The nearly simultaneous passing of former Czech leader Vaclav Havel and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il on Sunday provided a stark reminder of the contrasts and consequences that stem from the moral convictions of national leaders.
Havel, the former playwright and dissident who became the reluctant first president of the post-communist Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic, understood that genuine authority, the kind of authority that transforms and liberates a people, comes from personal morality, courage and decency.
Writing to then Czechoslovakian President Alexander Dubcek during the Prague Spring of 1968, Havel said presciently, "Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible political effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political significance." Havel's vocal dissidence had him jailed at least three times under communist rule.
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