LN: ČR to lag behind unless the best enter politics

Prague, Oct 4 (CTK) - The Czech Republic will be lagging behind the advanced countries unless the best people enter politics, which would not be for the first time in history, Jan Kadanik, Ameropa strategy director, writes in daily Lidove noviny Thursday.

The country has a lot of young talented people while its politics remains in the hands of past-related figures who cannot offer anything new, Kadanik writes.

He writes that the notion of Vaclav Klaus, 71, being replaced in the presidential post by the activist pensioner, Milos Zeman, 67, is terrible.

A generational exchange is necessary for the country to move ahead. But this does not only concern the age of the figures, Kadanik writes.

Prime Minister Petr Necas, chairman of the Civic Democrats (ODS), 47, and Bohuslav Sobotka, chairman of the opposition Social Democrats (CSSD), 41, are still young in terms of age, but they lack any life experience outside politics, they are almost identical with the two above veterans of the opposition agreement, Kadanik writes.

Under the opposition agreement, which Zeman and Klaus signed in 1998, the ODS supported the CSSD minority government in exchange for a portion of influence.

Kadanik writes that what he said about Necas and Sobotka applies to many others. He says he is undoubtedly not the sole having problem believing Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek (TOP 09) that he is the person who will save Czech public finance.

He carries along a too big burden from his past to be trustworthy, Kadanik writes.

The system of two large parties, the ODS and CSSD, stifles possible talents, newly emerging parties either quickly disappear or bring nothing new, individuals have no chance in the Czech political system, Kadanik writes.

This is not only a Czech problem, however. Politics in Europe is controlled by a generation that has not noticed that the world outside has unbelievably accelerated while they were building their careers at endless meetings.

They complain of financial markets that do not obey them, they try to regulate banks whose activities they do not comprehend, they are driving their countries into a pension trap, they are dealing with the crisis with instruments that do not work and they give names to problems using the vocabulary of the 1980s, Kadanik writes.

The world is developing in way and at a pace that few understand. Only the ablest who will manage to follow the developments in various parts of the world and create their own opinions of them and who will be capable of defending them (in two world languages at least) will orientate themselves in it, Kadanik writes.

He writes that unless such people are brought to Czech politics in the nearest future, the Czech Republic will become a country that is lagging behind the developments.

Kadanik writes that he does not think that attracting more people of quality to politics is a matter of money. Most of the people are already financially safe, or have an income that cannot be morally justified in politics.

To start with, parties could open themselves more to such people, create ad hoc working groups for various themes and really listen to them, and they should not take on independent experts only as a facade, Kadanik writes.