By Yves Pierre-Louis
* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *, May 18 - 24, 2011. Haiti Liberté, vol. 4, No. 44 www.haitiliberte.com
Haitians remained largely indifferent to President Joseph Michel Martelly’s inauguration ceremonies, which were held in a darkened Parliament building on May 14.
At 8 am that day, senators and deputies were assembled at the National Assembly, as constitutionally stipulated, to administer the oath of the President of the Republic. But as the National Assembly’s president, Rodolphe Joazile, went to drape the presidential sash on Martelly shortly after 9 am, the building experienced a power outage. So it was that Haiti’s 56th president was sworn in, lit only by the spotlights and flashes of cameras.
Some speculate that the blackout was intended to send a message to the new head of state. Others say that it was simply one of the chronic electrical outages that plague everyday life in Haiti. Chamber of Deputies president Saurel Jacinthe denies any responsibility for the outage. Meanwhile, Port-au-Prince’s state prosecutor, Harrycidas Auguste, has opened an investigation into the incident.
After his swearing in, the President went to the Museum of Haiti’s National Pantheon (MUPANAH) to lay a wreath to the memory of Haiti’s ancestors. Then he crossed the street to a stage set up in front of the National Palace’s rubble where he received the traditional Te Deum speech from Monsignor Louis Kébreau, the Archbishop of the North and President of the Episcopal Conference of Haiti's Roman Catholic Church. Kébreau urged the new president to implement a policy based on social justice, honesty, progress, respect for human rights, and the “recovery of national sovereignty compromised for far too long,” a reference to the continuing UN military occupation of Haiti, now in its seventh year.
In his long homily for the occasion, the Archbishop encouraged Martelly and his team to live up to the task entrusted to them and not succumb to “the passion for money and power.”
Finally, Martelly delivered his inaugural address, saying he would fulfill his campaign promises, especially to restore law and order. “For the police and judicial authorities, I say: take my hand. I reiterate that I have faith in you. I say enough kidnapping in the country. Enough violence against women. Enough killings of citizens and police officers. Enough injustice against the population. We are going to reestablish the authority of the state, law and order. Order and discipline must reign throughout the national territory.”
To lift Haiti’s devastated economy, he said he would count on foreign investment and Haiti’s middle class. “With instability, a country cannot go forward because money doesn’t come in, which means there are no jobs, which means poverty gets worse,” he said.
“With security you get stability, which means they cannot steal the harvest of the peasant, you cannot slaughter his cow. Small merchants, whether it is day or night, you can’t rob them. You respect land ownership, you don’t squat on other people’s land. Property has to be respected so that investors can gain trust, to come invest, come build, so we can find the development we seek so we can get out of poverty and live another way.”
Then he incongruously began to preach about improving morality through education. “An immoral society, a society without values, is like a car without a driver,” he said. “They say you are immoral because you are waiting in the street without an education, because they didn’t remember that you are people. Today I say that we are going to send all children to school for free. They say I’m crazy because I say free school. Well, I’ve got news for you. Not only will I ask for school to be free, but I am going to fight for school to be obligatory. That is how we will get kids out of the streets, that’s responsible leadership, that’s how Haiti will get out of poverty.”
Who knew it was that simple? We just educate everybody for free. Problem solved!
Then Martelly issued a warning to people who might want to demonstrate to demand the very things he is promising like schools, jobs, healthcare, justice, food, housing, and an end to impunity, occupation, neoliberal reforms and social injustice. “And on this point I’m not negotiating,” he threatened. “If someone thinks they are going to come and create disorder, throw rocks, break things, and create instability so the country can’t function, I regret to inform you, the law will deal with you, the law will act as it should.”
Ironically, Martelly, with Washington’s help, got to power precisely by fomenting violent demonstrations just months ago in towns like Port-au-Prince and Aux Cayes, the type of demonstrations he now says he’ll repress. On Dec. 7, 8, and 10, following the publication of the Nov. 28 election results, Martelly’s partisans burned down political parties’ headquarters and government offices, torched cars, and looted stores. His “trouble-makers” forced the closure of the Port-au-Prince airport for nearly a week.
President Martelly seems to have forgotten that he himself was a “trouble-maker” often in the past. During the 1991-1994 coup, he is said to have been a member of the putschist “Ninja” army, and in 2003-2004 he supported the “Grenn nan bounda” demonstrators who helped carry out the coup against the elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. One must remind the president that freedom, the right to protest, is recognized by the Haitian Constitution and was an important achievement of the Haitian people’s long struggle that culminated in the Duvalier dictatorship’s overthrow in 1986.
Finally Martelly thanked the “international community” – which simply means Washington and its allies – for placing him at the head of the country to do their job. “I want to tell you that without the appreciated support of the international community, once again, one time too many, the people’s vote would have been stolen,” he said.
“The Haitian people should be proud and the friends of Haiti should be recognized.”
To close the inaugural ceremonies, a luncheon was given in honor of various foreign delegations at the Hotel Karibe Convention Center in Pétion-Ville. Nations were represented mostly by former heads of state and ambassadors, foreign ministers, or officials, and very few by acting heads of state. The U.S. delegation was headed by former president Bill Clinton, who is also the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Haiti, and Ambassador Kenneth Merten. France sent its special coordinator for Haiti and its chief diplomat, Alain Juppé, along with Ambassador Didier Le Bret. Canada sent its Minister for International Cooperation, Beverley J. Oda. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela sent its vice-president, Hector Rodriguez Gargo.
Presidents Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic and Porfirio Lobo of Honduras were present, as were Prime Ministers Bruce Golding of Jamaica and Desiré Bouterse of Suriname. Representatives of the United Nations, Organization of American States, the Interamerican Development Bank, the European Union, and the Vatican also attended.
Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide did not attend, nor did former “President for Life” Jean-Claude Duvalier. The only former Haitian heads of state were 1990 interim appointed President Ertha Pascale Trouillot and outgoing President René Préval and his wife, Elisabeth Delatour. There were, of course, former presidential candidates, such as Gérard Gourgue, Jean Henry Céant, Chavannes Jeune, Eric Smarcki Charles and others, including even those who had called for the annulment of the Nov. 28 elections. Hundreds of supporters and people who were just plain curious watched the spectacle. UN troops (MINUSTAH) and the Haitian National Police provided tight security for the inauguration.
It should be recalled that over 75% of Haiti’s 4.7 million voters abstained from voting in both rounds of the “selections” that brought Martelly to power. By garnering only about 16% of the electorate, he has a very weak mandate.
Finally, although Haiti is the only nation in the Americas on the list of Least Developed Countries, its inaugural ceremonies cost some $4.5 million, according to the Miami Herald. Martelly’s team claims that the price tag was only $2 million. Somebody has some explaining to do.