A Democracy with the People as the Commanders-in-Chief

A Democracy with the People as the Commanders-in-Chief
PEDRO CAMPOS | La Habana | 13 Oct 2015 - 10:13 pm.

Choosing between the deplorable state of things in the 50s and that
today is a false dichotomy. A new Cuba can be forged by all.

There is quite a broad consensus in Cuban society regarding the need to
advance towards a process of democratization. We have not, however, been
able to reach an agreement about the kind of democracy it ought to be.

Government-Party-State commissions are working on private on plans for a
new constitution and electoral law, indicating that they have realized
that something must be done in this direction. It would be a serious
mistake to leave the important aspects of these plans to select groups
and to forget that this is an issue that ought to be addressed by all
Cubans, excluding no one, with everyone discussing it, in accordance
with a horizontal model, and voting in a referendum.

Those of us who are familiar with the regime might think that, although
Raúl could honor his promise to abandon the presidency in 2018, he has
said nothing about his post in the PCC (Cuban Communist Party). If
Article 5 of the Constitution is not amended, which establishes the
PCC's oversight of society, and he continues to serve as the General
Secretary of the PCC, it won't make much difference whether he is
elected or designated as "President," or the way in which this is done,
because he would continue to sit on the throne, with the government
functioning as a simple executor of the decisions made by the PCC and
its leaders.

Let us not overlook the fact that in China, after Mao Tse Tung, true
control over the Government and the Party was exercised by the Central
Military Commission of the PCCH, headed up for several years by Deng
Xiaoping, the architect of the reform measures that took China from a
form of capitalism based on state monopolies to one under which private
capitalism prevails, now being intensified in response to the crisis
affecting the country's economy.

Hence, the challenge involves more than holding elections and voting for
names on ballots. A process of democratization is necessary. In this
regard a call to strengthen the democratic Left consists of five points:

"The creation of an atmosphere of goodwill and accord leading to the
holding of an inclusive National Dialogue, the recognition of
fundamental liberties, a new Constitution born of collective and
horizontal creation and discussion by the Cuban people, and subsequently
approved via referendum; a new democratic election law and the
establishment of a modern state respecting the Rule of Law and
characterized by total functional and informative transparency, under
popular control; municipal autonomy; participative budgets at the
different levels; and the submission of laws affecting all citizens to
referendums. In short, a humanist democratic republic rooted in
solidarity and featuring social justice, and in which the principles
enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human rights prevail, and
there is a place for everyone."

Factions within the traditional opposition, in the official legal
sphere, and on the democratic Left have exhibited support for national
democratic constitutionalism, with concrete proposals that hitherto have
failed to materialize due to sectarianism and the intransigent
exclusivism characterizing the Party-State-Government's philosophy.

The suggestions span from the elimination of Point 5 of the
Constitution, to reforming the document, to an entirely new carta magna;
the re-establishment of the separation of powers (Executive, Legislative
and Judicial); multiple parties; the freedom of expression and
association; alternation in power; one-term limits; elections featuring
direct and secret voting by all Cubans for all important public
positions, at all levels; participative budgets; the municipalization of
powers; referendums for laws affecting all the people; and informational
transparency regarding the country's functioning and finances at all
levels, under strict popular power.

Seeking to make advances in this democratic direction contingent upon
those problems arising from the blockade/embargo is a strategic
political error that will only serve to sustain stagnation, it being a
neo-Plattist idea, however one looks at it. And this goes both for extremes.

The resolution of Cuba's internal issues cannot hinge upon a foreign
power. Cuba's problems are the business of all Cubans, and we are the
ones who must solve them and do what is necessary to harmonize the
interests and opinions of the critical mass capable of working towards
democratic change, through congruent channels.

Cubans wielding some influence in the US Congress could use it to
further the democratization process in Cuba. If they refrained from
establishing the aforementioned link they could burnish the image
harbored of them by many Cubans, shaped by propaganda about the "Big Bad
Wolf, the Miami mafia and exile, rife with terrorists."

Those in power in Cuba today know that Cuba needs this kind of process,
but fear that it will spin out of control, wresting from them the
absolute power they have held for more than half a century. This also
explains the slow and sluggish pace of economic reform. They argue that
they must be cautious in order to ensure that this process does not lead
the country to the appalling Cuba of the 50s, suggesting the absurd
threat of Cubans' having their current properties taken from them by
those who owned them before they were seized, and the prospect of
Communists being dragged through the streets like dogs.

Unfortunately this rhetoric is actually employed by some people across
the sea, where some have people have not been thorough or precise when
discussing these issues, enabling some Cubans to divulge their
statements to justify opposition to change.

The choice between that past and this present is a false dichotomy.
Rather, the real challenge is to build a new Cuba in which civil and
democratic liberties and rights do not allow elites, of any kind, no
matter how they classify themselves, to hold power in the service of
their narrow interests.

Therefore, what we need as a society is something superior to our
current society and that of the 50s, capable of configuring the
different means of production entailed by reality and the time in which
we are living, and social development is achieved through justice and
solidarity, a respect for citizens' rights, real power for workers and
the people and direct participation in all the decisions that affect
them, rather than confrontations or struggles for power, which should
reside exclusively with the people.

A reconciled, democratic and harmonious Cuba does not entail the
elimination of political and other types of differences, but rather the
possibility of their full manifestation, based on convergence rather
than confrontation, and the resolution of conflicts through dialogue and
negotiation, without impositions or the arbitrary abuse of hegemonic
power, which would lie not in the hands of a few powerful individuals,
but in those of all the people.

First of all, it is necessary to repeat that the best democracy would
not be that desired by this or that particular group, or that which one
finds most effective, but rather that which the people desire or
approve, as expressed in a Constitution proposed by a Constituent
Assembly, followed by broad, horizontal, free and democratic debate and,
ultimately, ratified via referendum.

In short, a democracy where those elected to public positions are
servants rather than those served, and in which the
"Commanders-in-Chief" are the people.

Source: A Democracy with the People as the Commanders-in-Chief | Diario
de Cuba - http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1444767186_17486.html