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<font size=4><b>Silent Coup in Haiti <br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Written by Darren Ell <br>
Monday, 20 September 2010 17:12 <br><br>
Source: <a href="http://www.dominionpaper.ca/">The Dominion</a><br>
<a href="http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/3654%A0" eudora="autourl">
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/3654 <br>
</a> <br>
Once again, the people of Haiti are being denied the government of
their choosing. While mainstream media has focused public attention on
ineligible candidates such as hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean, the most
popular political party in Haiti, Fanmi Lavalas, has been banned from the
November 28, 2010, Presidential and Parliamentary elections. <br><br>
Fanmi Lavalas (Lavalas, or FL) grew out of the Lavalas movement that
brought down the US-backed Duvalier dictatorship and ushered
Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in 1991. In 2000, during the last
democratic election the party was permitted to participate in, it won 90
per cent of Haitians' votes, the equivalent of Canada’s Conservative,
Liberal, NDP and Green parties combined; or the equivalent of the US's
combined electoral support for Republicans and Democrats. <br><br>
Lavalas' progressive democratic program and Aristide’s goal of lifting
Haiti from “misery to poverty with dignity” has always been an unsavoury
proposal for Haiti’s narrow elite and their supporters abroad. Two bloody
coups d’etat have unseated Aristide: the first in 1991, backed by the US,
and the second in 2004, supported also by Canada and France. In each
case, thousands of FL activists and supporters were murdered and
imprisoned, and Aristide was sent to exile in February 2004. Since the
2004 coup, FL has been banned from participating in Haitian
politics.<br><br>
Support for the party remains strong, though it currently faces
significant challenges beyond its exclusion from the elections. The
government of Rene Preval, on the other hand, is widely unpopular,
especially in the aftermath of the catastrophic January, 2010 earthquake.
An estimated 1.7 million survivors now live in unsafe, unsanitary
makeshift camps for the internally displaced, facing food insecurity and
forced evictions. It is in this climate that the November 2010 elections
will be held.<br><br>
To discuss the crisis of democracy, <i>The Dominion</i> spoke with some
key political figures on the ground in Haiti and abroad. Brian Concannon
is a founder and director of the <a href="http://ijdh.org/">Institute for
Justice and Democracy in Haiti</a> (IJDH), a US-based grassroots
organization that does human rights advocacy and pursues legal cases in
Haitian, US and international courts. Kim Ives is a member of the
editorial board of <a href="http://www.haiti-liberte.com/">Haiti
Liberte</a>, a progressive Haitian newspaper. Roger Annis is one of
Canada’s foremost Haiti solidarity activists and a member of
<a href="http://canadahaitiaction.ca/">Canada Haiti Action Network</a>.
Akinyele Umoja is an Associate Professor of African-American Studies at
Georgia State University and founding member of the
<a href="http://ijdh.org/archives/14468">Malcolm X Grassroots
Movement</a>. He recently returned from meetings with popular
organizations in Haiti. Nora Rasman is the Interim Director of Latin
America and Caribbean Policy at
<a href="http://www.transafricaforum.org/">TransAfrica Forum</a>. She
specializes in UN interventions in Haiti and has extensive
post-earthquake experience on the ground in Haiti.<br><br>
<b>Darren Ell:</b> <b>Is there any way of knowing if Fanmi Lavalas is as
popular today as it was prior to the earthquake?<br><br>
Brian Concannon:</b> The best way of measuring its popular support would
be through a fair election, but the Haitian government is not allowing
that to happen. Other indicators of its popularity, which have correlated
to electoral landslides in the past, point to continuing support for
Lavalas. These measures include my own surveys of people I meet in Haiti,
attendance at demonstrations, statements from grassroots leaders and
perhaps most indicative, the efforts that Lavalas opponents at home and
abroad are making to prevent the Haitian people from freely choosing
their leaders.<br><br>
<b>Kim Ives:</b> Anybody doing a cursory sidewalk poll can establish FL’s
support in a few hours. In March 2010, I asked dozens of people: “In the
quake’s aftermath, would you like to see the return of President
Aristide?” The responses came back 90 per cent in favor, 10 per cent
against. Another key indicator of that support was the success of the
April and June 2009 nationwide boycotts of the partial Senate elections,
where less than five per cent of the population participated because FL
was excluded.<br><br>
<b>What is the reason for Fanmi Lavalas’ popularity?<br><br>
Brian Concannon:</b> When I have asked this question, Haitian votersmany
of them critical of some FL policies or leadersusually say, “Because
Lavalas (or President Aristide) has not betrayed the Haitian people.”
