Monthly Archives: January 2012

Jan 27 2012

Sen. John Kerry denied having been contacted by Haitian lawmakers

Senator John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts

MOISE JEAN-CHARLES is a dishonest character having no business to be in Haitian politics. In my opinion, his dishonesty is disgraceful. He is someone who, by his actions, is making the world laugh at all of us Haitians. I think anyone supporting or standing behind this character in his foolishness is just as dishonest and disgraceful as he is.

All last week, he and others from his group of clowns in the Haitian legislature were making a lot of noise with a statement that wanted to make believe that they have contacted Senators John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and Dick Lugar (R) of Indiana, the ranking member of this same committee, to probe the citizenship of President Martelly.

According to Jeune Haiti Magazine, a Boston-based online magazine, Senator John Kerry has never talked to any of these guys. When Haitian and American pro-Martelly activists flooded his office with phone calls and emails, he issued this OFFICIAL statement: “We have not received any request from Haitian legislators relative to an inquiry on the double nationality of the Haitian president. If they make that request, I will remind them that Haiti is a sovereign nation, and the United States Senate has no jurisdiction on Haiti affairs.” Instead, he hopes to see Haitians come together as one and stop all this bickering to “focus their effort on reconstruction and job creation to ameliorate the social and economic conditions of the Haitian people.”

Senator Kerry has strongly supported President Martelly for his vision and unequivocal political will to turn things around for the people of Haiti. In a statement issued hours after the president had made public his energy program for the country, the Massachusetts senator stated: “President Martelly has done so much in a few months, there is finally hope for Haiti […] It is irresponsible for any Haitian elected official to consider any policy aimed at destabilizing the efforts of a democratically elected leader who focuses on the amelioration of the life condition of the Haitian people.”

This is exactly what happens when you have a bunch of unpatriotic, dishonest and ill-advised individuals  taking decisions on behalf of a country as economically disfavored and sick as Haiti. We have got to break ties with this culture of political foolishness, stupidity and mediocrity having brought these guys in politics. We have enough of them wasting the people’s time in nothingness and demagoguery only for the sake of destabilizing the country. The time will come when honest, respectable and politically sane Haitians can get deeply involved in politics to uproot these fools taking the country hostage since 1986 as far back I can recall.

Jan 26 2012

MAKE SURE PRESIDENT MARTELLY GETS THIS ASAP

President Martelly of Haiti

President Martelly, as I argued in my previous piece entitled THE BURDEN OF PROOF IS ON MOISE JEAN-CHARLES, it does not come to you to prove that you are Haitian and have never renounced your Haitian citizenship; it comes to Moise Jean-Charles to prove otherwise with the evidence he claims having in his possession.

If you hold the passport of another country, however, Mr. President, I am urging you to come out and say it and let me see these guys in the parliament destitute you. The people voted you in office not because you held a Haitian passport or whatever; they did, rather, because of your love and vision for your country. You inspire change; therefore, they want you to lead them towards that.

The ones who preceded you in power, those who did not so-called change their citizenship, I bet them to claim loving Haiti more than you do. They were in power before you, yet I don’t see how their “Haitian citizenship” had helped to make them better presidents than you. You have accomplished more for the country in your nine months in office than Preval has in his ten years.

Mr. President, you will finish your term no matter what. Ti Mari pap monte, Ti Mari pap desann. This is a political coup d’etat in the making, and it will not come through; the people will torpedo and defuse it. I trust and have faith in the good judgment of the Haitian people. So stay strong and resolute. Tet fret!!!

These guys in the parliament who are behind this coup are not acting in isolation. They very well know what this is all about. They will finally learn to respect the people’s will and desiderata.

If you conduct an opinion poll right now to take the pulse of the nation on this issue, you will realize that this Haitian Parliament is extremely unpopular and on the wrong side of it. So as unpopular as this Congress is, it would be unwise to have these guys in there decide the fate of the nation. They do not speak for me and thousands of others. All they ever worry about is their selfish political interests, not those of the nation.

Assuming that you are the holder of another county’s passport or had renounced the Haitian citizenship, in which case you are not in compliance with the dictate of the Constitution, this is not grounds for destitution since this is a special situation. Special situations require special solutions. We are in this special situation today because of what I would call a system glitch. If the Gaillot Dorsainvil PEC was doing its job, we would not be in this special situation today.

