Being Accountable to the Public

Cuba: Being Accountable to the Public
October 9, 2014
Fernando Ravsberg

HAVANA TIMES — An old proverb in Spanish says that to err is human and
that only the wise learn from their mistakes. Others insist that showing
one's face, assuming the burden of responsibility and offering apologies
are distinctively honest actions – the kind of honesty that ought to be
a requirement for anyone who holds public office.

In the course of recent weeks, Cuba has experienced a number of
situations in which government officials made mistakes and later
rectified them but tried to avoid asking for apologies. These officials
blame others for what happened or mend their ways without even
mentioning the mistake they made.

The Cuban government pulled Labiofam's ears for launching two colognes
that bore the names of legendary Argentinian guerrilla leader Ernesto
Che Guevara and former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The company's management quickly issued a communiqué begrudgingly
accepting the blame and trying to accuse a foreign journalist of
stirring up a "media spectacle" around the two fragrances that they
themselves publicly presented.

A Cuban journalist, Omar George, replied that "the spectacle started
well before, when, during a congress, to which the international press
had access, incidentally, the company launched a marketing strategy
whose aim could not have been other than placing the two products on the
market."

Labiofam executives tried to politicize the whole affair, portraying
themselves as the victims of "the petty interests of the press (foreign)
that lies and attacks them." These statements, however, were refuted on
the very web-page of the Association of Cuban Journalists (UPEC).

Wouldn't it have been more dignified, and simpler, to assume full
responsibility for the mistake, and to ask for apologies from the
Guevara and Chavez families and the many Cubans who questioned the
marketing of political icons by the company?

Labiofam is a successful Cuban laboratory that exports goods and
services to many countries around the world. Making mistakes is one of
the many things it must deal with – it is no sin. Attempting a political
maneuver to lay the blame on someone else, however, is.

Something similar happened with Terminal 3 of the Jose Marti
International Airport, where airport management had forbidden
accompanying persons from entering the facilities, arguing that this was
demanded by international norms.

The measure prompted protests from Cuban intellectuals, artists,
academics and bloggers. Cyberspace was saturated with questioning,
because nearly no one was convinced by the explanations that the
authorities gave everyone through the media.

Now, as though nothing had happened, an airport executive announces in
Juventud Rebelde, another official newspaper, that "the waiting areas
have been reopened to those who accompany passengers at Terminal 3 of
the Jose Marti International Airport."

Caridad Miranda, a reader of the newspaper, recalls that another high
official had previously assured users that the prohibition "was based on
international norms that require a certain number of square meters per
passenger to guarantee that check-in operations are carried out correctly."

She adds that "now, they give us this information – which I am very
happy to read – as though no one had heard what they said before. If the
measure had to be rectified, the most decent thing to do is to say so,
to publicly take responsibility for the mistake and not to take the
public as fools."

Alberto, another reader, comments that "it is a question of basic
respect. If they ultimately had to rectify their mistake, they should
say so publicly. There's no shame in it. It actually speaks highly of
those who address the opinion of the people they claim to serve, as does
asking for apologies, if needed."

Listening to the public and fixing mistakes has never been a sign of
weakness. On the contrary, it is a needed democratic exercise that all
State officials should be trained in – for, far from taking power away
from them, it adds prestige to their institutions.

Source: Cuba: Being Accountable to the Public - Havana Times.org -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=106630