It has been 70 days since the Senate in Port-au-Prince has managed to hold their last legislative meeting, and that was for the ratification of Prime Minister Lamothe. Some of the senators have been AWOL (Absent Without Leave), infirming the quorum inside the chamber. Meanwhile, the people’s pressing and urgent problems are not breaking -one only has to walk our streets to see them raging.

What are we paying the members of this institution for -for not doing anything? Imagine what would have been these guys’ reaction had Prime Minister Lamothe been nowhere to be found for a week, just for a week. Hell would have broken loose.

It is obvious that the Senate has become right about now the people’s number one problem. There is a solution to any problem, and the solution to the problem the Senate represents is in the hands of the people. They can turn things around for the better in a blink of an eye if they really want to.

We are living a legislative dictatorship in Haiti, and we should fight it with everything we have at our disposal -just like we did in 1986 to force the dictatorship Duvalier regime out of power, after it has lived its political life expectancy.

The intent of the drafters of our Constitution was to put in place a structure that could prevent the erection or emergence of another dictatorship of any kind from either one of the three branches of government -executive, legislative and judiciary.

The current structure or system, as stipulated in the actual Constitution, is not working in the best interest of us all; it is only beneficial to a small circle of crooks and corrupted politicians. It constantly fails the state. And when the state keeps failing to deliver, the people must act swiftly and boldly to take the destiny of the nation into their own hands.

We must not rely on one man or woman to do what needs to be done. The president, whether it be President Martelly or someone else, regardless his or her impeccable political will, will not be able to do anything as he or she will have both his or her hands tied up; the Constitution creates a powerless executive. It takes all the power and places it in the hands of the legislative branch, creating a legislative dictatorship.

Power is not given; it is taken by any necessary means. So let us not expect the legislature to amend the Constitution to return to the executive some of its power to level things out. That will not happen without a fight, which only the people can give.

Needless to say, we need a popular uprising in the country similar to the one that took place in France on July 14 of 1789, known by the historic name of Storming of the Bastille, to rectify the mess that is going on right now in the country.

The people need to take matters into their own hands. They need to take the streets, storm and DESTROY the Senate and demand that a new Constitution be voted on and adopted immediately. We do not need a Senate anyway. What for? We only need a House of Deputies -just like the British have it -to bring to the political forefront the people’s problems. We created a bureaucratic layer we do not really need, slowing the pace of things for the people. It is simply a waste of time and resources, which we do not even have.

One does not need to be a rocket scientist to realize that this Constitution is the stem of ALL of our political setbacks. We need to break ties with the staleness if we must move forward. This Parliamentarian structure as we have it and this Constitution must go so we could start anew. Again, the brave people of Haiti have in their hands the solution to the problem the Senate represents. They just need to activate it, and they do know how.