Why Can’t Cubans Have a Civil Discussion?

Why Can't Cubans Have a Civil Discussion? / Ivan Garcia
Posted on May 12, 2015

Ivan Garcia, 7 May 2015 — The harm caused to Cubans by the military
dictatorship is anthropological. We have an economy that has tanked, a
fourth-world infrastructure and salaries that are a bad joke.

Chances are that we will eventually recover from the economic disaster
but it will take two or more generations to overcome the damage done to
ethics and civic values. The ideological madhouse Fidel Castro created
in January 1959 has polarized society.

The regime has divided families and exacerbated differences. It has
criminalized political differences while the special services and
Communist Party propaganda have turned repression into an art form.

Among its strategies are acts of repudiation. These are basically verbal
lynchings designed to suppress the opposition through the use of
civilians and paramilitaries disguised as students and workers.

Cuba is a nation governed from the top down. Ordinary people do not have
mechanisms that might allow them alter their circumstances. A party
membership card and unconditional loyalty have become a kind of
passport, allowing a person to climb the state's ladder of success.

Twenty-five years ago a commitment to the revolution was rewarded with a
television, an apartment or a week's vacation at the beach. However, the
ongoing economic crisis that has plagued the island since 1990 has
drained the state's coffers and eliminated material incentives for the
most loyal workers and employees.

Now governing is not so easy for the Castros. Their narrative no longer
appeals to large segments of the population. Fifty-six years of
continuous rule has led to exhaustion and economic disaster has created
a breach in society.

Although people now feel free to express their opinions on the streets
without fear, the official strategy is to disparage dissidents and
intimidate Afro-Cubans.

The Castro regime has been successful at isolating the opposition in
spite of the fact that dissidents' statements have been in tune with
popular opinion. Unfortunately, the opposition has not been able to
capitalize on the frustrations of the population.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the most reasonable
solution would have been for Fidel Castro to sit down with his opponents
and work out a joint solution.

But Fidel is not genetically predisposed to tolerate disagreement.
Instead, he chose to dig in. What is despicable is not that he mortgaged
Cuba's future; it is that he has used the intelligentsia and related
sectors in his confrontation with Cuba's dissidents.

Neither potato harvests nor milk production will be increased by
isolating our compatriots who hold different political positions. The
bureaucracy and criminal cartels imbedded in state institutions will not
disappear by intoning stanzas from genocidal anthems extolling the use
of machetes.

In the peace of quiet of their own homes these people — transformed into
weapons of moral destruction — will try to see that refrigerators remain
empty and the future remains a question mark.

Behaving like gangsters will not improve the erratic economic
performance of a failed system or put an end to material shortages. The
solution to the island's structural and political problems will only be
resolved through dialogue.

The statement by Luis Morlote, a spokesperson for artists and writers,
that "we as a civil society are defending what is ours, so we cannot
share the same space as dissidents" is at best unfortunate.

What will they do with opponents? Ship them to an outpost on Turquino
Peak? And when Castro supporters come to share the opinions of
dissidents and independent journalists, what are they going to do? Run
away? Ask permission to sit next to us on a bus or in a taxi?

How will the regime resolve disagreements? With imprisonment, exile,
beatings and extrajudicial assassinations? There is still time to
redesign the current repressive system and replace aggression with a
handshake and an exchange of views.
Irascible activists, like those the Cuban government sent to the recent
Summit of the Americas in Panama, could be repulsed by the prospect of
sitting down with "mercenaries" who snap photos with Che's "murderer."
Similarly, there are dissidents who would rather dine with the Borgias
than have a chat with representatives of the regime.

Everyone is in his own trench, but the reality is that the problems that
affect all Cubans remain unresolved.

Source: Why Can't Cubans Have a Civil Discussion? / Ivan Garcia |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/why-cant-cubans-have-a-civil-discussion-ivan-garcia/