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Thursday, December 04, 2014

Johno Johnson: The Legend

On 3 December 2014 a tribute was paid in honour of Parliamentary legend Johno Johnson I only met Havel twice and wouldn't pretend to know him well. But he mattered as much to me as my father ...

I met him once in Prague after he signed the Charter 77 and again in 1995 when Johno Johnson, President of NSW Legislative Council fame, invited me to luncheon in Sydney Parliament House. But I really first met Vaclav Havel at my sister Aga’s deathbed in 1975 when I first came across his classic play, Vyrozumní (The Memorandum)...
He was something of a bohemian George Orwell. Like Orwell, Havel satirised the 'doublespeak' of the official bureaucratic language of the communist regime …


In 2003 I wrote a short tribute to my hero who even inspired me to grow moustache after the military service in Czechoslovakia circa 1979 to 2003 when I shaved my moustache as Havel’s political era was over ...
Respected by impartial observers here and Czech lands

IN the volatile and competitive world of Labor politics in the 1970s, anybody who wanted to be somebody had to know John Ducker, the NSW state president of the party and Labor Council secretary. Same could be said of Johno - ALP boss John Ducker a friend of the US - The Australian