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Opinion and Commentary
Commentary: The intricacies behind the demise of the Pierre Louis government in Haiti
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| Published on Saturday, November 7, 2009 | Email To Friend Print Version
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By Jean H Charles
Michelle Duvivier Pierre Louis was dismissed by the Haitian Senate last Friday night as the prime minister of Haiti. A request was sent to the Executive to name a new Prime Minister to form a new cabinet. President Rene Preval wasted no time to name, on Saturday, Jean Max Bellerive, formerly Minister of Planning, as the new prime minister.
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| Jean H Charles MSW, JD is Executive Director of AINDOH Inc a non profit organization dedicated to building a kinder and gentle Caribbean zone for all. He can be reached at: jeanhcharles@aol. |
The intricacies behind this coup orchestrated by the Leswpa Party, the government party, need some analysis. Michelle Duvivier Pierre Louis came to power in Haiti with the support of the international community. She was the beneficiary of substantial funding from the Soros Foundation to support her cultural organization, Fokal. She fell down because she did not identify enough with the concerns of the national interests in most of the sectors. The senators as well as the representatives complained they had no access to her office. A team of overzealous advisers (mostly women) erected a stumbling block that one must pay dearly to find the hole to enter.
In addition, the prime minister’s office was playing her own political tune, not in harmony with the partition being engaged by the president. Michelle Duvivier had her own candidate for the upcoming presidential election different from the boys endorsed by President Preval.
The charges presented by the senators have to do with the handling of the emergency fund, some 185 million dollars earmarked to come to the aid of the people and repair the structure affected by the three successive hurricanes in 2008. The prime minister has presented a glossy public relations media sheet that did not satisfy either the destitutes or the representatives.
The authorized voice in the churches and the civil society tended to blame not only the office of the prime minister but also the office of the president. They saw the five years of the Preval government as a failure, not only in dealing with the recurring disasters but also in caring for the day to day administration of the country.
It has been noted that Haiti and Dominica were the only countries in the Caribbean with a positive growth index (3% and 1%) for the year 2009, yet this picture has not been translated into the micro sensation of the ordinary individual in the country. I am observing a state of extreme poverty that is extending from the rural sector into the marginal middle class.
The debate for the dismissal of the prime minister was lively and raucous. It reminds me of a debate in the British Parliament where MPs do not hesitate to dress down their prime minister. To my knowledge, there was only three times on the national scene when the whole nation was centered on their televisions to watch an event that went over the usual bedtime. The first time was the night when Jean Claude Duvalier was preparing to leave the country. The second time was the judgment of Dr Roger Lafontant (presided over by my own father as chief judge of the civil court), accused of a national plot in an unsuccessful coup against the Aristide government
The government of Jean Max Bellerive might represent a turning point in the Haitian political scene. For the last seven years, the Haitian administrative apparatus on the national and international level has been occupied by the professional staff put in place by the Latortue government. In the spirit of continuity, the Preval regime had sought to keep in place the same staff used by Latortue; they are mostly partisans of the party of the former president Lesly Manigat. Michelle Duvivier Pierre Louis was orchestrating behind the scenes the candidacy of Mrs Lesly Manigat as the next president of Haiti.
It was too much for the Lewspa Party to absorb. The commendation of the international community as well as the ones from the new American ambassador could not save Michelle Duvivier as a sacrificial lamb.
Jean Max Bellerive will have to walk a difficult line of government to conduct the next presidential election, to satisfy the pressing economic needs of the ordinary Haitian, and to contain with elegance the aggressive plan of the Preval government to perpetuate itself in the foreseeable future on the Haitian political agenda. Pito nou laid nou la, says a Haitian proverb. Ugly or not we should be in charge. The Haitian people will have to derail on their own at the ballot box the de novo Napoleonic plan to maintain the country in a perpetual bondage of misery and social discordance. | | | | Reads : 592 | | | |
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