The Opposition in Cuba - Calling Ourselves to Account

The Opposition in Cuba: Calling Ourselves to Account / Antonio Rodiles
Posted on November 14, 2013

We are an active part of the transition

The result of the recent vote that gave Cuba a seat on the United
Nations Human Rights Council, again puts into question the credibility
of this institution, which has also given seats on the Council to
countries such as China and Russia, constantly denounced for their lack
of respect for fundamental human rights. China and Russia are two
international powers that have to be considered on any international
stage, so although questionable, there is a certain logic to their
selection. Cuba, on the other hand, is a small bankrupt island without
resources, but its regime has toiled intensely in the field of diplomacy
for all these years, generating a network of influence and allies who
respond only to their interests, ignoring any element of ethics.

After 54 years of almost total isolation, the Cuban opposition has had
the opportunity to participate in international forums and to denounce
the systematic violations of human rights on the island, as well as to
express its needs for international solidarity and support. However, it
is important to recognize that while our message has been heard with
more volume and we have achieved greater prominence, we still have
neither the strength nor the articulation to achieve a greater impact on
international actors and organizations and, thus, to exercise more
pressure on the totalitarian regime.

The reelection of Cuba to the Human Rights Council highlights the urgent
need on the part of Cuban opposition groups — both inside and outside
the island — to articulate more effective efforts at diplomacy in the
international arena.

The Cuban opposition must begin to see itself as a political force,
which means that it cannot simply be a source of complaints. This leap
requires a drastic change that obliges us to analyze, deeply and
honestly, our strengths and weaknesses.

One of our main shortcomings is the lack of professionalism and
political vision, something we must begin to overcome despite living
under the longest and most devastating dictatorship in the hemisphere.
Without this projection, it will be impossible to reach broader sectors
of society which, although tired of the outrages, sit on the sidelines
waiting for more favorable scenarios that will permit them to express
their political preferences and to identify themselves with a specific
group.

The role of the exile should be very active as they are an essential
part of the nation. Above all, the exile must open their senses to
objectively perceive the reality in which we live on the island. Without
a clear diagnosis and vision, and lacking an anchor in today's reality,
the result will be failure. The Cuba of 2013 is not even the Cuba of
three years ago.

To maintain that a social explosion will lead us magically to democracy
has been counterproductive for decades and diminishes the prominence and
support for projects that could generate the dynamics for a democratic
future for the nation.

The exile is fundamental for transmitting to us a vision of contemporary
societies and encouraging our growth toward a modern and dynamic
opposition. If, instead, it encourages complacency and conditional or
manipulated support for specific groups that respond to sectarian
interests or visions, we will then, to a large extent, continue to
repeat the same stagnant pattern of the regime.

To generate false expectation with manipulated figures and unconvincing
scenarios could be very damaging, not only for our internal dynamics,
but for the credibility of the opposition movement abroad.

That someone should call themselves the spokesperson for the entire
opposition, or promote a certain group as the most important or active,
shows a political immaturity and only helps to generate friction and
sterile competition. No one in Cuba today has the authority, nor the
reach to the opposition, nor to society, to call themselves the
spokesperson of the opposition. No group has the reach to proclaim
themselves as the essential actor of change. Whoever sends such a
signal, is simply wrong or lying.

Cuban society has begun to shake off a disastrous regime, but we find
ourselves in a still emerging moment, which is never a sign of weakness.
Many of the actors in the transition are about to appear, and it will be
a great surprise when some Cubans who are currently on the border of the
so-called "gray zone," break out on the political scene and play more
significant roles than many of us who today work from the opposition.

The opposition must go through a process of professionalization, reach a
sharper sense of politics, and have the human capital capable of
competing and projecting governance options distinct from the regime
which has caused the national disaster, but which has all the means and
power to transmute to an authoritarian capitalism.

The honest debate on fundamental issues cannot wait any longer, we must
open an exchange from the civility that stimulates the growth of diverse
ideas and visions of another Cuba that we want to construct. To remain
silent for the sake of an archaic and hidebound vision of unity is too
damaging. Any process of democratic maturity implies questioning
political capabilities, legitimacy and effectiveness in thought and
action, because many of the strategies offered as engines of change are
nothing more than old desires, fantasies and fetishes.

The challenge today is for a new thinking to take hold among the Cuban
opposition, a thinking born in the current century, within a world of
networks with novel hierarchical and dynamic structures, where
creativity, knowledge and information set the standard, leaving aside
personalities and epics.

Those who do not recognize, within certain sectors of Cuban society —
such as professionals, artists, intellectuals and activists — the
principal actors of the changes, are simply dreaming within the same
formula of a "triumphant Revolution" with thousands of citizens
welcoming the coming of a new Messiah.

If we want concrete results, our reading of reality should be as
accurate as possible. If we do not develop acuity and effectiveness in
the field of politics, we will remain complainers.

The democratization of Cuba will cease to be a chimera when we
systematically uproot the spaces of a power that insists on not thinking
of us as political actors.

13 November 2013

Source: "The Opposition in Cuba: Calling Ourselves to Account / Antonio
Rodiles | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-opposition-in-cuba-calling-ourselves-to-account-antonio-rodiles/