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THE FORTHCOMING TRANSITION OUT OF MARXISM
By:
Ricardo E. Calvo MD PhD
Email: calvo@ccsi.com
USA
In reviewing the literature of the Cuban exile concerning the long term future
of the Island one can not avoid being impressed by the insistence that we
want to obtain liberty and the return of a free society.
Before we embark on the conquest of such goals it is worth considering what we
shall have for freedom and what principles will guide the transition to
construct such society. Many times we rely on distorted simplified knowledge and
lack basic information to form political views and decisions. Nowadays many
of us tend to support documents and agendas of which we do not posses a clear
understanding and the consequences of its contents. But we are not alone.
Widespread unfamiliarity with different political ideologies are well observed
in modern democracies.
This situation is not confined to political information but extends itself to
basic economic principles. The fact is that most economic truths are counterintuitive
and the public endorses appealing policies in any given instance since in
most occasions has little information to go on.
We have an imperative duty to become thoroughly familiar and question in detail
the long term implications of the agendas and Declarations signed, supported
and proposed for the future of our land by all and any organization in
exile and inside Cuba. It will be sad to acknowledge in the non distant
future that we were betrayed one more time. Can we afford it?
The forthcoming journey for Cuba out of Marxism will be the most demanding period
of our history as an independent nation. Cuba is not going to be the first in
executing it and hopefully not the last. Abundant optimistic rhetoric and
passionate unrealistic statements will have no place when confronting such
monumental task.
All Cubans must come to the hard realization that the transition out of the Communist
Party ruling will depend on us. Its costs and efforts will not be born by
any other nation or international institution but by us. Do not expect anybody
else in the world to do it.
The transition out of Marxism is not going to be free or painless. It means relocations,
disruptions and dramatic changes. The change of the whole political, social
and economic system has been very costly in former Marxist countries. Do
not expect to be otherwise in Cuba.
It is important not to be tangled in debates of fast versus slow reforms. Fundamental
changes of the system are not made up of a single decision but of an array
with realistic goals.
There is no doubt that the economic and political reforms that will be needed
in Cuba will come with pain and disappointment to many. We must be prepared
to challenge quick fixes and not to abandon long term results in the name
of soft socialism or Third Way approaches.
We must formulate and present to all Cubans a positive and straight forward vision
of a new society. It must motivate and must reach all those who have spent most
of their lives in the spiritually empty and aimless communist society.
We must tell the truth and not promise things which can not be realized. To have
credible programs and leaders who realize them are absolute imperatives. Will it
be possible for all Cubans to understand that preparing for the future of Cuba
is so much more important than just the overthrow of the present hierarchy
of the Cuban Communist Party?
How come we insist that the United States maintain its economic embargo towards
the Island when the Cuban community in exile fuels the maintenance of the
regime with several millions of dollars in the form of cash?
How come the Cubans have not managed to have funneled all the economic resources
now at their avail towards the aim of eradicating socialism and all its
vestiges from our soil?
I do not claim to have answers to each of these questions. I pose them with the
purpose of possibly firing a spark to reassess where we shall go from here
more than where we have been.
It is at this point in time and not later that we must ask: What kind of ideology
will lead the island of Cuba in the post Marxist period?. Appealing political
slogans and heroic actions by individuals in the past have robbed the Cuban
people of clear thinking leading to deplorable political scenarios later
difficult to change.
Most, if not all agendas and documents formulated by an impressive number of Cuban
organizations do proclaim in a repetitious way that democracy is the kind
of government proposed and favored. Many are not precise enough to define
the type of democracy invoked. One could also ask if we shall be dealing
with a social or liberal democracy. Is it going to be constitutional democracy
or will it carry any other modifying adjective preceding it.? In more
aspects than one, the challenging question is: what will be the functions
that we shall allow the government to perform on our behalf rather than
setting the rules for the government to act upon us?
Not because we are democratic we are going to be free but rather if we own freedom
we shall be democratic. Not because we are democratic we are going to be
prosperous but if we are independent owners of our resources we shall be
democratic. Democracy needs individual economic freedom more than free enterprise
needs democracy. The task of finding democracy and free economic enterprise
still haunts many policy makers and Cuba is not going to be an exception.
The word democracy can be modified in very subtle ways by the appealing and appeasing
adjective of socialism and easily sold to national and international
interests. It is easy for many to talk about democracy but it is harder to
find out what kind of democracy they have in mind. Rather than modifying
democracy with socialism let us precede it with the word constitutional and
set up the rules by which the government will behave.
It is not a matter of being against or in favor of democracy but knowing how to
procure it and more important how to make it durable and to function properly.
Many countries in the world are called democratic and have ended as a private
club governed by a selected group of politicians, military, senior officials
and isolated university professors.
Many countries are called democracies and have had a single party control their
destinies for several decades.
Many countries are called democracies and have had several groups of politicians
control their Central Banks as if they were their own private bank accounts.
Democracy does not guarantee private property or the recognition of human rights
or economic development. In many democracies there are expropriation of lands,
control of rents, violation of human rights, systematic debasing of the currency
and unlimited privileges enjoyed by a powerful elite of members of the
government and their close associates.
The purpose of government must be to protect the individual and not to restrict
him. For centuries there has been a debate concerning the relationship of
individuals to one another and to the State. This debate has posed the
fundamental argument underlying the modern democratic government and its
functions and purposes: to protect life, property and liberty.
Let us learn from the free and economically developed countries and from those
which were unfortunate to have suffered also in their past the ruinous
consequences of socialism in its extreme fashion.
From the former we should adopt respect for our own lives and possessions
to give us freedom and individual rights while governed by the Rule of Law without
fear of fiscal irresponsibility.
From the latter, not to pursue the middle of the road course of democratic socialism.
This is an attempt to combine free enterprise with the "best of socialism".
The trouble with this concept is that there is no "best of socialism".
This is an illusion that the socialists sell to a gullible public with emotional
laden arguments. These forces forecast disaster if individualism is allow
free play without the cement of "social justice" and if private
ownership is not in someway controlled by the State. Democracy and socialism are
not compatible. It has been tried many times in many countries with the same
consistent historical result: misery.
If we are going to have freedom from government coercion then we must have full
respect and recognition for intellectual and material private property.
If we want to enjoy individual human rights inherited as human beings
independent of legislative powers then we need to respect and protect life.
If we expect to be treated equally by the law and not be subject to the rule of
men we must establish and comply with the Rule of Law.
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