Havana Archdiocesan magazine urges Communist Party to embrace
significant reforms
Archdiocesan magazine says Communist Party dogmas have failed in Cuba.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
A Catholic magazine in Havana has complained that a plan for an upcoming
Communist Party conference shows the party is tied to "failed dogmas"
and called for profound changes in Cuba's economy, its tightly
controlled news media and its rubberstamp legislature.
The editorial in the magazine, Espacio Laical, used unusually direct
wording to argue that the published agenda for the National Conference
of Cuba's ruling and only legal political party on Jan. 28 falls far
short of what is so desperately needed.
While any changes must be well-considered, it noted, "we do not have the
luxury of confusing gradualism with a lack of clarity or speed" because
"it would be painful if the current generations of Cubans must suffer
the pain of seeing their aspirations truncated."
Yet, the agenda for the conference shows the party remains "attached to
failed dogmas and obstinately holding on to a very vertical relationship
with society," added Espacio Laical, published by and for lay Catholics
in the archdiocese of Havana.
The most important reform needed would be to give common Cubans more
opportunities to run their own lives and truly influence government
decisions, the magazine argued, calling it a "re-founding of citizenship."
For its part, the magazine added, it favors allowing small and medium
private enterprises as well as all types of cooperatives, and freedom
for professionals such as doctors and lawyers, who can now exercise
their professions only in government jobs.
Cuba also must promote the growth of civil society — that part of a
country's life not controlled by the government — by allowing
independent social organizations and opening the heavily censured mass
media "to the diversity of criteria in the nation," it argued.
Reforms also are needed within the Communist Party, the magazine added,
as well as "the mechanisms of people's power, so that the institutions
of public power can have the authority they need." Cuba's rubberstamp
legislature is the National Assembly of People's Power.
Espacio Laical's arguments coincided on many points with recent columns
by Pedro Campos, a well-known Havana historian and former diplomat
sometimes described as the voice of Cuba's democratic communists.
Campos has argued that the party must end its "neo-Stalinist" ways and
develop a version of socialism that includes more direct citizen
participation in government decisions as well as the productive sector,
through workers' cooperatives.
The Raúl Castro government has launched a string of reforms designed to
improve the economy, by slashing public spending and allowing an
increase in private enterprise. It also has legalized the sale of
dwellings and expanded the legal sale of cars and trucks.
But some of the reforms remain in the planning stages, and there's been
no sign that the government would agree to any political changes that
could endanger the Communist Party's hold on power.
The Espacio Laical editorial acknowledged the Castro reforms so far and
noted that others no doubt will follow, but added that Cubans "feel that
there's nothing big, capable of renovating life and driving away the
hopelessness."
The announcement that the party would hold a conference in January
sparked "great expectations" for change, added the editorial. But the
recent publication of the agenda "worried many who had hoped for
renovation."
With most of Cuba's revolutionary rulers in their 80s, the editorial
called the conference "the last moment for the so-called historical
generation" and urged it to "propose substantial changes and convene the
people to carry them out. Don't lose this opportunity."
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/16/2503800/havana-archdiocesan-magazine.html#storylink=misearch
No comments:
Post a Comment