Ministers
In Cuban politics for the past 50 years, ministers don’t resign. They are removed, not due to popular pressure but to “renovation,” transferred to other functions, quietly, so silently that we never know why — whether they did a good or mediocre job, whether they improved or worsened the lives of people. Nothing.
Nor do we know anything about those who fill the post, other than two or three paragraphs devoted to their c.v., contained in the meager announcements published on the occasion, to the point that, if we assume that most Cubans are informed of the decisions of high national politics by the media, our neighbor’s son knows more about the life of some Malaysian excellency than about the life of a Cuban minister.
In general, other than seen in the televised sessions of the National Assembly or one or two TV appearance, the ministers remain quite distant from public life, so much so that most of the citizenry today ignores their names, the projects that they’ve drafted for their ministries, their principles, what they defend (because they defend something), what they find wrong, what they base their policy on.
Nor do they show their faces when something goes wrong. In fact, it is very rare for a mistake by one of those “high-falluters” to come to light and be subjected to public scorn, as happens with lower-ranking officials. The only ministerial disaster that I know of befell the former Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, and the reasons for it were never made public. To give you an example, I am not a member of the Party or the Union [of Communist Youths] and was not informed — as the citizen I am — of his fate.
For instance, there was a small commotion on the Web because when [Sept. 10] it was announced that the Council of State had decided to release from his post the minister of Transportation, César Ignacio Aroche, and promote to that job Adel Yzquierdo, the current vice minister of the Economy and Planning, a post he assumed — oddly enough — after he held the very same portfolio.
Opinions vary, from those who wonder if, in the entire transportation system of Cuba, there is anyone with enough training and experience to assume that post in a sector as important to the country; if there is anyone who will free us from the trial-and-error method that is so natural and destructive whenever someone who is capable but inexperienced takes on responsibilities that force him to swim in undiscovered waters, to those who now question the ability of the newly appointed minister.
In the long run, these concerns are as valid as they are futile. Only the Council of State, whenever the National Assembly is not in session, can make such decisions according to Article 87 of the Constitution — and it did so.
What consequently affects us most directly — although, in practice, anyone can say whatever he finds most appropriate — is how ministers perform their tasks, rather than how they got their jobs, jobs that — whether we like it or not — often define how we live.
By this time, the secrecy surrounding the ministries’ performance is an anachronism and a clue to the poor practices that eventually turn into corruption, abuse of power, and mistakes that do not bring adequate justice upon the perpetrators.
It is time for the ministries to realize the need for an agenda of Political Communication that brings their activities to the public, allows us to monitor their actions, successes and failures, and thus enables us to demand (even through the media) explanations and accountability from our public servants.
Servants who, frequently and despite all intents to open the gates of information, continue to bar our access to statistics and facts that — so long as they have no bearing on the national defense and are not official secrets — should be public.
To ignore or postpone this agenda would be to be mindless of the duty of the State (and not just our State) to communicate to society the decisions that affect us directly, because only knowledge guarantees our participation in — and eventual exercise of — real democracy.
And we need that, just as we need a more transparent policy, economy, and exercise of power. It is not enough for the people to assume that their leaders are capable of solving problems and doing what’s best for all. The people should know it, too.
[From the blog Lilibeth’s Corner.]
