REPUDIATION OF THE COMMUNIST PAST

Ricardo E. Calvo MD PhD

The process of transformation in Cuba is not a subject conducive to a brief and simple treatment as the experience has shown in former communist countries.

It has been said following the collapse of communism that it would take some months to reform the political system, years to change the economic structure and several decades to effect a repairing evolution in the hearts and mind of the people. The latter will constitute the slowest most complex and elusive component of any process of transforming Cuba out of Marxism.

The norms of human behavior develop and are adopted gradually in an evolutionary fashion. They do not change overnight. An important factor that works against change is the length of time the previous rulers were in effect. The communist regime in Cuba has been in place for almost two generations and around 70% of the actual population of Cuba was born after the 1959 revolution. This is a population that has never experienced the slightest exposure to any other set of societal norms but that of the Communist Party.

In any transformation there is only a certain amount of time to carry out changes before people wish to settle back down to normal routines. Therefore, in a paradoxical way, any slow pace of change for rules of conduct tends to work against any sort of transformation.

If some evil is introduced in the body of politics whether by usurpers of power or by legitimate leaders acting inmorally, then order in the moral domain is deranged and the proper balance is only reestablished by removing the wrongdoers, punish them and reestablishing the previous status. The reestablishment of a normal situation in society is closely related to the task of healing the rift between the government and the people who are alienated from it. This is done by powerfully repudiating the past and not by compromising with it.

People will develop an allegiance to legal and constitutional principles when they understand fully that the principles of legality and the rule of law are part of their own values.

This purification of the Marxist era means that their ideas and the values have been definitely condemned and banished and the people can see the political and economic domain as cleansed.

The future government of Cuba must be cleansed of personnel who can not be trusted to hold power. As a result, the people will feel more confident that their leaders are not simply mouthing democratic ideas while surreptitiously undermining them.

We must condemn communism openly and radically without hesitation. Only in this way we shall be able to avoid seeing many sectors of the population claiming at some time in the future that some of the communist principles are somehow compatible with democracy and that socialism is not really that bad.

To exclude known communist from holding political office is indispensable as integral part of the transition period. It is not an indication of intransigence or of a new dictatorship. It is based on the simple idea that they can not be trusted to exercise political power consistent with democracy. The transition out of Marxism will need ample breathing space and time during which it can lay down the roots without the danger that the old Marxists will maneuver to undermine it as they practice the art of using power. The fundamental change in Cuba must be accompanied by the complete replacement of the ruling elite without being afraid of being accused of offending legality or lacking compassion.

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