On September 7, 2000 the New York State
Assistant Attorney General Sandra Giorno-Tocco representing the
Charities Bureau turned down the Contract between the Czech Republic and
the Bohemian Benevolent & Literary Association (BBLA) concerning the
transfer of the Bohemian National Hall to the Czech Republic for $1 and
subsequent Lease conditions of one floor back to the BBLA. The main
reasons for her decision, as expressed in her evalutation, are:
a) The Contract contains unreasonable
conditions under which BBLA could gain the Hall back, in case the Czech
Republic either does not complete its restoration on time, or it decides
to sell the building. The attorney general questioned whether other
avenues of cooperation were first pursued - specifically asking the
Czech Government to substantiate its position that taking over the Hall
was the only way it was able and willing to help.
b) The Contract violates civil liberties
of the BBLA by asking it to subject itself to so-called "Performance
Standards" imposed by the Czech Republic. She remarked that some of
these conditions even violate the BBLA's Statement of Incorporation.
[For example, the requirement that BBLA should devote itself
"predominantly to promoting Czech-American relations" does not meet the
"Czech & Slovak" legal description of BBLA.]
Due to the above reasons, she recommended
that the Contract is changed and undergoes new approval by the BBLA
member organizations.
In plain language, the Contract did not
make it through the first round - the evaluation by the Charitites
Bureau - and therefore will not be even considered by the Supreme Court
of New York.
The undersigned three members of BBLA
came to the conclusion that the situation calls for a more open approach
on both sides. They also strongly feel that the Attorney General's
evaluation, while it objectively analyzes the Contract and rightfully
pinpoints its flaws, does not and cannot address the root of the problem
-- which is the way the bad Contract was shepherded through BBLA by its
long-time leadership, namely its president, Mr. Jan Hird Pokorny.
Therefore, on September 25, 2000 they filed a law-suit against BBLA and
Jan Hird Pokorny. The main points of their complaint are:
a) Mr. Pokorny failed to stop the
controversial Contract right at his own doorstep, although he must have
been well aware of its controversy. On the contrary, he recommended it
to the BBLA member organizations for their approval, at one point even
falsely speaking on behalf of the entire Negotiating Committee. Not only
that he did not follow up with the member organizations to make sure
that they reviewed and discussed the last version of the Contract in a
proper manner, but he even ignored clear signals from some delegates
that their organizations had not done so.
b) In general, over the years, Mr.
Pokorny failed to lead BBLA towards activity, self-reliance and
rejuvenation of its leadership by monitoring the member organizations'
activities.
By his approach, Mr. Pokorny brought BBLA
into a situation in which the New York Assistant Attorney General had to
step in for a rescue, in order to defend the organizations' interests,
because they were not able to defend them themselves.
***
On September 27, 2000 an emergency
meeting of the BBLA's Board of Directors took place in the National
Hall. BBLA lawyers announced that the Czech government -- only after it
was faced with the Attorney General's rejection of the Contract --
agreed to remove the "Performance Standards" and also offered a
low-interest loan to BBLA to buy the Hall back, in case the government
wants to sell it. No relief, however, was offered in case the government
does not complete the reconstruction on time (when BBLA would also have
a right to ask for it back).
The Czech Consul General, Petr Gandalovic
attended the second half of the meeting. He stressed his concern that
the prepared new version of the Contract would be properly "distributed
to all member organizations" and "approved according to their by-laws",
so that the delegates have a "clear mandate". When directly asked by the
undersigned, he was unable to come up with an explanation to the
Attorney General's question why "an outright sale to the Republic was
the only transaction possible with the Republic".
THE STRONG POSITION OF THE CZECH
GOVERNMENT -- AND THE WAY IT CAN USE IT TO BRING THE COMMUNITY UP OR
DOWN
"It is not true that all is bad and
everything is lost and has to be smitten away by some kind of a storm.
The exact opposite is true: in this society, there is a huge potential
of good will, creativity, dilligence, kindness and desire for a better
human environment. The goal is to release this potential, open a space
for it, encourage it. That is the task of politicians, but not just
theirs. It is the task of all publicly active people, all people in
positions of responsibility, and, after all, all of us, the citizens of
the Czech Republic who mean well for our country."
Václav Havel in the New Year's Address
2000
The undersigned strongly emphasize, that
-- the BBLA's shortcomings notwithstanding -- the brunt of
responsibility for the current situation lies with the Czech government,
because it is, by far, the stronger of the two partners. The fact is
that the Czech government's position is so strong that it can largely
influence the solution to the National Hall's resurrection. The
government can offer the community a helping hand and lead it towards
increased activity, self-reliance and competence, or it can extend a
greedy hand and lead the community towards increased passivity,
dependence and decline.
We believe that "The role of the
government is to help people help themselves." That is basically what
the above Václav Havel's statement also says. If we, the compatriot
community, are a part of the Czech nation, then the Czech government
should help us to become a living, healthy and functional part of the
nation.
The currently proposed solution which
puts the compatriot community into a totally passive, dependent and
subservient role to the Czech government, however, cannot be termed as a
"cooperation".
Therefore, we have to look for a better
solution, such one that will put the community back on its feet and help
it become an active and functional part of the nation. And, with God's
help, we believe that we will find it.
Frank Kubernat, the Sokol New York
delegate to BBLA
Peter Kutil, the Association of Free Czechoslovak Sportsmen delegate to
BBLA and BBLA's vice-president
John Krondl, the delegate of the American-Czechoslovak Information
Center to BBLA
