From last December, the Cuban people have been engaged in an important and decisive process that is the open discussion of the Draft Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) and the Revolution. These meetings are commonly taking place these days in every workplace, school and neighborhood to assess the valuable contribution to the Cuban socialist model upgrade. More than 55 thousand meetings of this kind have been developed so far on the island. 6 million people have participated in this process that will culminate next February 28. The process reflects the popular will to defend and renew the socialist experience that will be reflected then in the upcoming 6th Congress of the Communist Party in April this year. The debates carried out have been frank and enlightening in which broad-based participation has prevailed. As the top leadership of the country has expressed, nobody should be excluded from the discussion that will determine the future of the country. In a new democratic exercise unprecedented in the world, people openly expressed their concerns about the measures to be taken to update the Cuban economic model which seeks to increase production and efficiency and thus raise the population’s living standard. Workers, peasants, housewives, students and intellectuals, everybody in general, have expressed their views that at the same time are being heard and carefully reflected because, as by Cuban President Raul Castro had expressed, it is necessary to take into account everybody’s impression. The Cuban president called for open discussion, not to see discrepancy as a problem but as the source of the best solutions. The Cuban leader has repeatedly emphasized that “contradiction, if not antagonistic as in this case, is the engine of development". This is a process aimed at benefiting the entire population. The Cuban government is aware that without the consensus of everyone it is quite difficult to put it forward. Not surprisingly, the leadership of the country has called on the people’s opinion to decide the fate of the nation, because as analysts recall, since the Revolution of January 1, 1959, this has been a constant when taking momentous measures or passing certain laws to benefit the population. Sources: RHC. |