It’s easy to forget how promising Haiti’s future seemed when Jean Bertrand Aristide was elected in 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…
Aristide’s national ambition seems to be for his people to live in chronic poverty … with dignity…
Perhaps Haiti is fated to loom amidst the islands of the Caribbean as Africa does amidst the continents of the world – as a dark, destitute, diseased, desperate, disenfranchised, dishonest, disorganized, disassociated, dangerous and, ultimately, dysfunctional mess.
(“Haiti’s Living Nightmare Continues…Unabated,” The iPINIONS Journal, March 7, 2005)
As this quote indicates, I never understood why Aristide was ever hailed as a political messiah – not just by Haitian followers too poor and uneducated to know any better, but also by American patrons too self-interested to care about the consequences of stroking his messianic ego.
But even I never thought the devil Haitians knew in Jean Claude Duvalier would prove better than the devil they got in Jean Bertrand Aristide. Yet, according to Haitian authorities, this seems to have been the case:
Former president Jean Bertrand Aristide is being prohibited from leaving Haiti as law enforcement authorities probe allegations of corruption, misappropriation of public funds and drug trafficking during his 2001-4 presidency, immigration officials have confirmed.
Aristide and several of his former colleagues have been accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars from the State through his organisation, Aristide for Democracy Foundation and other organisations.
(Jamaica Observer, August 8, 2014)
Incidentally, better the devil in Duvalier because he never posed as anything but the heir to his daddy’s brutal, money-grubbing dictatorship. Whereas Aristide professed to be a saint, which makes his alleged abuses all the more devilish. No?
But nobody who knows anything about the messianic Aristide believes that he’s going to subjugate himself to the Haitian judicial process … without attempting to incite a holy war. In fact, reports are that his Lavalas disciples fired the first salvos a few nights ago, when gunfire erupted outside the home of the judge who had the effrontery to sign off on this probe against him.
Meanwhile, as my opening quote also indicates, I never held much hope that Haiti would ever govern itself in a manner worthy of its pioneering status as the world’s first Black independent nation. But at least these days it can cite the example being set by no less a country than the United States, the world’s oldest democracy, for the dysfunction it’s now suffering.
After all, just as opposition congressmen have been doing everything possible to undermine Obama’s presidency (the welfare of the country be damned), opposition senators have been doing everything possible to undermine Martelly’s:
A group of Haitian senators, opposed to the administration of President Michel Martelly, continue to block an electoral process that is crucial for Haiti’s democratic future, as any failure to hold the elections will cause Parliament to become totally dysfunctional by the beginning of next year, and may plunge the Caribbean country in a deep political crisis likely to jeopardize its social and economic development goals.
(Caribbean News Now, August 2, 2014)
Apropos of déjà vu, it’s easy to forget how promising Haiti’s future seemed when Martelly was elected in 2011. But frankly, I’m not only weary of commenting any further, I see no point in doing so.
Except that I feel obliged to admit that, despite my chronic cynicism, even I am disillusioned by these latest developments with respect to Aristide. Here’s why:
In a deft and enlightened move, Martelly declared from the outset of his presidency that he wanted to make peace – not just with Aristide but with every other former Haitian leader as well. To this end he made quite a public show today of meeting with both Aristide and Baby Doc.
Implicit in this of course is that he will discourage any attempt to prosecute Baby Doc, and that Aristide will now be loath to challenge the legitimacy of his presidency. Beyond this, Martelly’s move is deft and enlightened because it lays the foundation for the kind of political certainty that is sine qua non for the foreign direct investments Haiti will need to rebuild.
(“Haiti Reconciles with Baby Doc Duvalier…?” The iPINIONS Journal, February 9, 2012)
Well, so much for all that, eh.
Related commentaries:
Haiti’s living nightmare…
Aristide returns…
Haiti reconciles…