Opinions by Prof. Piotr Jaroszyński and other scientists on the Central Commission
My opinions and experiences with the Central Commission coincide with other scientists' observations. I am going to present now several quotations from the series of articles entitled "Queuing for a title" by Prof. Piotr Jaroszyński which appeared in the Independent Academic Forum.
"The steps of the scientific and university career are quite complicated in our country and, what is more, they are almost entirely "inherited" from the Polish People's Republic (PRL) in which a scientist was to fulfill a determined ideological task. However, it does not mean that everyone of them filled this task yield to the pressure of the communist authority. Yet the authority had its own means to "control the movement", especially upwards, as regards obtaining higher degrees or titles. These matters are completely alien to an average Pole and probably will remain alien because he/she is not directly influenced by their results in his/her everyday life. He or she feels a rise in prices of fuel, electricity or rent. What one does not feel one does not think of and it is treated it as if it were not there".
"From other curiosities. During the entire process which is to lead to the decision about adoption or rejection of the motion, when different "for" and "against" are drawn out, the candidate is absent and cannot say anything. It might not be very correct but such a manner of assessment resembles a kind of a kangaroo court, i.e. the trial is over a person who is not present among the judges and who consequently cannot defend himself/herself, cannot defend his/her views, especially in the face of non-specialists! This is amazing, both from the scientific perspective, because different views and discussion are included in the scientific canon, but also from the moral and legal perspective, because even villains, sentenced to death, have the right to defend themselves. In this instance they do not have that right."
"Somebody will ask why such silence, why is the environment silent? Well, those candidates who are in trouble are advised in a whisper: you had better to be quiet, wait for a year, two, perhaps five or ten. So they are quiet and wait. During that they will usually turn a bit bitter and become humble a little. Perhaps this is what was meant?
How can Poland be reborn without rebirth of its elites? How can we have elites without healthy atmosphere in universities and in university commissions? Without rational, responsible and clear rules of promotion? With the exclusion of ideological or personal conflicts? It is very difficult. And unless there are healthy elites, this society will never rise. There will only be hopes, expectations, illusions and disappointments. So, it could be worth having a closer look at the system of conferment of scientific degrees and titles? It could be worth undertaking a wise and courageous discussion on this issue"
"It is one of essential traits of totalitarianism that it aims at increasingly fuller control of its citizens. Among different spheres of the public life, some of them have a strategic dimension. They include the law and the judicature, media and journalists, education and science. The Stalinist years showed in an unusually transparent manner to what degree the law can legalize the evil and lawyers can serve the evil passing biased or even criminal sentences "in the majesty" of the State. The years of the martial law are a period of simply "model" propaganda spread by mass-media when lies or manipulation of the truth were a daily routine, and journalists lied looking straight into one's eyes. And what happened with science? Somehow this topic disappeared from the field of vision".
"The Polish science was strongly communist. And maybe it is still so? After all there was neither decommunization nor full vetting in Poland".
"The tragedy of Katyn was not only a tragedy of tens of thousands of victims and their families but it was also a tragedy of the Polish nation. Obviously, it was a military crime because officers were murdered, but much worse in the moral dimension - after all it was genocide. What should be still stressed is that it was a crime in the intellectual dimension: reserve officers are educated people, the cream of the Polish intelligentsia: lawyers, doctors, engineers, professors, graduates of our universities, which in the interwar period determinedly joined to the program of the rebirth of the Polish elites after the annexations. In Katyn the gross of our intelligentsia was killed.
Stalin's activities were far-reaching. The Polish People's Republic was his creation. Could it be expected that the communist system would allow the rebirth of the Polish intelligentsia in the same dimension as in the pre-war times? The intelligentsia which is morally right and disinterestedly patriotic, such as the pre-war intelligentsia? The criteria were rather opposite and the aim was to suppress the intelligentsia and deprive it of its status of the national elite.
Is the Central Qualification Commission an element of this black scenario? And why not? What is the reason of establishing such a commission? What can it contribute to the requirements which were placed to candidates for the degree of habilitated doctor or the title of professor? Was it any neutral and higher look? One can doubt it."
