For The Sake of Accountability, Pierre-Louis OPONT Ought to Be Fired

Pierre-Louis OPONT, the President of the Provisional Electoral Council

Pierre-Louis OPONT, the President of the Provisional Electoral Council

After reading this Nouveliste article, Opont a-t-il appris la lecon ?, I could not contain my feeling of discontentment to learn how the August 9 elections were rigged with serious irregularities and violence.

In my humble opinion, I think this Pierre-Louis OPONT ought be fired; he is a failure. Only in Haiti do you see failures being honored and remunerated; only in Haiti do you see someone who blatantly failed in his mission being kept in his position to further fail the nation again and again every chance they get.

Does ACCOUNTABILITY hold any meaning to these people at all?

With responsibility, comes accountability; with accountability, come reward and punishment. That being said, Pierre-Louis OPONT, as president of the electoral council, had the responsibility to gather all available resources at his disposal to successfully organize the Sunday legislative elections. Instead, he brought us shame and despair with his shortcomings. So because he failed to deliver exactly what was expected of him, meaning in accordance with the terms of the mission entrusted with him, he must be held accountable. In other words, he must be fired.

In fact, this man has a track record of failure. He was a high-ranking cadre in the Gaillot Dorsainvil Provisional Electoral Council of 2010; we all know what these guys had done with the elections and how miserable they had failed the country. And we turned around rewarded one of the authors of the electoral blunder with the leadership of the current electoral council. How smart! You cannot be putting failures like OPONT in positions of leadership and expecting successful results. It is not going to happen.

So for the sake of accountability, Pierre-Louis OPONT, the actual had of the electoral council, ought to be asked to resign or be fired –for having miserably failed the country with these bogus elections. The longer he stays in his position, the more tampered the people’s trust will be in the electoral process.

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.”

TO ALL YOU FAKE HAITIAN NATIONALISTS

Haitian flag

You say Dr. Gary Conille is the choice of the international community. As of yet, as always, you are engaging in what most of us Haitians do best, and that is “voye monte.” Until you show me proof that he is the choice of the international community, you can keep your nonsense to yourself.

Let’s assume that your allegation is factual in that Dr. Conille is, indeed, the choice of the international community. So what!!!! Has anything ever happened in Haiti without the infringement of the international community in our internal affairs?

When Duvalier left the country in 1986, that did not happen because he wanted to; it was because the international community asked him to. That was not interference of the international community in our affairs to you? I did not hear you so-called nationalists asking them to stay out of it and let you deal with him. Instead, you were praising them for having “liberated” the country.

Namphy, Cedras, Avril, etc… did not leave the country because they wanted to; they left because the international community stepped in to ask them to leave. And in each of these cases, we praised the international community for having taken the side of the people. Where were you so-called nationalists? How come you did not put on your nationalist hat to ask the international community to stay away?

When the US Marines landed in Port-au-Prince to pick up President Aristide, the country’s then democratically elected president, aside from his sympathizers, I did not hear you so-called nationalists protesting against the intrusion of the US in our affairs. Where were you then? You were, instead, rejoicing because you had enough of Aristide and wanted him to leave.

All the millions we just spent to organize the last presidential and legislative elections, which Preval and his crook Gaillot Dorsainvil tried to manipulate, do you know that the international community gave them to you? That’s not their interference in the country’s affairs to you? How come you did not tell them to stay away and keep their money because you don’t want them in your business?

When Preval and his crook and vassal Gaillot Dorsainvil tried so hard to steal the people’s vote, what had happened? The international community felt obliged to step in to force them to respect the people’s will. That’s not interference of the international community in the country’s internal affairs to you? How come all you so-called nationalists did not ask them to stay away and let you solve the problem on your own?

Let me answer the question for you. For each of these situations, you did not ask the international community to step aside because the intrusion appealed to your politics. You only put your nationalist hat when it is politically convenient and advantageous to you. You are nothing but a bunch of fake nationalists having nothing better to do but to mislead the people. You all need to just shut up and let the country breathe. You are acting like a bunch of animals fighting each other in the jungle, what do you expect the behavior of the international community to be? They will stop getting in your business when you can show that you are grown and mature enough to act like civilized people do, in the way you handle your affairs.