[CORBETTLIST] 43700:leiderman: re wilentz: the anatomical aspects of haitian governance
- From: "Moderator" <moderator@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: corbettlist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 07:42:49 -0700
Subject: leiderman: re wilentz: the anatomical aspects of haitian
governance
From: leiderman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks to Amy for her column today, per below. It strikes me that the
faces may have changed, but the other ends may be boringly familiar to
most.
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http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-82389359/
In Haiti, only the face of power has changed
By Amy Wilentz
December 26, 2014, 8:00 a.m.
Almost five years since the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti, the
country remains adrift, and in recent weeks, even more than usual. In town
after town, as well as in the capital, Port-au-Prince, large, angry crowds
have gathered regularly to express their dissatisfaction with Haiti's
president, Michel Martelly. United Nations peacekeeping forces have fired
on these crowds.
Confronted with the unrest, Martelly did what officials often do in such
situations:
He appointed a commission, stuffed with ancient politicians and
apple-polishers, to recommend actions. In Haiti, not unlike other places,
such commissions generally have one purpose: to advise officials to do
exactly what they wanted to do all along. This time was no different. When
the commission returned, it advised Martelly to jettison his prime
minister, Laurent Lamothe, as well as the heads of the Supreme
Court and the provisional electoral council, all people the president was
already prepared to throw under the bus.
The prime minister is gone, though with no formal letter of resignation,
and has reportedly been replaced by an interim figure. The other two
officials will also presumably decamp, but that won't solve Haiti's larger
crisis. If legislative elections are not held before Jan. 12, the
legislature will be dissolved and Martelly will begin to rule by decree.
Francois Papa Doc Duvalier, the notorious and bloody-minded Haitian
strongman, would almost certainly be amused to see Martelly, a former pop
singer, going through such contortions to create a dictatorship. Papa Doc
did things more simply and directly, but always with a wary eye on the
U.S., which saw him as a bulwark against communism in the Caribbean, no
matter how cruel his regime became, and never repudiated him.
Like Duvalier, Martelly seems less focused on improving the fortunes of
his countrymen than he is on retaining power, at least to the end of his
official term, something that has proved far more complicated than it was
in the Duvalier days. Martelly's Haiti is more transparent to the world
than Papa Doc's ever was, largely because of social media and Internet
communications.
The United States is still meddling in Haiti's business, still tugging on
the strings of Haitian politics. Since Papa Doc's son, the dictator
John-Claude Baby Doc Duvalier, was almost ousted in 1986, with a big
nudge from the U.S., Washington has been particularly concerned about
elections in Haiti. For American officials, regular balloting, honest or
not, has signified stability, a prerequisite for foreign investment the
prescription U.S. economic doctors always propose for poor countries.
But merely holding elections, especially corrupt ones from which the most
popular party has recently been excluded, has done little to address
Haiti's problems. Since the end of the dictatorship in 1986, there have
been abortive elections, monitored elections, several coups d'etat and
even a couple of peaceful elections. Little has changed, however.
In the country's most recent baroque election, Martelly emerged the
victor, but his mandate has always been in question. Haunted by his own
iffy selection the word Haitians use for a manipulated election
Martelly soon came to a bickering impasse with the legislature that has
led to the current crisis.
Meanwhile, for most Haitians, life remains desperate. The cost of living
has risen sharply, and the majority live in dire poverty. The official
unemployment rate is an astounding 39.5%, though most observers believe it
is actually much higher.
Yet in this moment of crisis, Martelly has done little to change Haiti.
His Twitter account in recent days shows photos of thousands of kids
waiting near his residence to receive Christmas presents from him and the
first lady, an old Duvalier Christmas tradition. As Roberson Alphonse
wrote recently in Haiti's main newspaper, No one is going to claim that
our leaders are among the geniuses of the hemisphere.
Does Martelly deserve to remain in power? Probably not. His presidency has
been a series of tragically missed opportunities to take back the reins of
power for Haitian ideas for the Haitian people. The worst of his many
failures was his wholly inadequate response to the continuing and urgent
needs of his country in the aftermath of the earthquake's devastation. He
imitated the previous president, and left the biggest part of the job,
rebuilding housing for more than 1 million displaced people, to the good
graces of the international community with less than spectacular
results. More than 200,000 Haitians affected by the quake remain in
displacement camps.
He also has failed to develop a comprehensive plan to jump-start Haiti's
economy.
His main economic initiatives old tattered ideas from the 1980s and
before were to open up his country to the international mining industry
and to establish a huge industrial park anchored by a South Korean garment
manufacturer. Both of these endeavors are based in the north, far from the
population affected by the earthquake.
Given all this, it's hard to imagine that those who took to the streets to
demand an end to Martelly's rule will be placated by the firing of a few
officials. To gain any scrap of public confidence, he'll have to show an
investment in Haitians that goes deeper than the usual electoral carnival
and the appointment of creaking commissions. No doubt that's asking more
than this president is capable of.
Amy Wilentz's most recent book, "Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter From
Haiti," won the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.
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leiderman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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