"It has its meaning because among the reasons which cause that the motion for confirmation of habilitation qualification or acknowledgement of a title is rejected, the following criteria appear: considerable achievements, creative input. etc. How can a person who is not a specialist from the given field assess it competently? How can it be assessed by a superreviewer if he/she represents a similar field? How can it be assessed by a person who evidently belongs to other ideological option, which in the case of humanities was and is widespread?
But the verdict of the Presidium is indisputable from the factual perspective. There is nobody before whom one could question a content-related assessment, which is after all formulated in such odd conditions, in the conditions of absolute dictate of a group of people who are legally protected from all sides. One can question only the formal aspect and flight it out in court for several years only to come back to the starting point most frequently.
Such arrangement of structures for conferring scientific degrees and titles is not only unfair but also deeply demoralizing. It can also be doubted if it has anything in common with science. Rather, the dominating role is that of ideology inherited after the Polish People's Republic (PRL), at least in the procedure".
"The analysis of the materials included in the LEX collection concerning the legal dispute regarding the confirmation of the degree of habilitated doctor or the title of professor provides a rather terrifying image of the system which allows discriminating Polish scientists due to personal, environmental and ideological reasons. This discrimination can occur "in compliance with the regulations in force", therefore the aggrieved individuals have little room for maneuver and in practice almost each of them must lose, though for years (!) they have been deluding themselves that justice will prevail. This system was prepared in the times of the Polish People's Republic (PRL), had certain aims and, above all, it was constructed so as to provide a possibility of controlling the promotions of research personnel not so much by the Presidium of the Central Qualification Commission itself as by the communist authorities. Therefore, this body was formally all-powerful, yet practically subordinated to the party authorities. The communists knew very well how people of science are sensitive to their professional career, how they can be jealous, how they can act against one another (e.g. writing various texts). These weaknesses could be used to play, divide the environment, promote the "mediocre but faithful", oust the better but not humble. And all that was done "in compliance with the law". After all, the Polish People's Republic (PRL) was a "legal state". The question arises, though, why this commission remained after the year 1989, despite its name changing from the Central Qualification Commission to the Central Commission for Scientific Degrees and Titles, although the system changed?. The system changed but there was no decommunization, not only in the Polish political life but also in the Polish science. It means that Marxist scientists or the scientists brought up on Marxism could use the commission to take their revenge "in compliance with the law" on the young research personnel representing a different vision of science".
"The Central Commission has wide room for maneuver to disqualify the achievements of a specified candidate. God only knows why the leading figure of the qualification procedure might be the superreviewer who will discredit the opinion by the Faculty Board and three other reviewers. It would mean that everybody is incompetent except for the superreviewer! But this is absurd! It is even more ridiculous that the Presidium can reject all opinions and all reviews and then decide in reference to the achievements within the field which none of members of the Presidium have knowledge of. In the meantime statements appear that the achievements are not "creative", it is not "significant" or it is scientifically "low", etc. These are professional qualifications so it is necessary to have knowledge on a given field and specialization to assess what is creative and what is not. What is more, these are "recognition" assessments. It is known how different views are sometimes and how variously some scientists assess other scientists. All in all, the decision has a discretionary character though built up with the entire apparatus of the formal and legal procedure. Analyzing the structure of the operation of the Central Commission we can conclude that it gives immense room for "recognition" maneuver: promoting some and deteriorating others. So, a question arises about the sense of existence of a commission with such a wide power and remaining practically out of any content-related supervision? ".
I will quote now several quotations of the creator of the website "The Independent Academic Forum" Mr. Józef Wieczorek from the letter to Prof. Janusz Tazbir - The Chairman of the Central Commission.
DO WE GIVE A CHANCE?
A polemic with Prof. Janusz Tazbir, the Chairman of the Central Commission for Scientific Degrees and Titles.
"In the Issue No. 4 (1997) of the ACADEMIC FORUM Mr professor maintains that the Commission of decision-makers about the so-called Poles' "scientific careers" which is chaired by him at present, provides opportunities. I see those issues on a wide background of the pathology of the Polish scientific environment and in my judgement, in general "scientific" decision-makers do not give any chances to independent (in the normal meaning of this word) and independent scientists who undermine their "only right" views.
