HAVANA, (Reuters) – The Cuban government has launched a hard sell about proposed economic reforms as it tries to whip up enthusiasm in the public and its own ranks ahead of a Communist Party congress to approve them in April.
In state-run newspapers, television and radio, the message is being sent that changes are needed to improve Cuba’s economy so that socialism will live on once the current leaders are gone, and that the way they are being adopted is a grand exercise in democracy.
“In this process, it is the people who decide,” read a headline in Communist Party newspaper Granma this week.
“The Revolution will come out strengthened,” said another.
It is too early to know whether the campaign is working, but it appears the government thinks it will require some effort.
There have been front-page stories featuring pronouncements by President Raul Castro and inside pages filled with personal testimony by Cubans enthusiastic about what is afoot. Television and radio have given similar coverage.
“This process is very opportune and very necessary because these are new times and we must improve our social economic model,” said one person quoted in the newspaper Juventud Rebelde.
“We are going to analyze (the proposals) with the certainty that it will mark a transcendental moment,” said another.
All the promotion is about a dense 32-page document titled “Project for Guidelines of Economic and Social Policy” unveiled by Castro last week which details proposals to strengthen Cuba’s fragile economy.
The essence of the reforms is reducing the state’s role while allowing more private enterprise. The government will continue to own most of the economy, but more self employment will be allowed in an effort to boost productivity.
Some of the proposals are already in action, but all await approval at the ruling Communist Party’s first congress since 1997.
The congress, which has been put off repeatedly over the years, will be preceded by a period of public discussion in which Cubans can voice their opinions, which is the democracy part.
“As has happened in many previous occasions, once again the people will be the great protagonist … one more example of our genuine socialist democracy,” said one of testimonials in Communist party newspaper Granma.
Amid all the talk about the importance of the changes, Cuban leaders appeared to retreat slightly this week by insisting they were simply a modernization, not a reform of the communist system installed after the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro, Raul’s older brother, in power.
