By the time I returned to Czechoslovakia, I had an understanding of the principles of the market.

We must have the time to create strict rules so that property is not sold by Communist managers for a low price. They often get payments under the table to sell to the first bidder. This does not build public support for a market economy.

What we want is to establish the rules of a market economy - not to plan its outcome.

By the time we've made it, we've had it.

I also helped write the five-page statement of principles that Civic Forum issued in late November. That was the first public expression of what the new government wanted to do.

To talk about planning an economic system is to talk in old terms, and I find myself sometimes having to teach Westers about what the market really means.