According to my knowledge, the Polish "science" compares to the science sensu stricto more or less like the socialist democracy compares to the democracy sensu stricto, and the credit for that also goes to the Central Commission for the Scientific Degrees and Titles (formerly the Central Qualification Commission). Dividing specific LICENCES to perpetually make decisions about the most important matters of the Polish science (do not mistake with the science sensu stricto) to a narrow caste of "irreplaceable" people, "learned" in their inquisitional activity, the Central Commission has a huge influence on the state of science, both in its intellectual and moral sphere. The "learned", annointed by the Central Commission, often imitating the Greatest Linguist and his worthy pupils (even the famous Trofim Lysenko) eradicate non-conformist workers who are a threat to them and in whom they found "irregularities" in thinking and, what is worse, in action, which aim at undermining their perpetually dominant position. Next the "coryphaeuses of science" stupefy the society shedding crocodile tears for the disadvantageous "generation gap" in science and education.
The fact of the progressive intellectual limitation in representatives of subsequent steps of the "scientific" career is difficult for me to interpret in any other way than as an effect of negative selection of research personnel, which by no means ends on the level of "habilitation qualification" but also concerns "professors" and members of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). It is clear that the "professor", often being the final effect of the negative selection of personnel, is neither in a position to assess the achievements of a scientific worker against the background of science sensu stricto nor in a position to find the cases of plagiarisms in scientific papers. Specialized "professors" are helpless in detecting plagiarisms on the level of the master's thesis, let alone on higher levels. At times, anyway, they see nothing wrong in "plagiarization" of publications (it their fragments) if they frequently reached the top of their official career themselves by means of methods of doubtful ethical value. More, in my judgement the ethics is badly seen in "scientific" environments.
"Dear Professor! In accordance with my conscience I cannot call Professor of Science somebody who has received such a title from you (yours predecessors) and does not allow publishing different views from the binding ones, does not allow financing papers which undermine, or might undermine his/her "only right" opinions, who fabricates false accusations in order to destroy an inconvenient worker. Dear Professor! For me science ends where there is an end to the possibility of free pursuit of truth and free scientific discussion. I have good reason to doubt if obtaining a scientific title is, or should be, an aim of the scientific work. I am sure that it is rarely PROFESSORS OF SCIENCE who decide about the titles (and first of all, about the lot of science and scientific workers) in Poland. Depriving people of any chances in official science only because God gave them mind and their mothers taught them to understand the written word is a disgrace of the Polish system of science and education".
Prof. Tazbir did not respond to the above polemic. The members of the Central Commission do not always show tolerance for independently thinking, sometimes setting fire to the stakes on which the disloyal are burnt.
At the same time when Prof. Józef Wieczorek, the creator of the Independent Academic Forum (NFA), polemicized with the Chairman of the Central Commission, Prof. Janusz Tazbir, I paid a visit in the Central Commission. I was seen by the Chairman of the Central Commission, Prof. Janusz Tazbir and the Secretary of the Central Commission Prof. Osman Achmatowicz. I asked why the Central Commission committed a crime as regards my habilitation qualification not transferring the full documentation of my habilitation qualification received from the Military Medical Academy for assessment of superreviewers and why a decision was made about refusing to confirm the resolution of the Military Medical Academy based on the review of only one superreviewer. I did not receive any reply. During the whole conversation both of them addressed me as "Professor". After returning home I reviewed the law on scientific degrees and titles. It turned out that the title of professor can be obtained for outstanding scientific achievements even without the degree of habilitated doctor, which I was legally conferred on. Having such experience with the Central Commission, I would be naive if I applied for being conferred on the title of the belvedere professor. Based on my scientific epochal discoveries I will remain a free scientist, the Professor of Science sensu stricto, until the end and nobody will ever undermine it. I think that my discoveries will remain remembered for ever without supporting with the title of the belvedere professor.
In my opinion, Prof. Janczewski and Prof. Ku¶ should apologize to the members of the Medical Faculty Council of the Military Medical Academy (WAM) and the reviewers of the Faculty Board and the members of the Medical Section of the Central Commission for their lies thanks to which many members were misinformed.
The truth cannot be hidden or conquered, the truth is immortal. I will quote now several quotations from the homily delivered on 27 May 1984r by the Reverend Jerzy Popieluszko on the truth and fortitude.