Voters believe that FL at least tries to implement progressive policies
designed to promote social equality in Haiti and improve the lives of the
majority of Haitians who are poor, and resists pressure from Haitian
elites and the international community to increase social
inequality.<br><br>
<b>Akinyele Umoja:</b> Lavalas has won every election they’ve run in, but
the US, French and Canadian Governments all have interests in Haiti and
don’t want to see the Lavalas agenda put forward. FL invests in people,
emphasizing infrastructure investment in schools, roads and hospitals.
That is not the priority of foreign interest or the Haitian elite. It’s
quite shocking that despite the repression people have endured for voting
for Lavalas in the past they still remain loyal to the party.<br><br>
<b>Kim Ives:</b> Besides their investment in the poor majority, FL really
is the people. There are dozens of different bases (“baz”), often with
rivalries and political differences. The national leadership is weak and
not really respected, but the idea and symbol of popular power still
remains with FL and Aristide.<br><br>
<b>What is the current state of Fanmi Lavalas? How organized is it and
how did the earthquake affect it? Are there splits in the party?<br><br>
Akinyele Umoja:</b> As someone who has worked in the civil rights
movement in the US where repression was long and intense, I know that
repression has a negative effect on any such movement. Party
representatives I met in Haiti suggested that this has occurred in Haiti
and that the movement is not consolidated. Yet it seems to have
widespread support. On the celebration of Aristide’s birthday on July 15,
12,000 people marched. If they can do that, they can mobilize people
politically now.<br><br>
<b>Kim Ives:</b> FL is rent by splits, has weak national leadership, and
has a very ambiguous official program, all of which is complained about
by its entire membership base. It is organized around small groups called
Ti Fanmi which often have disputes with each other. Aristide designates
its leaders but they are unpopular with or unknown to the base. While the
base might remain strongly attached to Aristide, it often resents and
rejects his appointees. This is currently the situation with, for
example, Dr. Maryse Narcisse.<br><br>
Despite this leadership void at the top, the mid-level Lavalas leaders
are very strong and dynamic. Many of them are leaders in coalitions like
PLONBAVIL and Tet Kole Oganizasyon Popile. They generally are more
radical than the official party line, calling for things like an end to
the foreign military occupation of Haiti (a call Narcisse has never
made), the overhaul of the Provisional Electoral Council (Conseil
Electoral Provisoire, or CEP) that approves candidates, Preval’s
resignation and the formation of a provisional government to hold
elections. Much of this Lavalas base has also been involved in the
defence of women subject to rape in the IDP camps, and the defence of the
IDP camp residents from eviction by landowners.<br><br>
<b>How does Fanmi Lavalas’ platform differ from that of other
candidates?<br><br>
Kim Ives:</b> Generally, candidates in Haiti have very conventional and
harmless platforms, calling futilely for things like jobs, education,
health, roads and so on. FL’s last “program” was released 11 years ago
and was called “Investir dans l’Humain” (Invest in People), but FL has
always been defined, despite attempts to dilute its message and ranks, by
the program put forward by the Lavalas movement leaders, headed by
Aristide in 1990, who called for Haiti’s “second independence,” meaning a
break with the US, France and Canada, taxation of Haiti’s rich to benefit
the poor, and the political marginalization of anti-democratic forces
like the Duvalierists and neo-Duvalierists. But officially in 2010, FL is