Mr. President, we will not go back to the mess we were in, to the status quo or business as usual; we will not go back to the old politics of the past. If they have a problem with you in the presidency with a foreign passport or whatever, let’s take it to the people and have a referendum for them to decide if they want you to stay or leave the presidency. Whatever comes out of the referendum will dictate the way forward. It is that simple. In the meantime, keep doing the good job you have been doing. As I said earlier, “tet fret. Ti Mari pap monte, Ti Mari pap desann.”

Jan 24 2012

SANTORUM: STOP THE POLITICAL PANDERING

Rick Santorum speaking at a town hall meeting in Lady Lake, Florida on Monday.

At one of Rick Santorum’s town hall meetings held in Lady Lake, Florida on Monday, a woman stood up and asked him this question: “I never refer to Obama as President Obama because legally he is not. [Applause] And well he constantly says that our Constitution is passé and he totally ignores it as you know. He is an avowed Muslim and my question is: why isn’t something being done to get him out of our government? He has no legal right to be calling himself president.” In return, Santorum answered: “I am doing my best to try to get him out of the government.”

When asked by NBC political embed Andrew Rafferty why he did not use his platform to correct the lady, with such a disgusting attitude, Santorum responded: “Why do you guys ask these ‘gotcha’ questions like it’s my job to go out and correct everybody who says something I don’t agree with? I don’t think it’s my responsibility. Why don’t you go out and correct her? It’s not my responsibility as a candidate to correct everybody who makes a statement I disagree with.”

I am not really bothered by the woman’s question, though, because obviously she is confused; that’s her right to ask such question. However, you have a candidate, who knows (I am assuming now) the truth about President Obama’s faith, who knows damn well that he is not a Muslim, yet is not using his leadership attribute to refute the question and make an on-the-spot correction. That’s troubling. And he said it is not his responsibility to correct the lady? Whose town hall meeting was it? Keep reading to see what John McCain did a few years back when he was asked the same question.

In 2008, during the general election campaign, I remember vividly just like it was yesterday that Candidate John McCain was asked this similar question while he was on the trail in Minnesota; before the White lady who stood up to ask him the question could even finish, he stopped and corrected her on the spot. By doing so, he acted like a leader in charge and stood for what was right.

So basically, if Santorum failed to correct the misinformation from the lady, isn’t it fair to argue that he too strongly believes that President Obama is, indeed, a Muslim? I think it is. Well, Mr. Santorum, for your information, the actual president of the United States, President Barack Hussein Obama, is a Christian; he is not a Muslim. I know you know it, so please stop the political pandering.

The difference between John McCain and Rick Santorum is that John McCain is a leader, Santorum is not. Leaders don’t do what is popular to score political points; they do what is right even when it is not popular. So America, is this the guy you want to be your next president, someone who cannot assume his responsibility and does not have the courage to stand for what is right? If so, frankly, you need to think again.

Jan 21 2012

THE BURDEN OF PROOF IS ON MOISE JEAN-CHARLES

President Martelly played off the dual citizenship charge held against him by Moise Jean-Charles exactly the way he is supposed to. Asked during a press conference for his take on the allegation making believe that he is not a Haitian citizen, making him not fit to be president, President Martelly said: “Patne a tande mizik kote m te konn di ‘El unico Italiano que tenemos aqui en Haiti;’ m gen enpresyon misye fek tande mizik la epi misye di m se Italyen. Poze!”

Ridicule works in politics. President Obama had used the same card dealing with the birther movement, which Donald Trump was the leader of. He ridiculed Donald Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner and made him pass for someone not worthy being taken seriously. It worked for him in that it has damaged Trump’s political standing. Today, not even his own Republicans take him seriously. A guy like Karl Rove sees him as a disturbing joke.

In politics, perception is reality. When people have the impression that you are a clown, it is not a matter of impression anymore; it forever becomes a matter of reality, a matter of fact. That’s exactly the card President Martelly is playing, and I am urging him to keep playing it until he wins the game.

President Martelly and the accused members of his administration must NOT cooperate with the legislative commission put in place to get to the bottom of this citizenship issue.  The burden of proof is on Moise Jean-Charles to prove his allegations factual, accurate and evident; to prove that President Martelly is not Haitian. It should not be the other way around. If he could say that President Martelly and certain members of his administration are not Haitian, he must come forth with all the tangible facts to corroborate his stance; it is not President Martelly’s job and certainly not that of his lieutenants to prove that they are Haitian.

Moise Jean-Charles in my book is a clown using the Haitian Parliament as his circus to perform his grotesque comedies whenever he feels like it, and we Haitians are his spectators. He was making all this noise only to submit to the commission in charge of investigating his allegations an envelope containing two passport numbers, according to Senator Yvon Buissereth , a leading member of this commission.

