Aristide’s fall from grace

THE EDITOR: The Caribbean is fast becoming a region plagued with despots. We have Castro in Cuba, Chavez in Venezuela, “Papa” and “Baby” Doc and now Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti —leaders all geared towards absolute and perpetual rule. Maurice Bishop in Grenada, and Forbes Burnham in Guyana should not be forgotten. Abu Bakr became overly ambitious in TT, and attempted a TT “Carnival Coup,” that was snuffed out before it got anywhere. What a pity we did not have the inclination or the time to see where he was prepared to take TT with his badly planned, ill-advised attempted coup d’ etat. He would have had better luck if he had waited for the Carnival season, he could have even won Band of the Year.

The situation in Haiti is one for the history books. The US Government sent the Haitian dictator “Baby Doc” into exile, leaving a vacuum to be filled. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a respected Haitian Roman Catholic priest was groomed for the job as President of Haiti. With enormous financial and political support from the US Haiti got a taste of a democracy for the first time in 200 years after gaining its independence from France. As Haiti’s first democratic President, Aristide was accepted with open arms by the people of Haiti, his popularity was buoyed by his vocation as a Roman Catholic priest. Haiti being predominantly Roman Catholic the people looked up to Aristide but subsequently switched loyalty when he relinquished his priesthood and got himself a wife. This act rendered him fallible, consequently bringing about an abrupt end to the blind loyalty that he previously enjoyed.

Suddenly the citizens of Haiti, who had been poor for well over 200 years, were now calling on Aristide to alleviate poverty in Haiti forthwith forgetting that Haiti was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the poorest countries in the  world. Even a country as South Africa, with its abundance of natural resources, has not made much head way since democracy was instituted in that country for the past ten years. Most of the people of South Africa, who were poor and impoverished during apartheid, are still poor and impoverished today. The people of Haiti, unlike those of South Africa, are expecting miracles. With the existing high rate of illiteracy being experienced in Haiti, and the acceptable practice of witchcraft that has taken over the country, a turnaround in the economy and improvement in the social life of the Haitians would require in the short term divine intervention for an amicable and speedy resolution, to the pains and sufferings of the people of Haiti.

Are there any good people left on the planet, or are we all just power-hungry opportunists? Jean-Bertrand Aristide came into politics from the pulpit of the church — what better platform from which one could hope to come from. But what is most disconcerting is that Aristide after witnessing the blood baths, lootings, burnings and loss of lives in Haiti continued to remain in office, ignoring the desire of the people of Haiti, that he should “step down.” His contention was that he had not yet completed his term in office. And to think this man was an ex-member of the “cloth.” There is a saying that if Christ were to return to earth today, there are very many churches he would stay away from. The Aristide episode is a pulpit to the battlefield dilemma. He started off as a humble Roman Catholic priest, whose public influence waned after taking office, yet he remained a symbol of resistance, in the office of President of Haiti.

Caricom’s call for clarification of the circumstances leading to the relinquishment of the Presidency of Haiti by President Aristide is nothing more than a smoke screen, propagated to minimise Caricom’s highlighted impotency. Why play politics with a serious matter as the sufferings of over eight million people in the region, with all this hocus pocus, which is an attempt to put the genie back in the bottle, which has never been accomplished. Caricom should stop spinning its wheels, what’s done is done. It should endeavour to identify with the solution in this crisis and not on whether Aristide was abducted or not. What about if he was not abducted? Would Caricom say America should count its lucky stars? The people of Haiti were confused by “newness.” The fact that democracy is new to them, they could not understand that Aristide should at least be allowed to complete his term in office, and then be voted out through the ballot. That is true democracy, it is not perfect but it is the best we have.

ULRIC GUY
Point Fortin