I add my voice to support
Cuban dissidents
By Martin Palous. Posted
on Mon, Mar. 08, 2004 in The
Miami Herald.
The era of Fidel Castro, the planet's longest-serving
dictator, is coming to an end. His oppressive,
totalitarian regime remains in power, but
its gloomy, hopeless reality is representative
of the past. It stands in sharp contrast
to the expectations and noble ideals that
animated Cuba's revolution. For the future,
something new is in the air: anticipation.
Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis
-- times change and people change with them.
Growing numbers of Cubans, on the island
and worldwide, are discussing a transition
to democracy, which has a strong international
underpinning. Although geographically distant,
in terms of political experience, the Czech
Republic is close to Cuba. Consider these
points:
o Castro's persecution of dissidents and
seemingly endless violations of fundamental
rights and freedoms has wrought a vocal,
international sense of solidarity with these
prisoners of conscience as well as moral,
political and material support.
When the U.N. Commission for Human Rights
holds its annual session in Geneva this
spring, an unequivocal signal must be sent
to Havana that imprisoning 75 dissidents
is a blatant violation of its international
obligations.
Freedom for Oscar Biscet, Raúl Rivero,
Martha Beatriz Roque and other dissidents
should be a condition for any serious international
engagement and cooperation. Oswaldo Payá
and his Varela Project, Vladimiro Roca and
others in the Todos Unidos (All United)
Movement ought to be praised for their demands
that Cuba's government respect human rights.
The reawakening of civil society is essential
to a transition into a functioning, prosperous
democracy. The repeated calls for a national
dialogue and reconciliation should be given
attention and supported internationally.
The United States and the countries of
the European Union and Latin America should
join together to pass a strongly worded
resolution. In the past, the Czech Republic
successfully initiated such action, and
although not currently a member of the commission,
is ready to assist again.
o Not only are human rights being defended
and a civil society emerging in Cuba (reminding
Czechs of our past), but a more-political
and multifaceted debate on transition is
also taking place there.
About this, too, we Czechs can offer our
experience, especially on the difficult
moral, legal, political and economic issues
that we had to work through in our own transition.
There is a paradox to be emphasized, a
mystery whose solution is the key to any
successful democratic transition: Democracy
requires a plurality of opinions.
The free competition of ideas and opinions
not only brings out the best of the new
realities; it also distinguishes democracy
from autocratic forms of government. Yet
fruitful competition is always based on
a fundamental consensus among relevant parties.
In Cuba's case, I see two major, relevant
parties: Cubans on the island who advocate
freedom and a democratic Cuba, and the Cubans
in the United States and elsewhere in the
world. One of Castro's strategic weapons
is, and has been, to keep Cubans divided,
to separate those under his domination from
those elsewhere whom he pejoratively calls
"the Miami mafia.''
To overcome Cuba's stagnation and to start
its journey toward the future requires a
fundamental agreement on the principles
of unity, or convergencia and todos unidos.
Isn't it time, therefore, to talk seriously
about reunification and reconciliation of
the Cuban nation so that Cuba can find and
take its place among free, democratic and
prosperous nations? Isn't it evident that
Cuba needs a renewed national consensus,
deliberatively achieved within a contemporary
international framework?
In today's world, Castro's Cold War scenarios
and rhetoric are outdated and irrelevant.
I am an outsider, but I am adding my voice
to the voices of Cuban dissidents looking
toward the future and calling for a really
open national dialogue in which all Cubans
could participate.
The Czech experience confirms that this
is the only way to begin a successful transition
to democracy. It is the only way to renew
and reformulate what was lost in decades
of a totalitarian regime: the basic ''social
contract'' that can steer Cuba through the
seas of international politics on a successful
voyage to democracy.
Martin Palous is ambassador of the Czech
Republic to the United States.
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