Prime Minister Garry Conille expressed hope that the presence of international forces in Haiti would be the last. However, this aspiration seems illusory, given that the occupation of Haitian territory by foreign forces has become a habit of our leaders for three decades. This practice has contributed to maintaining the country at a level of degradation never reached in more than two centuries.
In the space of thirty years, Haiti has been the scene of three foreign military interventions. Beyond the glaring shortcomings in public governance, this repetition underscores a profound civic and patriotic failure. All of this results from our insatiable quest for power and easy money. When it comes to conquering or retaining power, all means are considered legitimate, even if it means selling off national sovereignty.
What is it that has made the preservation of the country’s independence and territorial integrity a negligible issue for this generation of leaders and politicians? Why do our intellectuals not stand up and denounce this? Where are they?
A matter of power and money
A year ago, the opposition to Ariel Henry was firmly opposed to any international intervention, fearing that it would strengthen his power. Now, with the former prime minister out of office, the opposition supports the arrival of foreign military forces to fight the gangs. Thus, there would be an occupation deemed beneficial and another harmful depending on the circumstances, thus manipulating the destiny of the republic. Meanwhile, the daily concerns of the people are relegated to the background, while the political crisis seems to be resolving, since some politicians who have been out of work for a long time have found new ones.
What has really changed in the daily lives of Haitians? Nothing! However, one thing is certain: the current crisis is more economic than political, marked by a lack of opportunities. In this context of precarious elites, the only beneficiaries seem to be the Americans. The idea of involving new international forces is not new. Former Prime Minister Ariel Henry, criticized for his lack of results, was unable to guarantee the legitimacy of an international intervention in Haiti, prompting the international community to look for other intermediaries. When an occupation of Haiti is necessary, they know who to turn to and what levers to activate to achieve it.
What is clear is that the global power led by the United States is coming to exercise total control within the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT), a potpourri exposing in broad daylight the kiss of the deleterious, outdated and moribund system. This political shipwreck unmasks the anti-imperialist and anti-American discourses, which we have often denounced as sterile, vain and unproductive. The coalition led by Garry Conille clarifies the so-called ideological cleavages that have long been put forward to explain political divisions. It is clear that elites of all sides are influenced or won over by the American strategy in Haiti. After this all too visible process of political discrediting, what center, or even an extreme center, will emerge? In reality, for the left as for the right, power comes from Washington, not from the people, who, according to the constitution, are the sole exclusive holders of national sovereignty. Everyone aspires to legitimize their authority by aligning themselves with global power in this new context where Haiti is becoming a transnational territory.
The US outsourcing strategy in Haiti is clear. Our country is becoming a commodity and local elites are reduced to the role of middlemen concerned only with their share of the profit. Western powers have mobilized blacks from CARICOM countries to establish the CPT, while for security they are now turning to blacks in Kenya. This is a change in strategy, but what will be the result? It seems that proxy war – or occupation – has become a geopolitical tactic, with the great powers using local agents as “proxies”. Mere brokers, living off commissions on the commodity that is the Republic of Haiti. Faced with this slide towards indignity, are there any samples of elites in our society capable of charting a path towards a more glorious and respectful destiny?
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For more than five years, all the energies of politicians have been channeled towards the establishment of an extraordinary transitional government. This approach is the manifestation of the refusal of principles, the constitution and the laws. Finally, by a coup de force, the camp of good, the right-thinking and the entitled replaced Prime Minister Ariel Henry, detained by his former “sponsors” in a safe place. This camp of good was some time ago that of evil. Failure is wonderfully repeated!
Interesting to see how dishonor and indignity are a consensus. Where is the break we were promised? It seems to me that the air, the words and the actions are not the same. Are Haitians fooled by all these mafia clubs? Never have the masks been so visible. This dance of traitors and hypocrites is really crazy but at the same time pathetic.
We are well aware that the system is capable of renewing itself wonderfully. However, we were talking about fighting the system and even destroying it? We do not know who represented it? Public opinion needs ideological and political clarification! This is the beginning of the political fight to come. The emergency is commitment, the democratic fight. The current de facto and illegitimate power must offer the conditions for a transparent and free electoral process for a return to the normalization of the institutional and democratic life of the country.
We are a democratic republic. Therefore, we can only rule when the people elect us. Seizing power without the consent of the citizens is political violence. The existence of a transitional power in a country that has already opted for democracy is a democratic, social and political regression. We do not want a third one.
To get out of this situation of servility, we must have the courage to tell the truth to the people. Far from compromising the ongoing political process, although it is badly started, our duty is to prepare for the future to finally remove the downward slope with regard to the sovereignty of the country.
A single intervention by foreign forces on our soil would have been enough to make us indignant, here we are at three in thirty years. This is the only testament that these incompetent, visionless politicians leave to present and future generations. We need a competent and patriotic deliverance team to heal the wounds and plug the gaps.
This tragic moment, which is that of unveiling and demystification against a backdrop of ideological and political clarification, obliges patriots to come together. Thus, intellectuals, young people, the diaspora, the rural and urban masses, the bourgeois with a modernist and modernizing spirit must stop playing the role of helpless and sleeping spectators in the face of the Haitian debacle. We must together present an alternative, otherwise all this will end tragically for us. So let’s take one last risk Haiti!
Sonet Saint-Louis by
Professor of constitutional law, at the Faculty of Law and Economics of the State University of Haiti.
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