OSWALDO JOSÉ PAYÁ SARDIÑAS
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MESSAGE TO THE FORUM 2000 CONFERENCE IN PRAGUE - 2007/11/14 23:29
MESSAGE TO THE FORUM 2000 CONFERENCE IN PRAGUE
CUBANS WANT FREEDOM
Dear Friends:
I would like to thank my friend who always stands in solidarity with me, President Václav Havel, for his invitation to this important meeting. As you know, in Cuba, to travel is not a right. For this reason I am not with you physically, but my heart is. I am also grateful to all Czechs who have not lost their memory and who along with him have maintained their hands and hearts united with the Cuban people all these years. I would also like to thank all of you and everyone in the world who support the aspirations of freedom and peace for my people. And finally, hoping she does not omit these words: I would like to give special thanks to this dear friend who reads this message in my name; we love her and we greatly admire her for her inspiration and dedication to the cause of freedom and democracy for all people.
Dear participants in this Conference in Prague:
We Cubans want freedom.
We Cubans want all rights, simply because we have the right to these rights because we are human beings.
We Cubans want freedom for those who are incarcerated for defending, promoting and exercising human rights.
We Cubans want reconciliation and to live in union and in peace, among ourselves and all peoples, because we are all brothers.
We Cubans want to be able to determine for ourselves our future, freely and democratically, and the social, political and economic system for our society, without interferences or interventions, as an independent and sovereign country and as free men and women.
We Cubans want and know that with the freedom to work, to own private businesses, to trade, travel and create, we can overcome poverty and maintain and improve free social services as rights, and move toward the path of development.
All of us Cubans who live in Cuba love all of our brothers who have emigrated for whatever reason and suffer from exile and we say to them: Cuba is your home, Homeland and the home of all, and you, as Cubans, should have all rights as children of this nation, otherwise we will not be truly free.
We Cubans want a new and better life; a life that is free, more just and more humane.
This is the essence of the declaration of freedom for Cubans.
Those who love freedom and respect our people, those who want to be in solidarity, should support these legitimate aspirations, because never before has oppression been silenced and justified as it has been done against the Cuban people. Never before have lies usurped the face of truth in order to kill the real truth as it has been done against my nation that does not have a voice and where the poor cannot even say they are poor.
Some speak about measures and about changes and put all their expectations in the group that holds power. We ask and answer with determination: And why not rights? We want rights, all rights.
Others speak about transition. If this means peaceful change, by means of dialogue and participation to achieve the objectives we mention; then that is transition. But sometimes what they call a transition toward a formal democracy is a situation in which the people do not decide anything and where the citizens can neither exercise their rights nor overcome poverty. We do not want that kind of democracy. Or they speak about a transition towards a market economy as if it were the ultimate goal. We remember from the past and witness in the present, how some countries can have market economies and political dictatorships of various types.
We denounce neo-communism, where the leaders go from being the only party to being the only capitalists and keep the people without any rights while they turn into the most powerful oligarchies before the complacency of those who are content with doing good businesses. This is what some refer to as a transition.
We do not want recommendations for indirect paths, nor pseudo slave-like formulas with or without a free market. The people are the first who have to be free. A component of this freedom is economic freedom, but inseparable from all freedoms, from all rights, from opportunities for those who have never had opportunities. The Cuban people do not believe in false democracies that are not capable of constructing social justice. Nor do they want to continue with totalitarianism, which they never chose. Because communism is not a democracy, there is neither equality nor true social justice.
To support the Cuban people it is necessary to place oneself in the real Cuba and not in a virtual scenario. In Cuba there is a culture of fear and a threat of death that dominates as an alternative to freedom as expressed in the official slogan of “socialism or death.” Cubans suffer from disinformation and are buried in propaganda that presents a false dilemma between the current order and total calamity. Our people are impacted by images, sometimes exaggerated, but other times real, of a calamity that is truly present for many nations. In Cuba there is oppression, but also uncertainty and doubt about the future. Many Cubans feel that their life is threatened by a possible catastrophic end announced by some and reinforced by others who are equally irresponsible. They feel in danger of losing their homes or of being marginalized again in a new way. Cubans want a new life but they want to preserve what is good and the best thing that they want to preserve are their own lives, dignity and safety and that of their loved ones, and also what has been constructed with love, which should prevail over ideologies and models.
The Cuban Forum, the civic campaign which we have just begun, will not remain as only an expression of good desires and concepts. The Cuban Forum is the definition of immediate and future objectives, as well as the path that we must follow.
We want to follow the peaceful path towards peace and we will not follow any other. We want to follow the peaceful path toward freedom and we will not follow any other, because otherwise there would not truly be peace and freedom.
The Cuban Forum is the civic campaign to continue the Varela Project and the demand for changes in the laws so that fundamental rights are respected. Only by achieving the exercise of freedom of expression, of movement and affiliation, of forming organizations and political parties, will Cubans be able to take part freely and democratically in the project and the construction of a free, more just and more humane society, that we all want, without excluding anyone, without vengeance or revenges, with all and for the good of all. This is our determination and our hope.
For those who want to stand in solidarity with Cuba, please support our right to have rights and our path to peace.
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas
In the name of the Christian Liberation Movement (Movimiento Cristiano Liberación, MCL)
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