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By Susana Barciela Editorial Board member.
sbarciela@herald.com.
The Miami Herald
JOURNAL ENTRY
There is a lot to be said for learning from history and painful experience.
That's not just for organizations like the FBI and Enron. It applies equally for
people and their nations, like Cubans and Cuba.
That came to mind last week listening to a marvelous series of talks by
Carlos Alberto Montaner, a Madrid-based journalist, author and astute student of
the past. Invited by the University of Miami's Institute of Cuban and
Cuban-American Studies, Montaner taught a course on Cuba's contemporary history.
In four nights he ranged from 17th-century world events to post-Castro
possibilities. It was a good reminder that key social developments -- war,
revolution, communism, democracy, free enterprise -- don't just happen. Like
seeds, these developments must find fertile soil to grow.
How could Castroism plant such deep roots? The conditions were ripe. Among
these Montaner cites ''negative values'' in prerevolutionary Cuban society: the
political class's perennial use of violence to settle disagreements and the
public's tolerance, if not admiration, for these ''men of action''; widespread
corruption and disrespect for the law; an obsession with caudillos, as if the
next strong man could save the nation from itself.
Cuba had great successes in medicine, the arts, sciences, diplomacy. None of
that changed the fact that its political culture was a violent mess.
''By 1959 the Cuban population was profoundly revolutionary; it wasn't
Communist,'' Montaner says. Add the political currents then sweeping Latin
America -- anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, anti-Yankee, valuing collective
interests above individual rights. Before long Fidel Castro was the new savior
spouting Marx, and Cubans were applauding.
By now Communism, its totalitarian brutality and economic lunacy have been
discredited worldwide. What is the best hope if the goal is a peaceful
transition to a democratic Cuba that respects the rule of law, human rights,
private property and free enterprise?
Based on the experience of Spain and most former Soviet satellites, Montaner
suggests a scenario where the existing institutions are stretched and mended to
dismantle totalitarianism in an orderly way. Quick economic reform could begin
to revive Cubans' spirits beaten down by decades of official lies and tyranny.
Among his suggestions for a transition government: Stimulate private
business; allow double citizenship for the two million Cubans in diaspora so
that they may fully contribute to the reconstruction; let people own the homes
they've lived in for years; find a way to compensate Cubans whose property was
confiscated.
More important will be how the political process and values evolve. Have we
Cubans, on and off the island, learned from decades of hardship? Will the
democrats outside join those inside to prevent a piñata a la Nicaragua's
after the Sandinistas left power? Have we seen enough of messiahs and revolution
to slowly build institutions and a rule of law? Will we be able to put aside the
thirst for revenge, learn to govern by consensus and work with the opposition?
Let us hope we can. May Cubans, as Montaner says, convert their politicians
into true public servants after 43 years of the public serving at the whim of
its government. | 
