Poor show.

Poor Show

LECH WALESA is now the fourth-ever popularly elected president of Poland, but the election campaign left a nasty taste in many Polish mouths. Stanislaw Tyminski, the controversial businessman who defeated Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki in the first round, was rightly defeated. He was, in effect, the beneficiary of a protest vote against both the Walesa and the government wings of Solidarity, against the transitional pains of economic reform, and against reality. His initial success was a sign of Poland's democratic immaturity. But so was the way in which his challenge was eliminated. In a normal democracy, the bias of the government-controlled television, the hysterical attacks on Tyminski by journalists, and the strong-arm methods used by Walesa's supporters would have been regarded as a scandal.

None of the charges against Tyminski--that he was sent abroad by Poland's military intelligence, for example, or that he traded children in Peru--were ever proved. There was never any proper confrontation with Tyminski and his ideas. He was dismissed without being examined.

This was a failure by Poland's political class in its first exercise in democracy. Polish dissidents were courageous and noble in their long struggle against Communism, but they have not wholly escaped the totalitarian mentality. Instead of being Poland's spokesmen--and heirs to a democratic political culture that the Communists tried to suppress--the intellectuals have shown themselves to be just an interest group, as greedy for power as any other, and self-righteous to boot.

Fortunately for Poland, the man who won, Lech Walesa, is no intellectual. In Walesa, Poles have chosen a leader whose entire life testifies to a preference for pragmatic action over doctrinaire theories. On the path to the free market and the rule of law, East-Central Europe's emerging democracies need decisive leadership. It is a bonus if the men who take on the burden of leading them out of crisis can also claim a democratic mandate and popular support.