Petr Cibulka - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Petr Cibulka is a Czech politician and former dissident

Dissident

A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....

.

As one of signatories of Charter 77

Charter 77

Charter 77 was an informal civic initiative in communist Czechoslovakia from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, and Pavel Kohout. Spreading the text of the document was...

Cibulka was repeatedly imprisoned for various fabricated offenses and spent a total of 5 years in prison before the Velvet revolution

Velvet Revolution

The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...

in 1989. During the Velvet revolution he was arrested and put in prison again but was released as the crowds gathered in front of the prison he was held in and demanded that he be freed.

Cibulka lists

In early 1990s he published a list of agents and collaborators of the Czechoslovak secret police StB

STB

STB is an acronym that can mean:* Sacrae Theologiae Baccalaureus – Bachelor of Sacred Theology* Set-top box – a television device that converts signals to viewable images* Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP -- a law firm...

, since then known as "Cibulka lists" ("Cibulkovy seznamy"). Until this time, this information had been kept secret and occasionally used as a way to discredit political opponents. The main opponent of publication was Václav Havel

Václav Havel

Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...

- then president of the country and a friend of Cibulka. There was a very public exchange of opinions ("Vašku ty jsi prase!", "Václav, you are a pig!"), which effectively ended their friendship. The lists eventually contained tens of thousands of people with various ties to secret services. An electronic form with an easy search function was added later.

Years later, in 2003, similar though much shorter lists were published officially by the Czech government and the very few personal files kept by the StB were made public.

Several public personalities (for example the actress Jiřina Bohdalová

Jirina Bohdalová

Jiřina Bohdalová is a Czech actress. She began acting in theatre and film at an early age. She was accepted to The Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague at her third attempt. She received an offer from Jan Werich to join the actor's troupe at “Divadlo ABC” theatre which she...

) sued the government, because they were unjustifiably included in the "informers files" - and some of them won their cases.

Other activities

Cibulka is publisher of the online political journal "UNCENSORED NEWS" ("NECENZUROVANÉ NOVINY", the usage of uppercase letters is intentional and used frequently throughout his texts).

Cibulka is founder and leader of a tiny political party "The Right Bloc" ("Pravý blok"). The complete name of the party, as it appears on election ballots in 2008, is:

Volte Pravý Blok - stranu za snadnou a rychlou ODVOLATELNOST politiků a státních úředníků přímo občany, za NÍZKÉ daně, VYROVNANÝ rozpočet, MINIMALIZACI byrokracie, SPRAVEDLIVOU a NEZKORUMPOVANOU policii a justici, REFERENDA a PŘÍMOU demokracii WWW.CIBULKA.NET, kandidující s nejlepším protikriminálním programem PŘÍMÉ demokracie VY NEVĚŘÍTE POLITIKŮM A JEJICH NOVINÁŘŮM? NO KONEČNĚ! VĚŘME SAMI SOBĚ!!! - ale i s mnoha dalšími DŮVODY, proč bychom měli jít tentokrát VŠICHNI k volbám, ale - pokud nechceme být ZNOVU obelháni, podvedeni a okradeni - NEVOLIT žádnou parlamentní stranu vládnoucí (post) komunistické kriminální fízlokracie!!! – jenž žádá o volební podporu všechny české občany a daňové poplatníky, kteří chtějí změnit dnešní kriminální poměry, jejichž jsme všichni obětí, v jejich pravý opak! V BOJI MEZI DOBREM A ZLEM, PRAVDOU A LŽÍ, NELZE BÝT NEUTRÁLNÍ A PŘESTO ZŮSTAT SLUŠNÝ!!! Proto děkujeme za Vaši podporu!!! byla založena pod původním názvem Pravý Blok již v r.1996 poté, co politicky, programově i lidsky totálně selhala vedoucí politická reprezentace tehdejší uměle založené a vždy spolehlivě kontrolované pseudopravicové Demokratické unie, stojící na dávno překonaných principech "demokratického centralismu", prázdných ideologiích a zejména na nedůvěře ve schopnosti svobodné a zodpovědné lidské bytosti vládnout sama sobě.

Literal translation of the name into English (formatted as bullet list):

Vote for the Right Bloc

- the party for the easy and fast RECALL of politicians and state officials directly by the citizens, for LOW taxes, a BALANCED budget, the MINIMIZATION of bureaucracy, a JUST and UNCORRUPT police force and legal system, PUBLIC REFERENDA and DIRECT democracy WWW.CIBULKA.NET, campaigning with the best anti-criminal program of DIRECT democracy
YOU DON'T TRUST THE POLITICIANS AND THEIR JOURNALISTS? AT LAST! LET'S TRUST IN OURSELVES!!!
- but even with many other REASONS why we should ALL go to vote this time, but - unless we want to be deceived, cheated and robbed AGAIN - DON'T VOTE for any of the ruling parliamentary parties of this (post)-Communist criminal "cop"-ocracy!!!
- which asks for electoral support from all Czech citizens and taxpayers who want to change the current criminal situation of which we are all victims into its polar opposite.
IN THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL, TRUTH AND LIES, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BE NEUTRAL AND STILL REMAIN RESPECTABLE!!! For this reason we thank you for your help!!!
was originally established under the name "The Right Bloc" already in 1996 after witnessing the complete political, programmatic and humanistic failure of the then-ruling political representation, artificially-founded and forever reliably controlled by the pseudo-right Democratic Union party, standing in the name of long-since established principles of "democratic centralism
Democratic centralism
Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...

" empty ideologies and namely the distrust in the ability of the free and responsible human being to rule one's own self.

Cibulka argues that the information blockade by the Czech media necessitated the use of this name to deliver his program to the public.

External links

Texts in Czech language

Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...