The “Bartosiak” Rebellion
Waldemar Biniecki
(Manhattan, Kansas, USA)
As a representative of the American Polish community, I am looking forward to the second part of Minister Sikorski’s expose, which is to concern the Polish diaspora. Here across the ocean, we observe with great disbelief that the topic of “Polonia”, which has become a taboo in Poland, is being swept under the carpet. This state of affairs is evident since Mr. Marek Magierowski effectively disarmed the Polish American community’s action against the signing of the JUST Act 447 in the American parliament.
Many outstanding books have been written in Poland about what Poland should be like, but none of them contains even a single paragraph about the 20 million-strong Polish diaspora. Already in the 1990s, the legendary courier from Warsaw – Jan Nowak Jeziorański – talked about it loudly, in his article entitled “The underestimated achievements of the Polonia”, published on August 4, 1992 in “Przegląd Polski” once published by “Nowy Dziennik” from New York, where he wrote: “Historians in Poland treat the role of the Polonia more than marginally.” He also gives the example of a book edited by Aleksander Gieysztor, “History of Poland”, in which, out of 720 pages, only one is devoted to the subject of the Polish diaspora. So all these phrases about great Poland and uniting all Poles without even a single line about the 20 million Polish diaspora sound funny.
After almost half a year of the new, smiling government, Poles experience specific cognitive dissonance. This government, despite many promises, has no vision of Poland’s development. Most Poles think about threats to Poland. Most analysts’ opinions show that within 3-5 years Poland may be at risk of war with Russia, so Poland’s security should be the most important priority for the state’s strategy and there should be national consensus around this issue. State security policy should be of a non-partisan nature and be separated from party politics. However, amid the ongoing debate in the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, no such talks are taking place.
They are also missing from the mainstream media. Looking at our political elites here, from across the ocean, one may get the impression that the issue of Poles’ security does not concern them and that their attention is absorbed, diplomatically speaking, by topics very distant from the security of the state. The analysis of the political debate may indicate that political elites have become extremely compradoric, i.e. they pursue the interests of foreign centers of power and, with their consent, exploit the rest of society. Editor Stanisław Michalkiewicz has been talking about this for a long time.
On May 15, the premiere of Jacek Bartosiak’s new book “Notes on the eve of war” took place. I had the opportunity to watch the Krakow premiere at the Jagiellonian University’s Auditorium Maximum on YouTube. The best part of the lecture took place in the second half, when Bartosiak answered the audience’s questions without politically correct inhibitions. And here it is worth referring to the most important moment of this lecture.
Bartosiak confronts the words of Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz “about Polish peripherality, about the agency of the Polish state and about the fact that we will not create “Polish” innovations because the best ones will be bought by large corporations. Therefore, there is no need to be offended by economic dependence on Germany, but it should be used skillfully.” Bartosiak contrasts these views with the reactions of many groups within the Polish society: businessmen, young citizens, groups not associated with the post-Roundtable PO and PIS parties. Now, when Poland and its entrepreneurs have finally started to build prosperity in Poland, as Prof. Marcin Piątkowski from Washington writes in an apt way in his book “Europe’s Growth Champion: Insights from the Economic Rise of Poland” published by Oxford University Press, the new government wants to stop most development investments.
To meet the requirements of a young society with views from right to left, development investments are necessary. CCP (Central Communication Port), transit ports, nuclear power plants, army modernization, development of science and education, investments in artificial intelligence, quantum computers, infrastructure development in the broadest sense. All this so that the country can build a better tomorrow for future generations. Promoting the famous “Polish plumber” was the greatest disgrace of the Polish state, which forced Poland’s greatest treasure – the young, creative generation – into emigration, instead of creating conditions for their development in Poland.
There must be a civilizational leap in Poland, the aim of which cannot be to limit the basics of teaching curricula. We cannot compare ourselves with those who do not want to acquire knowledge. Politicians in China, South Korea and other Asian countries, where educating young people is one of the most important priorities, know this well. They are being sent to study in the USA. Even small Hungary sends its talented graduates for internships at Washington think-tanks.
And in Poland, cronyism, nepotism, and, as Prof. Marcin Piątkowski directly calls it., “parochial minimalism”. Hundreds of institutions, instead of implementing their missions, drink coffee and browse newspapers. Restricting the core curriculum in the field of national identity is another disgrace and a way of social engineering that is supposed to create a new human, smiling, but deprived of the cultural code that has held this nation together for a thousand years. We cannot afford to lose this most important part of Polish society and the future elites of the Republic of Poland.
One can venture to say that these millions of Poles reading and listening to Bartosiak are an emanation of a self-aware nation. All these people are beginning to understand what the State should be about, which should effectively defend the interests of society and ensure the functioning of the whole.
The example of public support for CCP, which has increased from 50% to 70%, gives a clear signal to the smiling coalition that this is not the way to go. Unfortunately, there is no Polish State, i.e. one that defends the interests of the Polish Nation. The state that exists now is a bureaucratic structure that changes every eight years, is inefficient, corrupted by foreign lobbies, and which everyone is slowly starting to call a “state made of shreds and plywood.”
Polls show that, in politically polarized Poland, one of the few factors that unite people is aversion to the elites of PO (Platforma Obywatelska, Civic Platform party) and PiS (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, Law and Order party). The results of the voting in European elections will show whether this is a rebellion, or the search of a new model of managing a state. This is just the beginning of a big change, for which the current elites are ill prepared.
Translated from Polish by Andrew Woźniewicz.
Waldemar Biniecki
Manhattan, Kansas, USA
Editor-in-Chief of «Kuryer Polski» in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Journalist and Columnist of «Tygodnik Solidarność» («Solidarity Weekly») in Poland. American correspondent for Polish media. Member of the Polish Journalists Association in Warsaw. Graduated from University of Kazimierz Wielki in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Polonia activist focusing on Pax Polonica. Laureate of the Maciej Płażyński Award, the most important award honoring the work of journalists and media serving the Polish community.
Source: https://kuryerpolski.us/
