COMMUNITY Affairs Minister Dale Butler's shadow counterpart has called on him to release the full text of the cultural "memorandum of understanding" he recently signed on behalf of the Bermudian people with Fidel Castro's Communist regime.

Newly-elected United Bermuda Party MP Louise Jackson said Bermudians had a right to know what Government had committed them to in the secretly negotiated - and then secretly signed - pact with the Castro dictatorship.

Community Affairs, Youth & Sport Minister Mr. Butler flew to Cuba in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Fabian and initialled the cultural memorandum in Havana. News of his visit to the Communist island was not released in Bermuda until after the memorandum had already been signed on September 10.

"I don't know why it's such a secret," she said. "First of all, I must say that I am appalled this Government has bound our country, Bermuda, to a formal agreement with a country like Cuba which has one of the worst human rights records in modern history.

"And what's worse is now that this document has been signed, it remains an agreement that no one has seen. We have yet to hear what's in it. What does it bind us to? What are its conrtents? Why are they still a secret?

"As I said, I don't know why Bermuda finds itself in this situation in the first place. But since we're in it, why can't we be told what's in the agreement. Government is obliged to inform us. If it doesn't understand that simple principle, then so much for the concept of open Government in Bermuda."

A memorandum of understanding on cultural matters was clandestinely negotiated between the Bermuda Government and the Cuban dictatorship earlier this year. Its existence became public in May, only after the diplomatic initiative was submitted to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London for British approval.

Negotiations between Bermuda and Cuba coincided with the harshest crackdown on dissidents, artists and human rights activists in Cuba in more than a decade.

Earlier this year dozens of anti-Castro activists were arrested and jailed on charges that included possession of books deemed to be subversive by the state - including volumes by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Steinbeck. Some defendants received jail sentences in excess of 20 years. Later in the summer Castro summarily executed four Afro-Cuban men who had attempted to hijack a ferry and flee the Communist Caribbean nation.

Castro's actions were roundly condemed by the international community. The European Union cut off trade talks with Castro designed to lessen the impact of the US economic boycott of that country. And the Organisation of American States - a hemispheric umbrella organisation representing all North and South American countries - issued a statement decrying the Castro regime's crackdown and urging member states to scale back diplomatic and economic contacts with Cuba.

After first denying a treaty had been negotiated, former Premier Jennifer Smith backpedalled and confirmed its existence. She defended Government's right to enter into overseas agreements without ever specifying the terms of the Cuban pact or criticising Castro for his human rights violations.

Roundly condemned by the Opposition United Bermuda Party for embarking on a diplomatic pas de deux with Cuba, the former Premier's harshest critic in her own ranks was then backbencher Dale Butler - who vociferously decried the left-leaning PLP leadership for "confusing its cultural fantasies with Bermuda's political realities".

"It was a powerful statement he delivered at that time and an accurate one, in my view," said Mrs. Jackson. "I wish I could use his phrase about cultural fantasies supplanting political realities as my own slogan vis-a-vis the Cuban memorandum but that would be plagiarism. However, what Mr. Butler said at the time summed up my own views.

"He cited Cuba's reprehensible human rights record in an impassioned speech to the House of Assembly, telling Parliament that his colleagues in the PLP 'were barking up the wrong tree' in the decision to forge close links with the Caribbean nation - particularly given the party's history as an organisation which had fought for human rights.

"Mr. Butler reminded Parliament that the PLP, along with various communiy groups, had vociferously opposed South Africa's apartheid regime and called for Bermuda to join an international economic boycott of that country in support of human rights. He then went on to point out that Government needed to pause and reflect on the fact that Cuba's human rights record also left a lot to be desired.

"Mr. Butler said he had no problem going against his party's position on links with Cuba because his stand reflected the founding principles of the PLP and the concerns of his 1,300 constitituents. He concluded by saying that he was elected to the House of Assembly not to be a mouse or a blind follower.

"And just a few weeks later he goes down to Cuba and signs off on the same agreement he had excoriated? Would the real Dale Butler please stand up."

Mr. Butler has defended his dramatic U-turn on the Cuban initiative by saying that as a Minister of the Government he is bound by the code of collective responsibility and therefore could not allow any personal distaste he might have for the Castro regime to override his obligations to his colleagues.

"I'm not very impressed by the rationale Mr. Butler has offered," said Mrs. Jackson. "His first responsibility is to his conscience and his constituents. He says the code of collective responsibility means he didn't have any choice but to support a Government initiative that enjoyed the backing of his colleagues. Of course, he had a choice. He could have resigned from Cabinet over a matter of principle.

"Any number of Cabinet Ministers have done so in the past when their personal convictions come into conflict with public policy. Jim Woolridge, Dr. Stanley Ratteray, Gloria McPhee and others resigned from Jack Sharpe's Cabinet in the 1970s because they did not share his vision for Bermuda's future. Ann Cartwright DeCouto resigned from Sir John Swan's Cabinet over the question of Independence.

"Given the strength of his feelings on the Cuban memorandum, I believe Mr. Butler should have done the honorable thing and resigned."

Mrs. Jackson went on to say that upon his return to the island from Cuba, Mr. Butler's public comments on the Caribbean dictatorship had sounded "perilously close" to pro-Castro propaganda than the more measured views she might have expected from a previously outspoken critic of the regime.

"When Mr. Butler returned from his secret trip to Cuba and finally got around to telling us where he had been, he said - and I believe I'm quoting him accurately - that he was treated like royalty by the Cuban authorities, that they had feted him and rolled out the red carpet," she said.

"I am concerned that our children who might in the future journey Cuba as a result of cultural exchanges with that country and who are themselves treated like royalty by the Cuban authorities - who, after all, have a vested interest in providing outsiders with a positive impression of their country - will miss the sad fact that the vast majority of people in Cuba live in abject poverty.

"That they are in fact serfs by any other name while their leader, Castro, enjoys the best of everything and resides in palatial homes.

"The US Consul Denis Coleman quite rightly has said that it is not his place to interfere in Bermuda's internal affairs. But he is but obviously not happy about Bermuda's new links with Cuba, a country isolated not only by US but but by much of the international community.

"I think all Bermudians are aware that some American politicians on Capitol Hill already take a dim view of Bermuda's off-shore business activities - that they view the island as hot-button election issue.

"Now they are going to hear that we're coseying up to Castro and, for reasons of political expediency, this could put Bermuda on the firing line in Washington. And a time when tourism is diminishing, the international business sector is already shaky over the work permit sitiation, this is the last thing Bermuda needs right now.

"So why are we deliberately pushing these buttons at this time?

"Why, over something as nebulous as culture links, are we potentially putting this country's well-being at risk? I can't see a responsible Minister carrying on in this fashion.

"If Mr. Butler doesn't know there are other countries with rich cultures that Bermuda could establish links with, then I'm sorry I have to be the one to point this out to him. It seems a simple thing to say, 'I made a mistake, we don't have to do this' - but for whatever reason neither he nor his Government can themselves to say that."