WORKING DOCUMENT

Oswaldo J. Payá Sardiñas

Preamble

If the Cuban people approve the Transitional Program (PT) in referendum, it will then become a Fundamental Transition Law. This Program will not belong to any political party or sector, but it will rather be a way for the people to renovate their society, their lives, and to overcome the crisis that is damaging our Nation. It will be a transitional program, in other words, one spanning a brief period of time, with well-defined deadlines and offering our Cuban society guidelines that do not intend to be definite. Its intention is to serve as a path for the people to follow and obtain true democratic and sovereign power as well as a real possibility of giving our society and country a definite form with principles that emanate from the Cuban people’s desires, rights and needs, following our own identity and our cultural and spiritual values.

This objective can only be reached within an atmosphere of reconciliation and freedom of speech that we must achieve during this process of National Dialogue with the help and participation of all Cubans, opening our hearts to our brothers and fellow countrymen.

It is important to understand that this Working Document is not the Transitional Program (TP). It is only a tool to help prepare the National Dialogue. This is why this Working Document can be modified in every aspect and will serve as a starting point to obtain a program of consensus with the participation of all Cubans. No Cuban is excluded, regardless of position or political and ideological background. Everybody is accepted, even those living abroad, no matter what their situation is.

The Working Document starts with an outline of the program, possibly not the final draft, and may even be unfinished. But we present it in this way so it is understood that the National Dialogue is not taken lightly; it intends to reach a tangible result. The objectives of this National Dialogue are reconciliation and to sow and grow respect and brotherhood, even during times of adversity. The richness of this diversity will enable us to build our own future together as a country. The Working Document is the product of mindful insight with a high humanistic and patriotic sense. A program for the Cuban people must arise from this National Dialogue, and it will help to establish the foundations for democracy, improve quality of life in the exercise of one’s right to enjoy and build Justice. This Working Document is a serious and coherent text inspired by Christian humanism values. It does not intend to impose any compulsory way of thinking; everything can be discussed and changed. But we cannot hide the complexity of this process as well as the responsibility that participating in the National Dialogue involves for everyone. It proposes to reorganize and improve life in our Nation. All the main fields are taken into consideration: health, education, government, economy, public order and armed forces, housing and all social, political and economical fields, for the good of the people. Other areas may be added and those existing may be modified. In other words, we propose a process in which citizens will participate, as a result of which a fair and realistic Transitional Program will arise, a program that will rule and guide Cuban society during a short but significant period of our future.

On March 10th 1952, Cuban people suffered an outrage with the coup that deprived them of their democratic Constitution. The objectives of this Revolution, to which many Cubans sacrificed their lives, were to overthrow the dictatorship, overcome injustices and restore the 1940’s Constitution. January 1st 1959 put an end to Fulgencio Batista’s regime and the Revolutionary Government decided that a Transitional Law would rule the country during a period of time. Most Cubans believed that this period would be short until the 1940’s Constitution was reinstated, also restoring people’s rights as proclaimed in the Magna Carta and suppressed and violated during Batista’s regime. But they never were restored, nor was the Constitution, nor were most of the rights guaranteed by it.

The Transitional Program will not suppress constitutional rights. On the contrary, it will reaffirm all the achievements and rights obtained by the Cuban people during its history and its struggles, as you will find in the Working Document. The process guarantees institutional and legal continuity as we propose the TP to be carried out only if it is chosen by referendum, expressing the will of the Cuban people - a nation with a sovereign right to change all structures and systems. It is in the people - and not the systems, political parties or ideologies - where sovereignty, wisdom and legitimate power reside.

The Varela Project was presented on May 10th 2002 in the bureau of the National Assembly. Over ten thousand signatures supported it, the amount that, according to article 88(g) of the Constitution prevailing in Cuba, is required for citizens to present a bill. On October 2003, 14,384 additional signatures were presented in support of the Varela Project. This bill consists in the preparation of a referendum letting the Cubans decide if they want to modify the laws in order to guarantee some of their fundamental rights. This campaign aimed at obtaining a referendum for the Varela Project is still active today and is directed by the Citizen Management Committee for the Varela Project.

With the Varela Project, fundamental rights are acquired, but the transition is not fully mapped. In other words, Cubans have a right to these rights and if they obtained them through the Varela Project, this would mean a first step forward. But our people also urgently need to think about their future. It is not enough to have rights; they need to prepare a change in their actual situation. The people want to know what will happen in Cuba after this change. Thanks to the National Dialogue elaborated with the help of the Working Document, people will know what is going to happen because it is the actual people who will decide and choose which road to take, writing the transitional program themselves.

If the Varela Project were approved by referendum, it wouldn’t be necessary to elect Transitional Government National Council, as suggested in the Working Document, because free elections would take place and the people would elect their own Parliament and Government. But it would be necessary to know what kind of changes would be introduced in the economic, political and social fields. Citizens would then present the candidates for parliamentary representatives, chosen in free elections, with their Transitional Program, developed in the National Dialogue -see Varela Project 4.5A-.

The aforementioned is a variation that integrates the Varela Project with the National Dialogue and the Transitional Program. We consider this variation to be the best for Cuba and all of us “from law to law”. This is why the Varela Project campaign as well as the campaigns to collect signatures will continue during the National Dialogue and beyond.