not proposing anything radically different from any of the other
candidates.<br><br>
<b>Why have so many observers stated that the CEP,the organization that
approves the official list of candidates, is not credible?<br><br>
Brian Concannon:</b> The CEP was chosen in 2009 through an
unconstitutional process that gave the president undue influence over the
choice of councillors. Over the past year, the Council has confirmed the
fears of observers across the political spectrum that it would advance
the interests of the president’s party over the interests of the
constitution and Haiti’s voters. The Council’s most egregious act has
been the unjustified disqualification of 14 political parties from across
the spectrum, including FL, from the legislative elections. A detailed
<a href="http://ijdh.org/archives/13138">analysis</a> of the problematic
nature of the CEP is available on the IJDH website.<br><br>
<b>Why has the CEP banned Fanmi Lavalas from the electoral
process?<br><br>
Brian Concannon:</b> The CEP provided verbal justifications for FL’s
banning from the upcoming 2010 legislative elections, none of which was
formally stated in a legal document, and none of which is legally
justified. The Council initially claimed that a mandate sent by President
Aristide to allow another party leader to register FL candidates was not
authentic, then that it was not appropriately notarized. When both those
claims were disproven, the Council changed course and said that FL’s
failure to file some documents before the April 2009 Senatorial elections
(from which FL was also illegally excluded) prevented its participation
in the elections.<br><br>
FL was banned from the upcoming 2010 Presidential elections by a CEP
decree that parties could not register unless the head of the party
registered in person. Haitian law provides no basis for such a claim. In
Haiti as in Canada or the US, people are freely allowed to delegate
authority through authenticated written instruments. This action by the
CEP was clearly aimed at FL, because it is the only party whose leader is
in involuntary exile.<br><br>
<b>If Fanmi Lavalas cannot run candidates, what choices are left to
Haitians?<br><br>
Kim Ives:</b> Many Haitians will seek to boycott the November elections
if they go forward (and that is a big “if”) or to disrupt them in other
ways. Some may support the candidacies of the “stealth” Lavalas
candidatesthose who are posturing to be seen as Aristide's heir: Jean
Henry Ceant, Yvon Neptune, Leslie Voltaire, Yves Christallin or Dr.
Gerard Blot.<br><br>
<b>The IJDH has detailed the challenges the earthquake created for
elections: the loss of innumerable identification cards, identifying the
deceased in the electoral lists, the destruction of polling stations and
the displacement of the population. They have also stated that “if
elections are not held, Haiti’s extraordinary difficulties will be
compounded by the lack of a credible, democratic power in Haiti.” What
could be the consequences for Haiti if credible elections are not held?
How is this going to play out on the ground in Haiti given the
post-earthquake reality?<br><br>
Kim Ives:</b> If credible elections are not held, which is likely, a
large percentage of the population will boycott the polling.
Alternatively, the population could, in an unofficial manner, vote in
large numbers for one of the “stealth” Lavalas candidates, or possibly
even for former Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis if he continues to
make Aristide’s return one of his principle planks.<br><br>
Under the first scenario, the “winner” of the election will be seen as
illegitimate by the population, leaving a very fragile political
situation. The slightest incident (historically, usually the shooting of
children) could set off riots and calls for the president’s resignation.
