European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 24, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Daily Magazine czechs leery of Moscow reforms by Alison Smale associated press Wenty years after soviet tanks crushed Alexander Dubcek s Prague Spring of Reform czechoslovak Are deeply leery of the changes now proclaimed in Moscow and echoed by their own leaders. A key reason is that Dubcek was crushed and disgraced for trying to make reforms or at least letting them go too far. Czechoslovak today wonder if the same will happen to Mikhail s. Gorbachev and his soviet reforms perestroika restructuring and glasnost openness leaving them worse off than they Are now. They Are aware that old time conservative communists Are still around and a fear of their traditional hard line remains. The scepticism of Reform surfaces in countless jokes what is the difference Between Mikhail Gorbachev and Alexander Dubcek none but Gorbachev does t know it yet. What is the difference Between perestroika and chess in chess you think before you move. Think in a new Way a cartoon character asks his Boss echoing a new communist slogan. But for years you be been telling me not to think at  in the years after the Prague Spring czechs and slovaks still seemed stunned by the soviet led invasion on the night of aug. 20-21,1968, that erased Dubcek s movement to bring a new face to czechoslovak communism multiparty politics Freedom of the press speech and religion a liberalized Economy. When it was Over Dubcek was expelled from the communist party and went off to his native Slovakia to work As a clerk in a forestry office. At the same time the chanting singing joyous people of the Prague Spring vanished from the streets and squares. Most retreated morosely Back to their private lives to pursue a material wealth that was the party s Reward for their political silence. In 1988, that Post invasion Reward is running Low. Czechoslovakia s outmoded Industry is performing poorly forcing planners to scale Down production targets and to slash coveted wage bonuses. Shortages Are again apparent in shops. On the political front while Prague s leaders tinker with Reform the winds of change blowing from Gorbachev s Kremlin Are prompting More citizens to Challenge the communists on issues ranging from ecology to cultural and religious Freedom. But the memory of 1968 makes czechoslovak wary of placing too much Faith in Gorbachev and in turn their own leaders As Well As reforms. As one Prague Man put it soviet reforms sound to up the Prague Spring of 1968 led to a summer lineup of soviet tanks along the City s streets. Czechoslovak like the right ideas from the wrong  even deeper scepticism is reserved for the cautious reforms adopted so far by the communist leaders installed by Moscow 20 years ago to make sure Dubcek s experiments would not be repeated. After spending 18 years assailing change Czechoslovakia s communists have now fallen in step behind Gorbachev endorsing perestroika and adopting the rhetoric of Reform. But the sense among Many in Prague is that there is no guarantee of any meaningful or lasting effect. This past december the party even changed its Leader substituting a 65-year-old apparatchiks Milos Jakes pronounced Yakes for an increasingly frail Gustav Husak 75. Jakes immediately set about trying to revamp the image of the party Leader emulating Gorbachev by taking Well publicized trips to factories and farms to Chat with workers. Borrowing Many phrases from Gorbachev Jakes spoke of the need for economic and social Reform at a key party meeting in april that brought some new younger faces into the party elite. But Jakes lacks Gorbachev s touch. At february s following his attempt at Reform Alexander Dubcek left was expelled from the communist party. Sunday july 24, 1988 Snow dampened celebrations of the 40th anniversary of communist Power crowds streamed away from the Square when Jake s got up to speak. Few czechoslovak can forget that it was Jakes who had overseen the expulsion of almost 500,000 party members in a Post Dubcek purge. They also know that Husak who took Over from Dubcek in March 1969, is still on the ruling politburo. When Jakes talks of Reform however he pointedly omits mention of glasnost which has brought startling frankness to the soviet Media. Jakes stresses that Czechoslovakia s 1.7 million communists must dictate the Pace and shape of any change. An unspoken fear is that Reform will spin outside the party s control As the communists say it did in Dubcek s Days. Even economic change is treated with extreme caution particularly by managers who report that Over Hasty reforms in the soviet Union Are making it difficult for them to Deal with soviet enterprises. Planned decentralization of management is not Likely to go As far Here As it has in the soviet Union and won t be in full Force until 1991. Restructuring cannot be too Hasty said Svatopluk Smutny an economics editor at the communist party newspaper rude Provo. It is far too important a change and needs to be thought out in detail and  communists like Smutny reluctantly admit to some parallels Between the current situation and 1968, when Dubcek at the age of 46 became party Leader with a mandate to implement Market oriented reforms designed to boost the  Dubcek opted for political Reform As Well advocating changes Gorbachev now wants 20 years later. It was a Heady spell wistfully remembered by Many it was quite simply the Best time of my life recalled one Man who was then a teen Ager in i ague for communists 1968 carries a different message they remember How Dubcek promised that his reforms were irreversible and look anxiously now toward Moscow for signs of a conservative backlash that could crunch Gorbachev. If Gorbachev strengthens his hold on Power both Moscow and Prague May eventually re evaluate the 1968 invasion in effect a Kremlin acknowledgement that it was the wrong thing to do and won t happen again. Such a reappraisal would be popular with those who remember 1968, and create space for change that would be welcomed by those who have grown up since. Both these groups increasingly have turned outside the system for spiritual fulfilment opening up what the banned playwright Vaclav Havel recently termed a yawning chasm Between two virtually unrelated worlds the world of official ideology and the world of the authentic attitudes and beliefs of  the stars and stripes Page 13