Moise Jean-Charles really takes the Haitian people for a bunch of stupid and lunatic heads. I really don’t get it, though. You say you have proof that President Martelly and certain members of his administration are not Haitian, yet when you are being challenged to bring forth the facts you claim having, you submit an envelope containing only two passport numbers. That’s your evidence. If this is not laughable, I don’t know what is.

What I have found to be very appalling in this whole saga is the fact that his colleague senators are putting on hold serious matters to solve for the betterment of the people to investigate an issue which the main accuser himself cannot help to get to the bottom of.  What is that telling you? I don’t know about you, but that is telling me that we are dealing with nothing but clowns in this circus we call the Haitian Senate. Could you imagine having the US Senate listening to Donald Trump and going as far as probing the citizenship of President Obama? That would have never happened because, unlike these senators in the Haitian Senate, these US senators have serious issues to worry about. Therefore, paying attention to a clown like Donald Trump would be the least of their worries.

I am urging President Martelly to stay resolute. The strategy he is using thus far is the right one; he needs to keep it all the way. He needs to continue making Moise Jean-Charles look like a socially frustrated or dissatisfied character, who has gotten to that level of lowness due to his socioeconomic upbringing coupled with a political ideology rooted in class warfare.

President Martelly has got to go after Moise Jean-Charles politically speaking. Any violent action on his person is highly discouraged. Violence is not the solution. He must be destroyed politically.

Two things any politician has going for them: trust and credibility. Once you lose them, your political life is basically over. So Martelly has got to go after him on these two core components.

The Martelly camp needs to call on its public relations experts to mount a character assassination campaign against Moise Jean-Charles. You have got to have people in the mud doing your dirty work. Have  “private” organizations create ads to be published on the internet and run on all the major radio and television stations targeting him. Here in the US, we call these types of organizations Super PACs (Political Action Committees). Their works go beyond effective. Portray him as a mentally deranged individual who is willing to do and say anything to stop the administration from doing the people’s job. Doing so will have two major effects on this political faceoff:  1) it will forever damage Moise Jean-Charles’s political tenure; 2) it will put to rest once and for all the dual citizenship case.

I have no doubt that this issue will backfire so adamantly that each time Moise Jean-Charles is to make another foolish and baseless allegation, he will be constrained to shut his mouth; no one will take him seriously. He will become the laughingstock of the entire country.

Jan 6 2012

MOISE JEAN-CHARLES: SHOW US THE FACTS

Senator Moise Jean-Charles

A couple of months ago, for everyone who wanted to shake their tail, Moise Jean-Charles, the senator from the country’s northern district, was beating the “Pink Militia” drum to accuse President Martelly of constituting clandestinely his own illegal armed militia. After being challenged on many occasions by responsible members of the civil society, he backed off and trashed his baseless and ridiculous claim.

Just when everyone thought he was muzzled up and forced by his constituents in the North to do the job he was elected to the Senate to do, he is out again making noise. All this week, he has been touring almost all the media outlets in Port-au-Prince to market another one of his foolish and baseless diatribes. This time, he claims having conducted an “investigation” and the conclusion shows that President Martelly is a foreign citizen. I have a question for the senator, though: Senator, as someone who is elected by the Northern people to represent them in the country’s Senate, why don’t you do them a favor to officially publish the findings of your “investigation” to show all the FACTS you say you have in your possession to corroborate your claim?

I am dying to see these FACTS he claims having in his possession to prove President Martelly’s foreign citizenship. That is what I need to see, and that is when I will be convinced that, indeed, he is doing his job. All he has been doing since got to the people’s Senate is to engage in extrapolative work just to capture the spotlight and turn himself into the “superstar” of the chamber.

In my opinion, President Martelly must not give in; he must not cooperate with any investigation geared towards confirming his Haitian nationality; the Gaillot Dorsainvil Provisory Electoral Council had long taken care of that. They cannot say that the PEC knew of the president’s foreign citizenship and still gave him a free pass. That will not stick, not when we know all the machinations and trickeries these guys in the PEC and the Preval administration had gone through and how they had tried their hardest to torpedo his chances to win the election.

President Martelly must consider taking legal actions to force Senator Moise Jean-Charles to officially publish the findings of his “investigation.” In the event that he fails to do so, he must be prosecuted for libel or defamation of character. This is unacceptable. By his actions, he is doing the country a great disservice. He must stop engaging his office in doing extrapolative work, which endangers the stability and national security of the nation.