek