Taking notes while Raúl Castro speaks
Taking notes while Raúl Castro speaks
Two five-year periods the limit for top officials.
The economic project takes place in an atmosphere of a country under siege.
White collar corruption will be known by all.
Single party is ratified, but discrepancies should be treated with respect.
By Elsa Claro
January 29, 2012
Raúl Castro vowed to give to the whole country detailed information about those involved in serious acts of corruption, most of them perpetrated while occupying important posts, as soon as criminal proceedings are over and the guilty ones have been sentenced.
An investigation by the Ministry of Interior, in collaboration with the Attorney General’s office, has made the case on a subject that has concerned the present Raúl Castro administration since he was sworn in as Cuban president. On the matter, Castro recalled that last month, in the closing of the legislature, “… I mentioned my certainty that at present corruption is one of the revolution’s worst enemies”, even worse that the multimillionaire subversive program of the empire against the island, and that “we would not allow” ephemeral actions against these crimes, as in other occasions, said the President. Castro mentioned that fortunately, and without the least intention of playing down the importance of this world-wide problem, “we can put a brake on it and even eliminate it.” He underscored that a relentless war will be waged against these misdeeds that some call “white-collar or ‘guayabera’ crimes”, alluding to how some people take advantage of their posts to fill their own pockets.
The reference was linked not only to the measures for preventing the growth of this evil and eliminating it, but also in the case of double standards that lead some to use their membership in the Party as a stepping stone to gain temporary and long-lasting material advantage.
As a sample of the measures for avoiding these acts or stopping them from going unpunished once perpetrated, President Castro said that the Party will expel any member who commits acts of corruption, breaks the law or violates ethics, independently of legal responsibility.
This is not the only changing issue for the organization, which will retain its single party condition. President Castro said that this is a legacy from the party created by José Martí in similar times and similar purpose of unity, bringing together all that was positive and patriotic at the time and committed to the cause of independence. Castro underscored that at present there are enough conditions that allow us to maintain the same principle, for the alternative is the formula of the so- called “representative democracy” and its resources to deal with a society that, if it rises up in rebellion, as it is happening today, is fiercely repressed.
Castro argued that the decision to limit top officials to two five-year period in their posts will be implemented even before the Constitution is amended on this matter, a step that subsequently will be dealt with.
In order to avoid past mistakes, which he admitted on several occasions in his speech, and also to avoid agreements to go unheeded, all levels in the Party will discuss twice a year the objectives agreed upon in the present Conference.
This is a similar mechanism as the one adopted to control the implementation of the economic model and the achievement of the goals in this field.
“Experience has taught us” Castro said, “that what you do not control effectively is not fulfilled or it is done superficially”, thus it is a must to work with persistence, order, discipline and in a demanding manner, both in the administrative and the political field.
A significant issue was approached by Raúl Castro when he mentioned the indispensability of one of the objectives discussed in the meeting, strengthening national unity around the party, and that the organization must work to create strong bonds with the people. Where they do not exist, he said, they will be created, and where they exist, they will be made stronger.
Since between ideas and day-to-day practice nothing flows easily, President Castro also said that the crux of the matter does not lie in having formulated brand new objectives, but determining ways and manners for implementing them, evaluate them regularly to know how much we have progressed and, above all, check negative trends in time.
Although on other occasions since he was sworn into office three years ago President Castro has mentioned the issue, he again approached a deficiency that should be strongly addressed: a better structured cadre policy for avoiding the present situation in which there are not enough young people with the appropriate training for high-level posts.
“We do not have a reserve of experienced and mature substitutes with enough preparation for assuming complex functions” in strategic posts, Castro acknowledged. Likewise he said that it would be a mistake to believe that the resolutions adopted in this 1st. Conference or those of the 5th Congress are magical solutions to all our difficulties. Old and new problems, and those that may crop up, should be addressed with a transforming mentality and a lot of political sensitivity.
Among reiterations mentioned by Castro was also the promotion of an atmosphere of the utmost trust in which the best conditions should be created to foster a wide movement of opinions in the midst of the Cuban Communist Party, and from workers to the party cells and the administration. Discrepancies should be dealt with respectfully, including in the media. On the latter he called on them to improve on their professionalism and to attach themselves to the strictest and confirmed truth. At the same time, institutions should give the information requested with the same spirit, in order to eliminate excessive secrecy once and for all.
President Castro underlined that if the Party insists on greater interrelation among members, and between the party structures and the workers too, there is also the intention that an atmosphere of trust and the eradication of simulation and double standards allow that anyone can refuse an order if he or she considers it inadequate and should discuss it with his or her superior at the adequate moment, place and in a civilized manner, not with secret commentaries worthy of free-lancers, but not of active participants.
Economic or political projects to which the historic generation and its successors commit themselves are taking place in an atmosphere of a country under siege, Castro noted, something even friends sometimes forget.
He said that some of them suppose that certain models are the ones that should be adopted. But from the inside, knowing how to be responsible for things well done and also for mistakes, and aware that to make wrong decisions is coincidental with being a creator, you have a solid base worthy of trust.
Progreso Weekly will publish shortly the full version of President Raúl Castro’s address.
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