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<font size=4><b>Two-faced Democracy in Haiti<br><br>
<br>
</b></font><font size=3>Written by Kevin Pina <br>
Saturday, 28 November 2009 <br>
<a href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2227/1/" eudora="autourl">
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2227/1/<br><br>
<br>
</a>The Haiti Information Project
<a href="http://haitiaction.net/News/HIP/11_23_9/11_23_9.html">recently
published a short article</a> reporting that the Provisional Election
Council (CEP) had allowed the Fanmi Lavalas party to register to run in
elections scheduled for early 2010. According to reliable sources an
original document requested by the CEP and signed by Aristide was
delivered to the offices of the council shortly after 1:00 pm on November
23. There was no indication on the part of the CEP or the Fanmi Lavalas
party that anything was amiss in the process and it appeared a fait
accompli. <br><br>
Three days later the CEP would publish the names of those political
parties allowed to participate in the elections and the Fanmi Lavalas
party did not appear on the list. The CEP now clings to the same flimsy
excuses it used to exclude Lavalas in the Senatorial race. The party did
not meet all the legal requirements to register followed by incoherent
legal opinions masking their true political intent. We humbly apologize
for the mistaken assumption in our reporting that the CEP was telling the
truth and willing to play by the rules of the democratic game in Haiti.
Apparently they have no shame.<br><br>
This decision by the CEP is clearly another attempt to continue to punish
Haiti's poor majority, this time through exclusion, for their political
choices and the probability of a Lavalas victory at the polls.
<a href="http://haitiaction.net/News/HIP/6_25_9/6_25_9.html">Ninety
percent of the electorate boycotted the last Senate race after Lavalas
was excluded by the CEP.</a> The highest figure for the turnout in the
April election and June runoff combined was given by the UN who placed it
at 11% . Many independent observers noted voter turnout well below that
number throughout Haiti's ten departments. <br><br>
More importantly, this can only fan the flames for another boycott
campaign and gives the impression of duplicity on the part of US foreign
policy and the international community. One wonders what the response
would be if the same were to happen in Venezuela or Zimbabwe. Reuters
recently wrote that Fanmi Lavalas is "still considered the most
popular political force in the impoverished Caribbean nation of 9 million
people." How can the US and the international community continue to
sponsor and fund an electoral process that is built upon exclusion of the
most popular political force in Haiti? It's appears that democratic
values as projected by the US State Department and its allies must be
strictly upheld and enforced where the ruling party does not suit US
objectives and they are otherwise ignored and given a pass when it does.
The recent example of US and UN rapprochement over electoral fraud in
Afghanistan comes to mind as an example of the latter. <br><br>
What of the silence of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Haiti
today? While the OAS takes a principled position on not recognizing bogus
elections sponsored by the coup regime in Honduras their silence is
deafening concerning the decision of the CEP to bar Lavalas in Haiti.
Where are the OAS lectures to the Preval administration about the
necessities of democratic inclusion and free elections in the hemisphere?
<br><br>
All of this begs the question, what does the US and the international
community have to fear from Lavalas that they would not condemn Preval
and his handpicked CEP for excluding them from the political process? It
must preoccupy them greatly that after three years of hellish repression,
thousands killed, arrested or forced into exile, that a Lavalas victory
at the polls would expose their ultimate justification for Aristide's
removal and United Nations forces occupying Haiti. How would a Lavalas
return through democratic elections color their longstanding argument
that Aristide had lost the support of the Haitian people and that Lavalas
was nothing more than a violent political organization intolerant of
opposition from civil society? <br><br>
An even greater fear must also be that a Lavalas victory would interfere
with the US/UN development plans for Haiti. One could not imagine that a
low minimum wage suited to make Haitian sweatshop operators and their
international partners hefty profits would have passed so easily in a
parliament where Lavalas held sway. <br><br>
Sweetheart deals in parliament that encourage partnering Haiti's elite
families, who are historically notorious for fomenting political
instability, with transnational companies would not be so easy to foist
upon the Haitian people. Questions would likely be raised about deals
between Mevs and George Soros, Apaid and GildenActive Wear, Bigio and
Digicel all of which are being touted as the model of private investment
for uplifting the majority of Haitians from their current economic state.
The growing number of deals for mining rights on public lands and the
current bidding process to sell the national telephone company or Teleco
might also come under greater scrutiny with Lavalas in parliament. Simply
put, taking a chance on a truly inclusive democratic process where
Lavalas participates in elections would not fit into their plans for
selling Haiti's few resources to the highest bidder while relying upon
the Haitian elite and transnational capital investment as the motor for
economic development in Haiti. <br><br>
Lavalas is clearly seen as a boat rocker they have determined cannot be
let onboard, even if it runs against the democratic principles of
inclusion and participation. The US and the UN often remind Haitians that
one of their main objectives is to strengthen democratic institutions in
Haiti. Allowing the Preval administration and his election council to
once again bar Lavalas from participation in the democratic process gives
new meaning to that endeavor. <br><br>
Kevin Pina is a journalist and filmmaker who has been covering events in
Haiti since 1991. Pina is also the Founding Editor of the
<a href="http://www.teledyol.net/HIP/about.html">Haiti Information
Project(HIP)</a>, an alternative news agency based in Port au
Prince.<br><br>
<br><br>
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