Haiti needs national accord, says international group
As Haitians prepare to celebrate the annual pre-Lenten Carnival season this month, an international anti-conflict group is warning that there is little cause for optimism and without a national accord, the country risks ongoing crises. Canada funding cut is among reasons for office closure.
By Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, Feb. 4, 2013
Delayed elections, a vicious cycle of mistrust and 128 public protests between August and October 2012 against Haitian President Michel Martelly, all risk jeopardizing Martelly’s presidency and the chance for Haiti to finally dig itself out of decades of political conflict and the ruins of the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake, said the International Crisis Group.
“Haiti is in a race against time to convince its own people, donors and potential investors that progress and stability are achievable,” the Crisis Group said in the report that will be published Monday (today). “Without a national pact, President Martelly unfortunately faces the specter of a failed presidency, and Haiti risks international abandonment.”
The warning comes as the Crisis Group becomes the latest non-governmental organization to fold its operation in Haiti. The organization first arrived in Haiti in 2004 after a bloody coup led to the ouster of its democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It has issued 21 reports on the situation in the country, which is still struggling to recover from the deadly earthquake and stabilize its democracy.
The report comes amid a growing chorus of frustration among foreign donors with Haiti’s continued political conflict, which is hampering reconstruction and affecting donor confidence.
Last week, as he addressed the U.N. Security Council for the final time as head of the U.N. peacekeeping operations in Haiti, Chilean diplomat Mariano Fernandez lamented the inability of Haitian political actors to sign a “governability pact” to work together. For Haiti to advance, he said, the country’s political, economic and social elite need to agree.
Mark Schneider, the Crisis Group’s senior vice president and special adviser on Latin America, said the decision to close the Haiti operations has less to do with the country and more to do with budget cuts by Canada, one of its main funders, and more deadly conflicts elsewhere around the globe. The Bogota office, he said, will still keep an eye on Haiti.
“In terms of comparable situations with deadly violence, there’s less in Haiti than in places where we have to be,” said Schneider, adding that the group has expanded its operations in Central Africa and added Mali to its list of countries for the first time.
In the nearly nine years since the group arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti has gone through an interim government, gang warfare, historical peaceful transition of power and repeated natural disasters. But the country remains polarized and the gains made in recent years, are “fragile.”
“There continues to be instability in Haiti,” Schneider said. “All the positive progress is very, very fragile and what we are saying is it’s all at risk, unless there is a coming together in a national governability pact.”
After years of paying lip-service to the need for national dialogue, Schneider said, it is time for all Haitians, “to go beyond the rhetoric and walk the walk; and that means recognizing you are in danger of losing the full commitment of the international community.”
The report makes several recommendations for how the political, social and economic elite could finally find a way to work together, including looking at similar pacts that have been achieved in various Latin American nations. It also offers recommendations for the international community, which the report notes, is not without blame in the ongoing Haitian crisis.
“Polarized politics have produced a complex political and socio-economic context for international cooperation,” the report said, quoting an unnamed human rights analyst who offered up this analysis: “When Haitian leadership falters; the international community meanders.”
The report’s strongest warning, however, is for Martelly, whose presidency has been punctuated by conflicts since his 2011 election. “While he has shown exceptional ability to connect with Haitians, both rich and poor, in Haiti and abroad, he has not sufficiently used that capacity to address factors that could reduce political tensions and build national consensus,” the report said.
To avoid political paralysis and break Haiti’s cycle of crises, Martelly, must among other things, follow up on required reforms and find away to win the trust of his opponents and the Haitian people, the report said.
“President Martelly needs to break the domestic stalemate and demonstrate Haiti is embarked on consensus building,” it said.
Read the full International Crisis Group's final in-country report on Haiti at the link below. Enclosed below is the Executive summary and recommendations.For a report on the ICG's lamentable report in Agust 2012 on the UN Security Council MINUSTAH mission in Haiti, see 'Crisis Group report on MINUSTAH is a whitewash of Haiti’s ills, not a remedy.'--Website editors.
Governing Haiti: Time for National Consensus
By International Crisis Group, Latin America/Caribbean Report N° 46, Feb 4, 2013
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Haiti is in a race against time to convince its own people, donors and potential investors that progress and stability are achievable. Continued delay in holding free and fair elections may well pose the greatest immediate challenge, but President Michel Martelly, already struggling to govern the broken and divided nation for one and a half years, lacks the stable political base (also denied to his predecessors) to obtain buy-in to his proposed Five-E development strategy: employment, état de droit (rule of law), education, environment and energy. To finally start the long-promised transformation, he should build on the tenuous Christmas Eve 2012 agreement for a credible electoral body to hold much delayed Senate, municipal and local polls quickly. He also should bring key actors into a national dialogue on selecting the Constitutional Council and resolving credibility questions about the appointment of the president of the Supreme Court and the Superior Judicial Council, as well as on pursuing other critical short- and longer-term public policies.
