Dear Congressionals, Dear Congressionals, Dear States,
The vacation period is not only a leisure time, but besides a time of “dense” cognitively – and on a mass scale. erstwhile visiting Poland or another countries, we open up to very direct experiences. Is it mostly better or worse than where we live all day? What do cities, villages, roads, restaurants, hotels, shops look like? How do people behave? What is the method (infrastructure) and organisational level of different services? In addition to our own view, we besides encounter a stream of occasional – usually very sincere – opinions ad hoc people met – e.g. coming from Europe and the planet of citizens of another countries or Poles who emigrated many years ago.
Does this mass cognitive process – not through statistics, but by watching, touching, listening and interacting – produce a image of Poland as a whole? Where are we in improvement against others? How do you live here?
In the last 35 years Poland has made a improvement leap in civilisation, which it does not full realise. The vast majority of people arriving for the first time in Poland from Western countries are highly amazed in plus. Nice, clean, green, large roads, good service, modern technologies, super quality services, and above all – how safe!
Polish migrants who have not been in the country for years and sometimes decades besides emphasize this last issue. I met a matrimony of doctors who moved from Poland 20 years ago to a large city in the south of France. They have had a professional and material success, have a wonderful flat in the city center. Their passion is all night running. Unfortunately, in France, due to the decreasing sense of security, they do so little and little often. After spending time in Poland and moving regular on the seaside boulevard in Gdynia, they decided to buy an flat here and return to their homeland. Polish immigrants from the UK, Scandinavian countries or even the USA frequently heal in Poland – prices are much lower and quality is comparable or even better. It is besides rather clear that we have assessed our current position against the "reference" countries – the Czech Republic or Hungary, which preceded us at the beginning of the transformation. Hungary has been clearly behind, and the Czechs have been caught up (with their state – which they themselves admit – looking much worse than ours, developing in a more centralised way).
The biggest changes took place in relation to Western European countries. It's like the vectors turned around. erstwhile the entrance to the German road was an entry into another, far more advanced civilization of the planet – a colorful, developed, with much higher quality infrastructure and services. present it is the other – it is an entry into Poland, on Polish highways with their developed and coloured facilities, it is an entry into a more developed country. But if a visitor from Germany decided to exit the road into the Polish province, he would most likely be as amazed! Polish village, in the vast majority, was very beautiful. The farms are truly attractive and fresh, and the earth is shown to be intensively utilized for various crops.
It is not possible to describe all tourist experiences, but it is surely striking for Poles to have a circumstantial technological hold in Western countries. Examples are electronic payments, which are inactive not widespread in the West, or deficiency of displays, showing how many parking spaces are available, which in Poland is simply a reasonably common standard.
After specified vacation experiences, it is hard not to announcement that in the symbolic sphere (images, narratives) Poland is not yet sufficiently appreciated among the Poles themselves, nor among the western or external world. Meanwhile, in these turbulent times we request collective sense of valuewhich would build our “together” and the ability to cooperate within the Polish diversity. Without knowing the origin of the Polish civilizational success of the last 35 years, we will not make a common communicative that would merge us and "carry". And we're not going to make an overall Polish thought for the future.
Therefore, it is worth asking yourself: How much do we owe our historical improvement success to public policy, to the state, to political elite, and to the society itself? Is this a success thanks, against or regardless of the quality of politics and the state?
In my opinion – as a associate and at the same time an observer of transformation processes in Poland – post-solidarity elites (mainly democratically liberal orientation) gave Poland a good start, the main regulatory framework, both at government and local government level.
Even in the 1990s, 1 could talk about the pro-state ethos of these elites. The last specified large reformer – in the name of common interest, not calculation and election targeting – was Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek and his 4 reforms. The general transformation thought aimed primarily at releasing the energy and resourcefulness of Poles, creating a "field of opportunity" for our invention, adaptation, industriousness, for our aspirations and striving for a better life. In the first decade after 1989, political elites, the systemic and organization framework and public policies were added value for Poland. They've set our country on fundamentally favorable tracks.
In time, however, pro-state ethos, pro-public began to fade among political elites. alternatively of creating mechanisms and tools for change for the better, the state has increasingly become a “bull”, the subject of operation. alternatively of giving a chance and multiplying the natural energy of Poles, it frequently created fresh barriers, corrupted, dismantled well-functioning institutions and mechanisms of social control. During this period, Poland's improvement was increasingly "despite". Contrary to the dysfunctions of the state, institutions or political groups, Poles as individual citizens, but besides professional groups (traders, teachers or e.g. workers of various NGOs) pushed matters in a affirmative direction, but unfortunately fighting not only the challenges or global competition characteristic of our time, but besides these interior dysfunctions.
The last fewer years are a visible organization regression, a time of centralization and subordination of the state and its companies to the interests of the organization (was not opposition to these phenomena the essence of the fight against the strategy of PRL?). Fortunately, last October's elections were a kind of red card for specified behavior, allowing a number of bad phenomena to stop. But will political elites correctly read the signal sent by society?
In fact, it is not about replacing 1 governing squad with another. It's about a large return to concern for common interest. To reconstruct a servile and effective state and fair and provocative “rule of the game” (through regulations, institutions, etc.). The state cannot demoralise and make it worse – it should set a good example, encourage citizens to take action, facilitate it. It is intended to make effective cooperation mechanisms and high-quality public policies. It is simply a good thing that it becomes a driver of our collective competition with the outside environment and ensures security.
Citizens (primarily young people), going so far to the elections, wanted to show that they wanted to live in a sensiblely organized country where people did not gotta fight their own country by sharing socially or professionally. They anticipate you to make, as in the 1990s, a transformative leap to better prepare us for the challenges of the future and fresh competitiveness – based no longer on individual but collective logic and giving an appropriate scale for innovation and abroad expansion.
Our external environment is increasingly demanding and partners (even from the EU) are increasingly assertive. It will so be essential to conduct an increasingly conscious and consistent European game (e.g. to defend the Polish battery market). To effectively push our interests in the global game, we besides request a smart state and an efficient administration.
Did politicians realize this reality and the election lesson? possibly as civilian society, we're inactive not putting it out loud enough. If we want to keep the dynamics of affirmative changes (and proceed to delight abroad visitors) we must be aware that we cannot proceed to make the country with the sum of single efforts, in addition to the "despite" of these systemic adversities. Again (maybe even more than in the 1990s) we request a good framework, principles and leadership to combine energy and initiative of all Poles.
My heartfelt greetings and my respects,
Dr. Jan Szomburg
Chairman of the Board of the Institute for marketplace economical Research
Initiator of the civilian Congress