This is, of course, why the UN occupation troops remain deployed in
Haiti: to repress precisely this type of popular uprising.<br><br>
In the second scenario, if one of the “stealth” Lavalas candidates
manages to get a popular following and “take” the vote in some way, then
that candidate would come into office with a great deal of popular
expectations riding on him. He will then either betray that popular trust
put in him by toeing the line like Preval did, or try to challenge the
restrictions placed on him by the UN forces, the Interim Commission to
Reconstruct Haiti and the international financial institutions. If he
does this, he will quickly be demonized and eliminated in one way or
another. Betrayal however is the most likely outcome.<br><br>
In either case, the constellation of progressive groups orbiting the
offices of the Bureau des avocats internationaux (BAI) and Haiti Liberte
will continue to gain strength and credibility, as their predictions of
either bogus elections or a betraying leader are borne out. This
embryonic resistance front, in turn, will eventually crystallize into a
more organized and disciplined organization or a broad social movement
under the leadership of a symbolic leader, similar to what is happening
in Latin America.<br><br>
How this later aftermath would play out depends on whether Aristide
returns or not. If Aristide did return, it would only be if one of the
“stealth” Lavalas candidates, or Alexis, wins. On his return, although he
would devote himself to his university and foundation, Aristide would
become a huge power broker. However, Washington will do everything in its
considerable power to prevent Aristide’s return <br>
<b> <br>
What has been the reaction in Canadian and American political circles to
the banning of Fanmi Lavalas from the 2010 elections?<br><br>
Roger Annis:</b> I'm not aware of a single Canadian political party or
representative aware of the undemocratic character of the upcoming
election in Haiti or voicing concern about it. Interestingly, the federal
government is by all accounts following developments closely. Minister of
Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon was in Haiti for three days in early May
to get a first-hand look at Canada's support for prisons and police
training and equipping. He announced new spending in those areas and he
was an early voice speaking in support of a sham election.<br><br>
<i>Haiti Liberte</i> has called the sham election "the first order
of business of the Haiti Interim Reconstruction Commission." In
other words, while we were treated to words and speeches by the foreign
powers following the earthquake in favor of meaningful aid and
reconstruction, what we have received is an inadequate or failed relief
effort combined with a near-stealth plan to impose a fraudulent election
that will, again in the words of Haiti Liberte, "lead the country
towards a deepening dependence on the imperialist countries, feet and
hands tied as in the olden days of slavery." <br><br>
<b>Brian Concannon:</b> There has been very little interest in American
political circles. Representative Maxine Waters, who regularly stands up
for justice in Haiti, has been trying to raise interest in the US House
of Representatives, with little result so far. Senator Richard Lugar, the
ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a
report in June that strongly criticized the political party exclusions,
and suggested that the US reconsider its support for the flawed process.
That report had little impact.<br><br>
The US Administration, like much of the official International Community,
believes that President Preval’s team has done a good job managing Haiti,
including advances in financial accountability and transparency, and
would like to see that team continue to run Haiti. This is a short-term
expedient that will come back to haunt the US, Canada and other countries
because the elections will not produce a government with the political or
moral legitimacy to effectively implement a reconstruction plan. The
government will have to make very difficult decisions (such as about
rural versus urban spending, initiatives supporting the middle class
versus the poor, etcetera) and request its citizenryalready tired and
angryto make more sacrifices. This will be very difficult for a
government lacking popular support.<br><br>
To some extent, the Haitian government and MINUSTAH (the UN forces) will
be able to keep basic peace by force of arms, but that will not allow
effective governance. I also fear that citizens who feel they cannot
choose their government through the ballot will engage in more disruptive
tactics, which will lead to social unrest and possibly a violent response
by the police and MINUSTAH, which will in turn touch off a cycle of
violence.<br><br>
<b>Akinyele Umoja:</b> A minority has called for the inclusion of Lavalas
because they know if they don’t, the elections could be easily exposed as
unfair. Others hope for some minor Lavalas representative to be included
and co-opted into a different platform. The dominant view remains
unchanged. The blocking of Lavalas has the blessing of the US and surely
the blessing of Bill Clinton.<br><br>
<b>How about Canadian and American media? We hear a lot about Wyclef Jean
but nothing about Fanmi Lavalas.<br><br>
Roger Annis:</b> Canada's media has failed to inform Canadians about the
flawed election in the making, including the formal exclusion of Haiti's
only mass representative party, Fanmi Lavalas. This is not simply
oversight or ignorance. I have conducted extensive correspondence with
programs and senior news editors at CBC Radio about this matter, for
several months now. They are either disbelieving or disinterested. The
same can be said for the editors of Canada's print media.<br><br>
This is not a proper response from a serious media outlet, but sadly,
Haiti does not seem to merit the same standard of journalism that might
apply to similar situations in other countries. Imagine, for a moment,
that the government in Venezuela was conducting that country's electoral
affairs in a way similar to Rene Preval's discredited regime in Haiti.