Ending the elections imbroglio is essential but insufficient. Follow-on reforms are required to avoid political paralysis during Martelly’s term. The long and difficult path to the recently concluded constitutional amendment process and still inconclusive debate over formation of the Permanent Electoral Council (CEP) are testament to the deficit of confidence and absence of political consensus. Haiti needs a national accord to manage reconstruction and development, particularly as it enters a difficult electoral period, whose calendar is still unknown. Many sectors espouse national dialogue rhetorically but do not pursue it seriously. The intensifying debate around organisation of Senate, municipal and local elections in 2013, however, may offer an opportunity to pursue a governance accord that could finally mobilise domestic forces and better secure donor support for the transformation that has been touted ever since the 2010 earthquake. After several failed efforts to reach domestic agreement on basic issues, even strong donor supporters are becoming frustrated by the lack of leadership, governance and accountability.
Decades of government inaction, growing frustration and decreasing citizen tolerance leave little margin for error. The Haitian brand of politics in effect virtually excludes the majority of citizens, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for any administration to govern effectively. The electoral calendar laid down in the constitution is never respected, so the terms of elected officials expire without replacement, giving rise to institutional instability. Elections are largely a contest between political and economic elites, as a myriad of parties give voice to few, fail to mobilise the electorate and fragment parliament. Voter participation has been falling since 2006, along with public confidence.
Zero-sum politics is not the answer to the country’s fragile security and stability. Rather, consensus is required on priorities and the strategy for achieving them. It is increasingly evident that functional governance is unlikely until and unless the business community, religious, professional and political leaderships can reach an accord. Otherwise Haiti faces increasing internal unrest. The Latin American region offers useful experience about how to build sustainable, effective agreements that can progressively be translated into concrete and sustainable policies. The National “Concertación por la Democracia” in Chile, the Agreement for Justice and Security in Guatemala, the “Acuerdo Nacional” in Peru and, most recently, the “Pact for Mexico” are examples of how to identify shared priorities and extract commitments from political parties and civil society. They demonstrate that the initial dialogue must be inclusive, if there is to be effective decision-making and efficient implementation.
The challenges facing Haiti are not difficult to divine. In essence they focus on a need for good governance, consensus-building among the elites, poverty reduction strategies effectively implemented and strengthened rule of law. Sadly, these challenges have never been confronted effectively. Haiti today presents little cause for optimism. For every instance of progress on any of these fronts, there are multiple instances of regression or, at best, stasis. What has changed, though, are the recent signs of a genuine demand for an end to that stalemate from donors who are also showing strong signs of fatigue. If Haiti is to pull through, the better angels in the natures of its leaders are going to have to prevail for once and prevail soon. This is a thin reed on which to float the country’s future; but it might be all it has. Without a national pact, President Martelly unfortunately faces the spectre of a failed presidency, and Haiti risks international abandonment.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To achieve and implement a national pact that can transform Haiti’s political culture
To national political, social and economic elites:
1. Pursue public dialogue and consensus building and renounce confrontational tactics as the means for resolving conflicts, including by adopting the necessary compromises so that institutions can function effectively and by rejecting spoilers.
2. Use the elections as a starting point by agreeing on the terms for a free, fair, transparent and therefore credible electoral process in a pact accepted by all parties, the president, prime minister, legislature and supervising electoral body.
3. Identify a trusted national institution or mechanism, like the ecumenical Religions for Peace group, to provide, with international partnering, guidelines on the rules for a comprehensive dialogue process and for building up efficient mechanisms to implement its conclusions; and to monitor and encourage compliance with commitments.
4. Build an agenda for the national dialogue that focuses also on significant longer-term policies, including the government’s Five-E development strategy (employment, état de droit (rule of law), education, environment and energy), along with adequate auditing for transparency in execution.
To lower political tensions between the executive and legislative branches
To President Martelly:
5. Demonstrate respect for the constitution by refraining from acts such as direct appointments to public posts that it requires be elected; and reverse any appointments that conflict with that requirement.
To political parties:
6. Adopt initiatives to firm up parliamentary groups into stable blocs built around policies rather than narrow individual interests.
To the international community:
7. Commit to support Haitian-led implementation of a national accord to address development and governance challenges on condition that it is based on and implemented via political dialogue, compromise and consensus.
Port-au-Prince/Bogotá/Brussels, 4 February 2013