Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
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Haitians face the daunting task of electing a new president next month. Yet, reflecting America’s salutary neglect of Haiti, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went there on a fly-by diplomatic mission last Tuesday and spent almost as much time talking about democracy and fair elections as she spends talking about football and team standings on a typical Sunday afternoon in Washington, DC. (She unabashedly courts the notion of becoming the first female commissioner of the National Football League (NFL).)
But, perhaps Dr Rice treated the occasion so cavalierly because she was as oblivious to the chaos and violence that make elections untenable in Haiti as President Bush was to the chaos and violence that made refuge untenable in New Orleans (in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina).
Nevertheless, in an even more dubious and foreboding diplomatic gesture, South Africa’s foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma preempted Dr Rice’s pep talk by declaring that “[yes] you can have the elections…there will be a government elected…but we do not think it will actually bring stability and peace and prosperity to Haiti.” Indeed.
Given the line-up of over 32 presidential candidates - comprised of sundry paramilitary thugs, opportunistic business leaders and a former president, it’s difficult to take issue with the South African foreign minister’s pessimistic assessment. The question is: Why does Haiti remain so ungovernable? After all, just last year, it celebrated its Bicentennial as the oldest independent black nation in the world.
Perhaps Haiti is fated to loom amidst the islands of the Caribbean just as Africa is amidst the continents of the world: as a dark, destitute, diseased, desperate, disenfranchised, dishonest, disorganized, disassociated, dangerous and, ultimately, dysfunctional mess.
And, like Africa’s intractable maladies, Haiti’s blight has become so toxic that no pragmatic politician wants his clout emasculated by being associated with it in any way whatsoever. (Clearly this is why so few prominent Heads of State or other dignitaries even bothered to attend its historic Bicentennial celebrations.)
Meanwhile, Haitians are living a nightmare. And, even though white foreign faces appear as evil forces from time to time, black indigenous faces (like those of the Tonton Macoutes, FRAPH and even Catholic Lavalas devotees) are the constant, central and catalytic characters in Haiti’s purgatory.
It is easy to forget how promising Haiti’s future seemed when Jean Betrand Aristide was elected 1990. But, after 14 years of providing more political drama than national development, Aristide was escorted into exile on the paternal wings of the U.S. Marines last year.
He claims that the American government and local businessmen (mostly mulatto bourgeois Europhiles calling themselves “the Group of 184”) orchestrated a coup d'état because they felt his policies focused too much on poor family farmers at the expense of their international financial interests. But the Americans and their Haitian cohorts deny his claims as the delusions of a messianic priest with destabilizing Stalinist predilections.
Whatever the case, there are no saints (or even moral actors) in this ongoing nightmare.
Nevertheless, the facts do indicate that it was Aristide’s successor in 1996, Andre Preval, who initiated land and social reforms to help the poor. And, incidentally, if he were reelected next month, Preval would clearly offer Haitians their best hope for relief and redemption. Although it should be noted that Preval was summarily and, perhaps, irreparably discredited as a captive of business interests by Aristide who discontinued these reforms when he replaced Preval as president for a second time in 2000. So this too might prove an opportunity lost for Haiti.
A far more interesting observation, however, is that from the outset of his reelection, Aristide’s policies and behaviour alienated even his most sympathetic and powerful supporter - U.S. President Bill Clinton. And, given Aristide’s claim of U.S. involvement in his eventual downfall, one cannot discount the fact that America’s boot prints have been conspicuously evident at every step along the trail of Haiti’s historical and continuing descent into a political, economic and social hell.
Therefore, it redounds to America’s eternal shame that despite its prevailing influence, Haiti has never been salvaged from the political strife and unconscionable poverty, hunger and disease that earn it the perennial dishonor as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. And, as Dr Rice demonstrated, America does not seem disposed to allocate any more of its time and resources to help Haiti treat these chronic ills.
But Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez might see this as an opportunity to use his petrodollars to fund a socialist revolution in Haiti the way President Bush has been funding democratic revolutions throughout Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Alas, hope springs eternal….
Meanwhile, Aristide will shadow the country like a continuing menace no matter who is elected president. Because, as Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue found out, Aristide loyalists (Lavalas Family Party members) are a formidably destabilizing force.
Moreover, no one should doubt that the South African foreign minister’s patent attempt to prejudice next month’s elections was done at the behest of South Africa’s most honoured permanent resident, the exiled Jean Bertrand Aristide himself?
And, it seems certain that Lavalas got the message and, since they still regard Aristide as their earthly saviour, shall redouble their efforts to prolong Haiti’s living nightmare until the path is cleared for the fourth coming of their black messiah.
NOTE: Even as Haiti wallows in chaos and violence, almost every country in the Caribbean is busy rounding up Haitian refugees, on a daily basis, to repatriate them to their rightful place.
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