Letter: Governmental crisis in Haiti
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| Published on Thursday, July 10, 2008 |
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A number of articles piblished on your site talked about how difficult it will be for Haiti to get launch onto the tracks of development and I would agree that it will not be an easy task to accomplish. The most significant impairment Haiti has had since its independence has been this everlasting governmental crisis, which persists to this very day.
One of the major reasons that allows this perpetual crisis to go on in the country is because every aspect of governance has been centralized in the capital city. All taxes collected and aid received from the international community have all gone to Port-au-Prince and eventually squandered by the few in power, meanwhile not a dime has ever been returned to the rural areas in order to modernize the infrastructure and create jobs.
Another major source of the country's govrnmental crisis has been the combination of the presidency and pime ministership into one form of government, which tend to create new instabilities every time parliament dismisses the prime minister. The fact is, Haiti doesn't have a need for both a president and prime minister, so we as a country should make a choice as which of two that we're going maintain. As the history shows, the presidency has proven to be a more stable form government, Haiti should therefore adopt the system that is proven to foster stability.
One way to start moving Haiti forward is to undertake constitutional reforms which require the decentralization of the national government by creating new departmental (regional) governments to take control of local gorvenance, the elimination of the prime minister's post, and finally the transfer and the construction of a new capital city, which should fittingly be called Toussaintville.
This new way forward I inticipate would hundreds of thousands of jobs in infrastructure, thereby reducing poverty, increase living conditions, and reduce insecurity in Haiti. Most importantly, it would give local people control of their own governance and destiny. That would be great start in launching Haiti into a whole stratosphere.
Emilio Estelhomme |
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