Canada's editors and news writers would be screaming, and writing, at the
top of their lungs. And we wouldn't hear the end of it from the federal
government. <br><br>
All this places major responsibilities before the Haiti solidarity
movement and to anyone else in Canada concerned about Haiti's fate. Will
we let this sham electoral process pass unchallenged? I am confident that
we won't, that we will find the means to assist the people of Haiti who
are waging the battle for democracy, social justice and electoral
accountability. That's what got the Canada Haiti Action Network started
in the first place, in 2004, and it's where we must keep moving.<br><br>
<b>Nora Rasman:</b> Due to his international notoriety, Wyclef Jean
brought the elections issue to the forefront for a short time when he
declared his candidacy, was rejected and repealed. It is positive that
any attention around elections has been generated, but very little media
coverage has addressed the fundamental problems with the upcoming
elections. If the immediate concerns of those affected by the quake are
not addressed, the reconstruction and long-term rebuilding process will
exclude the Haitian majority and increase the possibility of political
instability.<br><br>
<b>Brian Concannon:</b> The mainstream American media has a bias towards
covering personalities over policies in all elections, including our own.
Reporters and editors claim that it’s what Americans like to read. The
Wyclef Jean coverage carries that bias to an extreme. It has devoted
extensive space to a clearly ineligible candidate with no political
experience running with a party that has never won any elected office. At
the same time, it ignores the disqualification of the party that has won
every free election held in Haiti for 20 years, always by a
landslide.<br><br>
The US equivalent to what’s happening in Haiti would be President Obama
forming a new party before our 2012 elections, and announcing that the
Democrats and Republicans were disqualified, then California Governor
Arnold Schwarzeneggerwho was born in Austria and thus constitutionally
barred from the Presidencyannouncing his candidacy, then the press
foaming at the mouth about how his entry into the race has energized
action hero movie fans, while ignoring the disqualification of the
parties that win every election.<br><br>
<b>Kim Ives:</b> Wyclef Jean made it clear that he would head a pro-US
administration and work with the UN and USAID. Meanwhile, Washington and
its media are trying to “turn the page” on the Lavalas movement. The
first stage is always to ignore and minimize it. If FL continues to
stymie Washington’s agenda in Haiti, the mainstream media will set about
demonizing the FL and its leaders, just as it did six years ago.<br><br>
<b>Is it fair to say that the international community does not want to
see democracy in Haiti? And if so, why, especially considering Haiti’s
great need and the sums of money promised for reconstruction by the
international community?<br><br>
Brian Concannon:</b> The international community wants to see a
“democracy” in Haiti that betrays the desires of Haitian voters in favor
of the dictates of the international community and Haitian elites. This
is obviously problematic from a moral and ethical perspective, but it is
equally problematic from the perspective of a North American taxpayer.
President John F. Kennedy famously remarked that “those who make peaceful
revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” The
International Community seems intent on proving this maxim over and over.
As long as Haitian voters are not allowed to choose their leaders, there
will be violence in Haiti (mostly coming from anti-democratic forces, but
some from democratic forces as well), which will imperil any money
provided for Haiti’s reconstruction, and provoke continued expensive
military intervention in Haiti. <br><br>
<b>Akinyele Umoja:</b> I resent the term “international community”
because it doesn’t refer to the people in these countries. It refers to
very specific interests in the US, France and Canada. In the US, the
Monroe Doctrine states clearly that the US will control the Caribbean and
the Americas to suit its needs. The US doesn’t like any country that
seeks a political or economic course independent of its own. Ordinary
people would support democracy in Haiti, but they get so much
disinformation that they don’t know what’s really going on.<br><br>
<b>Kim Ives:</b> The US, France and Canada cannot tolerate any sovereign
and nationalist state in Latin America, least of all Haiti. Their
subversion and coups d’etat of the past show that clearly. In particular,
the US won’t stand for it because of Haiti’s geopolitical position across
the strategic Windward Passage from socialist Cuba and its sharing of the
island with the Dominican Republic (DR), an important US ally and
business partner. Any radical progressive social change in Haiti would
have a huge impact on the DR, where many Haitian migrants and Haitian
