Kirtan Bhana’s eulogy of Fidel Castro (The Mercury, August 15) is so contradicted by truth that it equates to crediting Stalin with popularizing tourism to Siberia.
It beggars belief that despite his learned association with diplomacy, Mr Bhana attributes dignity, freedom, justice and human rights to Castro’s 49 years’ dictatorship of Cuba.
Opinions wilfully devoid of factual context amount to a diatribe and thus have no credibility. Lauding Castro’s legacy as inspiring freedom and justice suggests Bhana’s concept of those values equates either with how Hitler and Stalin upheld them or that somehow he is severely deluded.
Castro replaced Batista’s dictatorship with his own. His initial promise of civil freedoms, reforms and honest administration lasted five minutes. Instead, he nationalized all industry and production, banned private enterprise and never abided by the principles of the International Labour Organisation.
Through fear and coercion, he enshrined one-party state rule, institutionalized suppression of dissent and incarceration of political opposition. To ensure compliance, he installed a state security network of surveillance and intimidation no different from Hitler’s Gestapo or communist East Germany’s Stasi.
All aspects of life – culture, sports, the arts and communication – fell under the direction of state ministries. Indoctrination was the objective of education. His much-acclaimed healthcare system applied only to the elite of his regime. For the masses, its services were very Third World.
Castro certainly excelled as an architect of economic ruin. Trapped in a time warp, constant economic shortages were a hallmark of his despotism. Food shortages were endemic; food rationing was a way of life. For the masses, access to water was via water carts and buckets. Little wonder that more than 1,5 million Cubans managed to flee Castro’s utopia.
Based on the above, Mr Bhana’s assertion that Castro “believed in the boundless capacity of people to change their destiny,” is outrageous. Cubans were never accorded that opportunity. Castro was never the champion of the downtrodden nor the servant of the people.
All of which raises the question of why such blatant falsehoods are featured in The Mercury, because an article extolling the benefits of apartheid would not be published, despite it having a measure of credibility, as the quality of life capsizes under the ANC’s dystopia.
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