What a deceitful web we weave

The government got caught with its pants down twice last week. First, when Sławomir Wiatr, the junior minister responsible for informing the public on European Union integration was forced to admit that he had been an informer of the former regime's intelligence services. Second, when Aleksander Bentkowski, the head of the State Agency for the Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture (ARMA), told journalists that all appointments in his agency were based on open competition, and it later came out that these jobs had been divvied up among the two coalition parties on the basis of a prior agreement. Let us take the case of Wiatr first. The EU information campaign he is heading is called "EU without secrets." But obviously not without secret services. On taking office, Wiatr had signed a statement that he had not been an informer. He assumed that the legislation limiting the definition of "informer" to apply to only the secret police would become law. This was a fair assumption since it had cleared Parliament and been signed by President Aleksander Kwaśniewski. Unfortunately for Wiatr, the Constitutional Tribunal declared the legislation null and void on the grounds of serious breaches in the legislative process of that bill. As a result of this ruling, the original interpretation of "informer" as someone who had worked for the secret police or any of the state's intelligence services stayed in place.

This is why Wiatr had to change his plea and admit that he had been involved with the spooks. It is more than a little embarrassing for the government that a minister responsible for providing the public with reliable information was found to be rather wayward in providing true information about his own past. It had to be dragged out of him. The case of Bentkowski is, on the face of it, a less serious matter. The man simply got caught misleading journalists. When asked why the vast majority of the newly appointed area directors of the ARMA (the agency that is responsible for administering EU assistance programs) were members of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) or the Peasants Party (PSL), he replied that party recommendations had nothing to do with their selection. According to Bentkowski, the area directors were chosen after a thorough and openly competitive process of selection. It took the press next to no time to refute this. It soon transpired that as part of the coalition agreement between the SLD and PSL, the two parties had divided up the area chapters of the agency between them. The details of this agreement leaked because the SLD was furious that Bentkowski and the PSL were not adhering to the agreement and had chosen too many area directors from among the PSL's ranks.

Prime Minister Leszek Miller has already dismissed the opposition attacks as irrelevant. SLD politicians are shrugging their shoulders and arguing that the opposition can never find anything constructive to say. This is a favorite whine that all governments make. The SLD really has no right whatsoever to complain about its parliamentary opposition. When the SLD was itself in opposition, it opposed the very liberalization of the labor laws it is now implementing and supported every measure proposed by a group of populist trade union members of Solidarity Election Action (AWS) to increase higher budgetary expenditure. This contrasts starkly with the way the Civic Platform (PO) has supported the SLD over the reform of the Labor Code and the way both the Civic Platform and Law and Justice (PiS) parties have been restrained in putting down motions for increasing public spending.

Added to this is the fact that the SLD can so often rely on the support of Andrzej Lepper's Self-Defense party. On the issue of limiting the verification of informers of the past regime's intelligence services, it got staunch support from Lepper. The populists also supported the SLD over changing the method of translating votes into seats in elections so that it favors the big parties. No wonder that the SLD is reciprocating and putting into effect Lepper's declared policies, such as the assets register and the waving of debts of state companies. The Interior Minister, Krzysztof Janik, is on record as saying that the police must be sensitive to social protests, such as roadblocks by farmers. The SLD is also still keeping the deputy speaker's seat vacated by Lepper warm for a Self-Defense successor. The SLD has a very comfortable situation in Parliament where it has an official coalition partner (PSL) and another one in reserve (Self-Defense). Both the public and the media have a right to expect that their ministers and officials give them reliable information. But old habits die hard. In the good old days, journalists did not dare to ask awkward questions. This government seems to be yearning for those days.

Chris Mularczyk is a Warsaw-based consultant. He can be e-mailed at cmularczyk@wbj.pl