ancestry Dominicans live, many travelling back and forth between the two
countries.<br><br>
Haiti is also, after Cuba, the most populous nation in the Caribbean, and
in many ways, Latin America's most African country. Racism has played a
major role in Haiti's subjugation, denigration, and constant political
crisesstoked by North America and Europe since Haiti's ground-breaking
1804 revolution.<br><br>
The great sums of money promised to Haiti after the quake are primarily
earmarked to go to US contractors like Halliburton, DynCorp, and Kellogg
Brown & Root [now KBR]. The “reconstruction” is a golden opportunity
to channel billions to the Pentagon’s principal contractors and rebuild
Haiti as Washington sees fit (ie; more like Puerto Rico, a US colony
whose national economic independence has been almost completely
repressed, subjugated or consumed by US multinationals, which have
polluted the environment, doctored the legal and political system and
corrupted the Indigenous culture). This is why the US has essentially
taken over the Haitian government through the Interim Commission to
Reconstruct Haiti (CIRH).<br><br>
<b>How important is this election to Haitians, especially given the
struggle for survival since the earthquake?<br><br>
Nora Rasman:</b> The exclusion of FL has added skepticism to people’s
views on the usefulness of these elections. For many of the camp leaders
and those living in camps, elections are not a priority because there are
so many other outstanding immediate issues on the table, including
securing basic goods and services on a daily basis. People affected by
the earthquakeparticularly those who have been internally displacedare
challenged to obtain consistent access to food, water, health, sanitation
and washing services, education or job opportunities. <br><br>
<b>Akinyele Umoja:</b> In the camps, the main issue is survival: safety,
health and food. But people are tying it to politics. They see themselves
as Lavalas, so they feel that if their party was allowed to participate,
they would be interested in the elections, but with the current group of
candidates, they just see it as a sham that will not help them at all.
<br><br>
<b>What can concerned citizens in Canada and the US do about this
issue?<br><br>
Brian Concannon:</b> Concerned citizens outside of Haiti need to protect
our ideals, our tax dollars and Haitian voters against our own
governments’ polices, by 1) staying informed about Haiti, and 2) staying
involved. The IJDH has a program called "Half-Hour for Haiti,"
which helps people do both. Anyone can sign up on our
<a href="http://ijdh.org/get-involved/action-alerts">website</a>.<br><br>
<b>Nora Rasman:</b> Concerned citizens abroad can argue for free, fair
and transparent elections to move forward. Holding your government, as
well as national and international non-governmental organizations,
accountable for their activities is of the utmost importance. To this
end, we suggest that people become engaged by contacting their elected
officials to tell them the crisis on the ground has not ended while
emphasizing the need for Haitian civil society organizations to be part
of the long-term planning for reconstruction, including the electoral
process. Or building concrete relationships with solidarity organizations
in Haiti, the US and Canada, organizations that support a fair and
representative electoral processes. <br><br>
<b>Akinyele Umoja:</b> We need to challenge our own governments. In the
US, we need to ask ourselves the question of how Aristide can be returned
to the country because we took him away. We need to understand our own
government’s involvement in the impoverishment of Haiti. If people hadn’t
stood up around the world against apartheid in South Africa, it wouldn’t
have fallen, and we need to do the same work around the issue of
Haiti.<br><br>
<b>Kim Ives:</b> People should provide material and financial support to
the resistance being carried out by coalitions like PLONBAVIL, groups
like the <a href="http://ijdh.org/">Institute for Justice and Democracy
in Haiti</a> and <a href="http://ijdh.org/about/bai">Bureau des avocats
internationaux (BAI)</a>, and media like
<a href="http://www.haiti-liberte.com/">Haiti Liberte</a>.<br><br>
<i>Originally from Saskatchewan, Darren Ell is a teacher, photographer
and freelance journalist residing in Montreal. Between 2006 and 2008, he
documented the legacy of the 2004 coup d’etat in online publications with
the
<a href="http://citizenshift.org/damage-done-canada-and-coup-haiti">
Citizenshift</a>, The Dominion and
<a href="http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/4_25_7/4_25_7.html">Haiti
Action</a>. His photographic installation on this subject,
<a href="http://community.hour.ca/blogs/up_to_the_hour/archive/2010/02/10/photographer-darren-ell-keeps-eyes-on-haiti.aspx">
Haiti Holdup</a>, was exhibited at Concordia University in Montreal.<br>
</i><a href="http://www.dominionpaper.ca/">The Dominion</a><br><br>
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