22.06.2010: What do I want for Poland
I want a modern, normal country, of which I can be proud. When I took the decision in 1997 to move to Poland with my (then) young family, a colleage at work in London mocked me. “America, Canada, Australia – I can understand. But you are emigrating to Poland?!? POLAND! That’s some kind of a JOKE country!”
That hurt. I was brought up as a Pole in the UK, and returning to my fatherland was a form of destiny shaped by my upbringing – Polish school on Saturday mornings, Polish scouts on Saturday afternoons, Polish church on Sunday. I am here, with my family, by choice, not by default. I don’t want to hear beton Jarka label me as unpatriotic; I want what I see is best for my country.
A modern, normal country. One where decent citizens can go about their daily, law-abiding lives, working in fulfilling jobs, paying taxes, trusting one another, trusting the Polish state, trusting their neighbours, employers, tax authorities and police. A country with decent universities, turning out graduates that are equipped for the labour market of tomorrow. Graduates that don’t have to flee to foreign universities to get decent research fellowships. A country when research and development spend per capita is as high as it is in Scandinavia, the US or Japan. A country not dependent on jobs on low-cost manufacturing, but on high-value added high-tech industries and professional services.
Poland does have the people. I never cease to be amazed at the quality of young people – hard working, intelligent, well-read, highly-motivated; yet the country – the state – can’t seem to get itself organised in such a way as to harness that energy to the full. Too many talented Poles leave Poland to make a career in foreign universities, foreign companies in foreign countries.
Year by year, Poland is moving away from joke-country status. Since we moved to Poland, it has become a member of NATO, the European Union, the OECD club of rich countries. Since 2004, Poland’s GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power parity has risen from 54% of the EU average to 61%, and climbing fast. In 2003, Poland’s economy was seven times smaller than the UK’s. Today, it’s only four-and-half times smaller. I want Poland to have a strong economy. For that to happen, the economy needs to be run by people who know about the economy. Here, I mistrust PO less than PiS. And that’s what it boils down to.
I want a country of entrepreneurs, not bureaucrats. Poland does have one of the highest percentages of workforce employed in micro-businesses (employing one to nine employees) in the EU. That’s basically one big ZUS dodge. The average Polish micro-business employs 1.3 people. The “entrepreneur” (read: ‘self-employed person for tax reasons’) and his wife doing the books one third full-time equivalent. Because it’s too damned difficult for a sole trader to do it himself. The average British micro-business employs 3.7 people. That’s healthier. Go up to the small firm level. Only 12% of the Polish workforce is employed in small businesses (10 to 49 employees). This is the lowest level in the EU. So medium- and large-size firms can go about their business without feeling the nip of competition at their heels – and can get away with charging higher prices and offering worse service than in the UK.
This needs reform.
In the UK, to be self-employed, you merely fill in two sides of a form (CWF-1) and send it to your local tax office. And you pay tax once a year. In Poland, you go through inordinately more bureaucracy to be able to call yourself a jednoosobowa dzialalnosc gospodarcza. In England, if you wish to tune pianos, trim decorative hedges, teach ballroom dancing or renovate classic cars, you just get on and do it and pay the taxman annually. In Poland, the citizen is not simply allowed to go out and earn his or her way – he or she must apply to the state for permission to do so, pay tax and ZUS and VAT monthly, and be subject to such rigorous supervision as to put off all but the hardiest souls. (In the UK, you are only obliged to pay VAT if your earnings exceed ?100,000).
Put it another way; if Poland is to really take off as a country, it needs to make it much easier for people to start working for themselves, to employ other people; it must be easier to pay taxes.
Where’s the political appetite for reform? Looking at the economic programme of the presidential candidates, I could only see real economic reformist zeal in Janusz Korwin-Mikke (slightly nutty party) and Andrzej Olechowski. Both marginal candidates without any significant party support.
As for two remaining candidates, the least-worst option is Bronislaw Komorowski. Plodding and steady rather than an energetic driver for change, I feel he won’t get in the way. I don’t get that feeling about his opponent.
Michael Dembinski
http://jeziorki.blogspot.com/
June 30th, 2010 at 09:01
Michal – You need to be specific and then you can see things more clearly why things are the way they are in Poland.
I share your background and ambitions for Poland to be a normal country, one to be proud of. This can only happen if we have politicians capable of building a law abiding (abided also by politicians ) and a rule of law society, an open and democratic system, non political public media, decent and transparent public institutions, access to all professions and public office of the best talents (and not for the chosen few), allow historians to reveal the truth about the past and not humiliate those who have the courage to speak and write honestly and with integrity, stand up for strategic interests of Poland, protect Poles in Lithuania and Belarus from harassment, act to protect the exploitation of Poles in EU countries, defend Polish children from nationalistic decisons by German Judentamts, protect Polish families from eviction because the state could not be bothered to register property rights in the regained post war territories,repatriation of Poles from soviet deportation to Kazachstan etc etc etc. It is a long, long list of things which need doing by the State before Poles can say they are proud of their political country.
As a nation Poles can be proud of themselves and their
achievements. Despite 120 years of occupation by Prussia, Austria and Russia, despite the devastation of WWI,despite Nazi German and Soviet Russian occupations, despite a totally destroyed country, cities and infrastructure; the mass murders in concentration capms and on the streets and deportations during the war, despite torture and murders commited by Polish communists on patriotic Poles( all are not guilty now of course), despite the betrayal of the Solidarity movement and the aspirations of Poles by the collaborators at the Magdalenka Round Table setting up the new(old)political order in 1989. There was only a small window of euforia in 1989 when Poles really thought a new country was being born.
Then the post communists cam back to power twice (!) in 1993 and 2001. Why do you think Poles voted their former oppressors back in, politicians who had destroyed their country and humiliated the nation for 45 years? Could it be something to do with the betrayal by the new solidarity politicians of the nation’s needs and aspirations?
21 years on, a coming of age, but time to say the painful truth – the politicains lost the opportunity to build a Poland, Poles could be proud of. Their own political agendas were more important than the needs and aspirations of the Nation they claimed to represent.
June 30th, 2010 at 12:46
Wacław – I agree with every word you say – except the first sentence :-)
A propos Poles in Lithuania – it would help if the Polish state recognised me as Michał Dembiński, and not insisting that I be called Michal Dembinski because that’s what it says on my (UK) birth certificate. This affects all UK-born Poles who happen to have Polish diacritic marks in their names and who apply for Polish citizenships.
The Polish state refuses to recognise me as Michał Dembiński, but insists that my Lithuanian namesake be recognised as such by the Lithuanian state. What hypocrisy.
June 30th, 2010 at 19:05
Michal – your points well made and indeed very true.
I appreciate all your interventions by the way.We need more voices to be heard, addressing issues directly affecting Poland’s future. We cannot leave Poland to the politicians.