But the Varela Project does not limit reality, nor is it a straitjacket for the process of change. The Working Document offers the possibility of dialogue on the transitional government that may be put into practice if the Varela Project is not approved. The goal is not to develop a pre-determined project but rather to do what is most convenient for all Cubans. That is why we insist upon the fact that it is not necessary to support the Varela Project in order to participate in the National Dialogue.

Since reality and evolution cannot be locked into one single proposal, the Transitional Program that will emerge from this National Dialogue would present a variation on the institutional changes independent from the Varela Project. In other words, not in any way conditioned to the approval of that project but in fact containing its own government structure and dynamic for the transition. The National Dialogue presents a model that we believe to be just and coherent. But this model can be perfected or changed in the National Dialogue.

Cuba needs changes, but these changes must be made by the people and in the direction its people want. And such a process will only be truly possible if it is done within a National Dialogue, and with the democratic participation of all Cubans.

We want to direct this Program towards a Civilization of Love. In other words, towards a society where relations between people rest not upon strength, nor upon the power of money, nor on ideological, racial, religious or economic division, but towards one based on love among Cubans, and on the brotherhood that links them together as sons of God.

It would be a mistake to understand this Transitional Program – the result of the National Dialogue-, as being a permanent model, for this is something that will happen later on, during the Constituent Program. However, due to the crisis our society is undergoing and the urgent need for solutions, the PT will establish specific measures in order to begin the journey towards economic reconstruction, to obtain respect for fundamental rights and to establish solid foundations that will allow the people to take control over all institutions and over the process of change: In other words, to truly guarantee sovereignty and self-determination for Cubans. The Citizen’s Committee for Reconciliation and Dialogue (Comité Ciudadano de Reconciliación y Diálogo) (CCRD) and its Base Committee’s presence and performance guarantee that citizens participate and control the whole transitional process.

We cannot wait any longer for these measures or for reconciliation, forgiveness and liberation, all spiritual foundations for the process of change. With the results of this National Dialogue in hand, several work teams, composed of plural, integrated and qualified people, will work on the basic sketch of the complementary laws of this Program. Among them are a new Criminal Code, a Program of Assistance to the Needy (PAN), an Educational Program, Laws that guarantee Freedom of Speech and Association, a new Electoral Law as well as all necessary regulations to make this Program functional.

This Transitional Program, result of the people’s National Dialogue, would become the transitional law during the period of changes in Cuba. This period will then lead to a Constituent Assembly chosen democratically by the people, which will give us a new Constitution. But this Constitution will be written between all of us in an atmosphere of balanced dialogue, justice, liberty and responsible participation, and will have to be approved in referendum. When this new Constitution takes effect, the period defined in the Transitional Program will have concluded. We will then enjoy the Constitution that Martí dreamed of, “with all and for the good of all”.

We recommend reading the whole Working Document, including the part entitled “Fundamental Laws and Principles”. It will help you get a view of the project as a whole and to form your own criteria. And you will then be capable of participating in the National Dialogue and to contribute with your own criticism and opinions and make your own suggestions. The National Dialogue Methodology helps and guides this process.

We believe it necessary to analyze a few more ideas in this introduction.

This Program will be the people’s since it will be the result of a Dialogue between Cubans. We cannot confuse the process of elaborating the Transitional Program with the Transition itself. This Working Document is a tool to help the Dialogue, it is not the Transitional Program. To become it, this document needs the democratic participation and manifest will of the people by means of a referendum, after the process of National Dialogue.

This document is debatable and can be modified in all its length, but what nobody can deny the Cuban people is its right to prepare a program for change and to organize its immediate future. What nobody can deny is the right to changes that are of such vital need to the Cuban people.

What better judge than its own people to decide whether these changes are just and necessary or not, and what better way to do it than through a National Dialogue in order to decide how to change and which way to lead our Nation in the future. And what more legitimate way to do so than through a referendum, leaving its own sovereign people to decide, approve or disapprove of this road towards change.

It is the people who must accept this Transitional Program. That is why our current Constitution would be annulled, until a Constituent Assembly, chosen democratically, re-writes a new Constitutional text and submits it to referendum. Meanwhile, this Transitional Program will only be a transitory law. There is a historical precedent in the 1959 Transitory Law that substituted the Constitution of 1940, although this transitional law was never enacted, nor did democratic elections ever take place. This Transitional Program integrates principles and fundamental rights and values that proclaim and confirm national independence, people’s sovereignty, human rights and the foundations needed to begin the process of change from the people and with every Cuban person’s will and free and responsible participation without exception.

The chapter on “Fundamental Rights and Principles” must be read. It is not a complement but an essential part of this Working Document. All the rights and benefits conquered by the Cuban people throughout history, including their struggles, intelligence, love, creativity and work are captured in this chapter. Many of these conquests are enshrined in the many constitutions that have governed our society. This way these rights, fundamental laws and Cuban society are guaranteed, and continuity is given to every positive creation of our people.

There will not be a rupture of the institutional order but rather an orderly change made by the people, who have the sovereign right to change the political, economic and social system, for it is in the people where sovereignty resides. Martí taught us “Our native country is an altar and not a pedestal”.