Haiti, alone in its corner

By Dennery Alain Menelas

Earlier this week, Pakistan experienced another terrorist attack. The day before, violence planted its bloody flag in an Iraqi football stadium. The Islamist have struck again. We count the dead but also questions the lack of media coverage of these attacks; perhaps we had forgotten for a short while that, in the West, we do not feel so affected by this part of the world. For over a decade, the world has learned that there were Muslim extremists whom, in an anachronistic interpretation of the Koran, still believe that sharia should be the law of the entire planet.

In our “exiled Haitians” heads, these global concerns quickly give way to our main concern. How is Haiti doing? The country is finally getting over the near-simultaneous disasters that have recently shaken the nation. As Haitians, we are trying to internalize the concept that we should not have fire near a gas station, or that our infrastructure must be inspected from time to time. Yes, this is how Haiti is doing; International terrorism is not our business. Besides, to think of it, we have designed our own terror. A youth without a future, a moribund economy and the lack of a plan for a better future can only end in an explosion.

The politicians of the past fifty-nine years have built their bombs with the full knowledge of all. No need to hide these explosive devices in an airport or a bus station, their existence does not worry many people. We mention them from time to time, just enough not to address them. We are used to it by now; notice that we still have fire in the vicinity of petrol pumps. But let’s refrain, for a moment, from these unnecessary comparisons with the world's problems. We want to talk about Haiti.

We finally have a government! Our parliamentarians cheered, in near unanimity, the general policy of the Prime Minister Enex Jean-Charles. We will point out that the man of consensus is yet again a veteran of the political scene; when it comes to breaking a political deadlock, it is to the decried traditional politicians we return. The slope to climb is steep however, this new government will need to clean up the mess left by the last president, assess the recent presidential elections and hold acceptable polls. And all this in less than a hundred days!!! But we should not worry, in Haiti we are used to these impossible missions; we are on the right path because we finally have a government.

In the depth of this euphoria, we find yourself wondering if we wouldn’t be better off without a government; a bridge recently collapsed and no one bears any responsibility. "Thieves stole the bolts" they say. This is common in Haiti but see, we are not interested in the character who bears the direct fault. We want to know who is responsible for our bridges; whom, during the last decade, had the mission to ensure that our bridges would stand firm. In Haiti, it seems that we call the " ministers"; but where are they? Why, honorable members of parliament, do you not bring these great gentlemen to face their responsibilities? See, we were right a little earlier; we could be better off without a government since nobody is responsible in the end. But let’s look at the positive side of things; this government will probably do better than the previous one. In Haiti, hope is cheap if not free.

It feels good to talk about Haiti, but the world keeps turning. The international community, which we love to hate in the presence of cameras, will never let us down. In the shadows of the press, we tacitly admit that "white men" are condemned to help us, to finance elections doomed to fail because we hold dearly to our electoral shenanigans. However, we tend to forget, through laziness or malice, that priorities change over time. Terrorists will no doubt continue to hit and if international security continues to fester, our fratricidal struggles will inevitably be relegated to the background. The world will continue to turn without us, but we still believe we will be fine because Haiti is comfortable in its little corner.

Martelly;the beautiful, the bad and the ugly

Did we elect Martelly for the wrong reasons?

In October 2010, I moved back to Haiti and found the country in the midst of an electoral process. A few months earlier, I had made a video to caution my fellow countrymen against electing any candidates with no political past.  At that time, Haiti was experiencing the “Wyclef Jean fever” and Haitians looked set to elect a man with no political familiarity to the national palace. The electoral council rejected Wyclef and Martelly was elected.

Haitians were fed up with traditional politicians who had not ameliorated their daily lives. Hence, the desire to elect a newcomer with no political experience was a welcoming and lauded idea. Martelly the former singer was voted with the message that he was not a “traditional politician”.

My problem with this sort of thinking was simple; when you hire a good driver and end up in an accident, you don’t go and hire someone who has never driven a day in his life. In other words, when things are not going well, it makes more sense to look and choose the best, not the first newcomer. This does not mean that a political outsider would not be able to do the job but the priority should be to find the best candidate. Unfortunately, we did not make that choice, we chose to slap the “old traditional politicians” in the face by electing the musician; and we were proud of it.

Did we elect Martelly for the wrong reasons? Yes we did.

Martelly the beautiful.

To pretend that Martelly was one of the worst presidents we had in the past 50 years would be a lie.  Martelly and his team brought new ideas and new ways of doing things to a lethargic state. Having worked for the prime minister’s office in 2012, I can say that these people were not lazy. There was always a drive to do things (whether it made sense or not), to show that the country is moving forward. The minister of tourism was a breath of fresh air, trying to revitalize a moribund sector of the Haitian economy. Prime minister Lamothe was also a hard worker despite his numerous flaws; the man was not afraid to call work meetings at midnight to fix problems. Martelly himself was equally tireless; the musician became a hard worker.  The drive to show progress was so grand, that the government was seen as a government of propaganda.  Haiti was moving forward it is true, but not in the most important direction; the economy was not getting better.

Martelly the bad

Being president of Haiti is a political job period. It demands a political adroitness because our democratic system demands that a president works with parliament to get things done. And this is where we made the mistake in choosing Martelly; the man did not understand what the political job of being president demanded. Why do I say that?

1.  Martelly did not humble himself when he became president. He chose to continue portraying the opposition as the enemies of progress. The opponents did not like him; they hated him more.

2.Martelly arrested Arnel Belizaire after they had an altercation. Did Arnel Belizaire belong in Jail? Yes he did. However, to arrest a representative is to antagonize the parliament; a fruitless rookie move.

I could spend this whole article talking about Martelly’s political mistakes however; I will go right to the point. The hardheaded man who thinks with his heart jeopardized his presidency early on by not becoming a politician.

Martelly the Ugly

Martelly is responsible for the dreadful electoral situation we are living. It is not to say that it the president’s fault; on the contrary, I strongly believe that it is equally both parties’ fault. The opposition did everything they could to stall the electoral process. However, the President, as a head of state, is responsible for creating the conditions for stability and an electoral process that the people trust. Was he able to do that? He was not.

To be fair, we cannot pretend that that any president before Martelly has done better in organizing elections. Elections under Aristide and Preval have been equally if not more despicable. However, this level of distrust had never been witnessed before.

The last bad choice

The Choice of Jovenel Moise as his successor was a signal that Martelly did not believe he had accomplished something grandiose in his four years in power. Why not chose someone who represents his successes (Laurent Lamothe, Stephanie vildrouin, Marie Carmelle Jean Marie, Nesmy Manigat)? Martelly chose the unknown entrepreneur and fabricated him a flawless glorious past (just like Preval did with Celestin). Men like Moise and Celestin are dangerous impostors that cannot be judged on their past political actions or positions. Hence, we can always pretend that they are great men. What will we say 5 years from now?