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Haiti deserves governmental stability

Posted by CaribShout on November 9, 2009 at 11:12pm

Wyclef Jean touring his beloved country during 60 Minutes Special's taping After years of political and social upheaval in Haiti, it seemed that following the disasters from series of hurricanes last year, the country was settling down to achieve growth in several areas. This period of apparent stability was overseen a government, led by Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis, who was appointed by President Rene Préval and confirmed by the Haitian National Assembly in September, 2008. During this period, the prime minister worked hard, along with Préval, to create a stable national environment and secure international funding to enable well-needed development throughout the country. Prior to Pierre-Louis’ appointment, the country went through a critical phase with the National Assembly unable to decide on a prime minister. However, despite the stable national and political environment that Pierre-Louis has accomplished, the Haitian Senate, driven by the aggression of six powerful senators, decided to fire her. The senators claim that the Haitian people are weary of the pace at which the country was developing. The timing of her dismissal is inopportune, as international donors are poised to donate over $300 million towards funding post-hurricane development projects; and investors ready to invest in the country. Only a few weeks ago, former U.S. President and United Nations Special Envoy Bill Clinton took a trade mission to Haiti, and assured its members that Haiti was now stable, free of political upheaval and a safe place to trade and invest. Then the Senate decides to fire the prime minister. This is not the kind of assurance that international donors and investors need prior spending millions of dollars in Haiti. It seems difficult to find a justifiable reason for Pierre-Louis’ dismissal, as an outsider looking in, but to cite that she was delaying help for the country’s mostly poor and suffering people is not sufficient. It is understandable that people who are virtually starving, unemployed and living in deplorable conditions would be impatient with a government’s bureaucratic process. But, it was absolutely necessary that the Pierre-Louis government convince the international community that Haiti warranted its assistance. That was her mission. The international community has been reluctant to invest in Haiti over the past turbulent years. The social and political instability served as a deterrent to any meaningful international assistance. U.S. Secretary-of-State, Hillary Clinton, the head of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon and various U.S. congressional representatives were assured Haiti was now stable enough for them to offer help. Now, serious doubt could be creeping into all those willing to help, which would be a severe setback to the county’s development. In some Haitian circles, the international community is being blamed for Pierre-Louise’s downfall. It has been cited that of all the multilateral organizations, only the Inter-American Development Bank has increased its disbursements to Haiti for this year. And, only 15 percent of the $346 million promised by international donors last April has been disbursed. Pierre-Louis pressed hard for more of these funds to be disbursed, but some donors still wanted assurance that their donations would not be wasted. It seemed that Bill Clinton just gave that assurance. Other Haitians have criticized Pierre-Louis for placing too much focus on wooing the international community, while not placing sufficient emphasis on the domestic situation. But as the nation’s prime minister, it was her job to ensure funding was sourced for the necessary domestic developments, while her 18 Cabinet ministers attended to domestic matters. However, what has been done has been done. The goal now is to assure continued stability. Some people are disappointed that Préval was not more assertive in preventing the removal of Pierre-Louis. But, the senators who spearheaded her removal were members of Préval’s political party, and politics is a strong master in Haiti. Préval, however, acted quickly to appoint a new prime minister. He must now insist that the National Assembly moves with haste to confirm his appointment, Planning Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, who has served the government for some 20 years. And, the new prime minister must move quickly to assure the international community that the country is still a stable environment in which to invest, and hasten disbursements of promised donations to improve standard of living. It must also be hoped that with general elections scheduled for Haiti in November 2010, the aggressive politicking that has been characteristic of Haiti, does not become a stumbling block to national development and continued cooperation from the international community. Maybe most of Haiti’s 10 million people are impatient for socio-economic development, but they also deserve a strong and stable government.
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