"The truth and fortitude are very important value in everybody's life, especially in the Christian life. The truth is a very sensitive property of the human mind. Aspiration to the truth was instilled into man by God himself. Hence, in everybody there is a natural aspiration to the truth and reluctance the lie. The truth always unites with love, and love costs, a real love is sacrificial, hence the truth must cost as well. The truth which costs nothing is a lie.
To live in the truth is to live in agreement with one's conscience. The truth always unites people. The size of the truth terrifies mean and frightened people, and unmasks their lies. The constant fight with the truth has lasted for ages. However, the truth is immortal, and the lie dies quickly. Hence also, as once Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński said: "People speaking in the truth need not be numerous. Christ chose a few to preach the truth. Only words of lie must be numerous because the lie is retail and mercenary, it changes like goods on shelves, must be constantly new, must have many servants who, according to the program, will learn it for today, for tomorrow, for a month. Afterwards, there will be again hasty training in another lie. In order to master the entire technology of a programmed lie one requires many people. One does not require so many people to preach the truth. It can be a small group of people of the truth and they will radiate with it. People will find them themselves and will come from afar to listen to the words of the truth. We cannot accept and be pleased with easy, superficial, propagandist and enforced truths. We must learn to differentiate the lie from the truth. It is not easy in times in which we live, in times in which, as a contemporary poet once said, "never before have our backs been flogged so cruelly with a whip of lie and hypocrisy...".
It is not easy today when for the last tens of years the homeland soil has been officially sown with grains of lies and atheism, grains of secularized world view, this world view which is a philistine product of capitalism and the freemasonry of the 19th century. It was sowed in the country which for more than thousand years has been strongly rooted into Christianity".
"Violence and demonstration of power do not serve the truth. Violence is a lie because it destroys what it allegedly defends. In order to rule the state well one ought to give up violence and lie and then peace and conditions for fruitful building will come back. But peace cannot be understood as a forced silence of people. Life cannot be deceived as the earth cannot be deceived. If one throws chaff into it, one will harvest weeds. Christ's Gospel has been so fruitful for ages and constantly current because it is the truth. Ideologies which are led by lie and sheer force, fall down, bring bad fruit and moral devastation. We can observe too many examples of it in the history of Europe and the world. The principal condition of man's liberation towards winning the truth and life in the truth is winning the virtue of bravery. Fighting for truth is a sign of the Christian bravery. The virtue of bravery is overcoming of human weakness, especially fear. Because one should fear only treason of Christ for a couple of silver coins of futile peace".
"So, concern about bravery should lie in the interest both of the authorities and the citizens".
Poland is a postcolonial country and as such cannot be fully democratic. I became convinced about it sending letters to different state institutions. The only person who responded was the Minister of Justice, Mr. Zbigniew Ziobro, sending my matter to the public prosecutor's office, suspecting an offence in the entire case. After leaving the minister's office by Mr. Zbigniew Ziobro, the public prosecutor dismissed the case. In these circumstances man is not in a position to fight for justice solitarily with a positive result.
I will now recall several quotations from the defense of Socrates in my personal context.
"First it is my right to defend myself against the first false accusation made against me and my first accusers, and then against the later accusations and the later accusers. For I have had many accusers before you for many years, and already for many years all, and they spoke no truth...."
"And the most stupid of it all is that even their names can neither be known nor mentioned"
"Those influenced by envy used calumny to persuade you, and those who, being themselves persuaded, have persuaded others against me, and all of them are most difficult to deal with; for it is not possible to bring any of them here to court, nor to confute any; but one has to fight as it were with shadows, defend oneself and convict but there is no one to answer."
"For none of them surely would say the truth: that their ignorance and their fake wisdom are disclosed. And because it is apparent that they care about respect, and they are fierce and they are numerous, and systematically and convincingly speak ill of me, so you have heard their calumny thrown at me fiercely for a long time".
Once I asked several professors for assessment of my habilitation qualification and my scientific achievements. Finally, I will present now the opinion by Prof. Wiesław Sułkowski, who was my superior in the Institute of Occupational Medicine, when I began my adventure with otoneurology