Tag Archives: Haitian politics

Jul 25 2017

The Next President of Haiti…

The next president of Haiti should be able to see the country from the prism of a technological revolution. 

We have been too far left behind the technical boom for too long, it is time now to play catch-up.

It is our state of mind that keeps us in that economically and socially underdeveloped or deprived state of affairs we are in, not because “God is punishing us,” as some of these “levanjil tèt mare” love to suggest.

We need to revolutionize the way we think, the way we see or perceive ourselves and the world around us.

From my observation, I see there is a total philosophical disconnect between the Haitian at home [and some of us living abroad] and the rest of the world. We need to bridge that gap, and the only best and most logical way to accomplish that is by means of a technological revolution.

We need to bring the internet to the entire population, including those living in the country’s most secluded areas –assuming the electric energy problem the country has been struggling with has been intelligently dealt with in its entirety. 

The mobile technology, coupled with the internet, will change the way we learn, study and communicate. In large, that will change the way we see ourselves in relation to the world.

A technological revolution is what we need to change the collective psyche of our people in the long run, which, in turn, will make possible the economic and social development we have been hoping to see become a reality in the country.

Here is the question: in light of the 2021 presidential election, which prospective candidate do you think has the potential –political vision and leadership acumen –to bring about that aforementioned transformational change?

Aug 16 2014

Legislative Election This Year in Haiti or Dismissal of The Parliament

I am against the application of Article 12 of the El Rancho Agreement; it is recipe for political suicide for President Martelly. He should not and must not take such route. By the same token, I am wholeheartedly against the idea of mandate prolongation for these lawmakers whose terms will come to an end on the 2nd Monday of January.

So far, we all on the progressive aisle of the political spectrum would agree that President Martelly has done way too much and gone to the extreme to facilitate the organization of the elections this year. But, and that is very unfortunate, the unwavering and insurmountable roadblock inside the Senate is beyond his control.

President Martelly can’t do anything to make possible the impossible in the Senate. He can only hope the 6 Lavalas senators come to their senses, which I strongly doubt will happen, to allow the electoral process to pursue its course. Otherwise, he will have to bet on time to welcome sooner than later the arrival of the 2nd Monday of January -the day this Parliament will constitutionally expire.

Once the Parliament expires, we will have a situation of fact to deal with. It will be dismissed because its tenure will be unconstitutional. Then what will be the reaction of the so-called opposition? We will be witnessing waves of political turbulence and each side will be playing the blame game for a few months, which should be expected, before everyone starts absorbing and digesting the logic of the general elections in 2015.

The notion that President Martelly will have to go if he fails to organize the legislative and territorial elections this year, which those in the so-called opposition are regurgitating over and over, is pure political fantasy from a bunch of so-called politicians indulging in the act of intellectual masturbation. With this talking point, the so-called opposition is doing nothing but talking gibberish to create fear of the unknown in the minds of the people. We know for a fact they do not have the political means on the ground and on the world stage to force Martelly out of power. If they did, they would have kicked him out long ago. So they are making empty noises to disturb the midnight peace in the Republic.

What I see in the political horizon is clear and simple: unless a miracle happens for the 6 Lavalas senators to come to their senses to facilitate the electoral process to run its course, we are heading toward the expiration and dismissal of the Parliament -which will create waves of political turbulence for a few weeks or months before everyone accepts the new reality as the new normal in our political conjuncture. Then everyone will be talking about general elections in 2015.

Feb 15 2014

WARNING: President Martelly Is Flirting With Danger

President Martelly and Monsignor Langlois

President Martelly and Monsignor Langlois

 

President Martelly is flirting with danger if he thinks he can refuse to not publish in the nation’s gazette, Le Moniteur, the names of the members of the Superior Court of Auditors, which, from my understanding, he had initially promised to do in the El Rancho negotiations with the opposition.

According to the Constitution, it is in the Senate’s prerogative to choose the members of this said institution, not that of the executive branch. The president’s office can only vet the members and communicate its decision within a time frame to the Senate. In the event that the time to do so has elapsed, the president will have no other choice but to publish the names.

So since the president, for whatever reason, let the limit expire, he MUST publish the names. And if the senators make the publication of those names their sine qua non for their endorsement of the tripartite compromise resulting from the El Rancho negotiations, no one can blame them for that.

President Martelly must not be flirting with danger. He MUST publish those names since he let his vetting prerogative expire. I trust his political judgment, so I don’t think he will make such a reckless mistake of not publishing those names. I am sure he is aware of what is at stake. Should he choose to not publish them, he will make a catastrophic mistake, which will have serious political consequences.

Dec 9 2013

The Way To Beat Lavalas In The Next Elections

elections-haiti

Lavalas knows very well that “rache manyòk” is not feasible, so their mobilization on the streets is nothing but a part of their campaign strategy to imposingly win the next elections.

They were very dormant for the past two years, so they had got to find a way to wake up their troops and get them on their feet once and for all.

The Tèt Kale camp needs to take this wave of sporadic protests very seriously. They must not play the game of their opponent. Otherwise, they will know an embarrassing defeat.

The Tèt Kale Political Action Committees (PACs) must not let their camp lose the political edge to the Lavalas sector -if they want to outperform them (the Lavalas sector) in the next elections. Be mindful of the fact that the main purpose behind all these protests is to win the political edge.

By definition, a Political Action Committee (PAC) is a type of organization that gathers campaign money from members and donates those funds for the purpose of influencing an election. It may engage in unlimited political spending independently of the campaign to campaign for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation.

How to prevent Lavalas?

Effective political campaigns cannot be possibly run without money. So you need money to effectively campaign against your opponents. The game has long changed.

If the Tèt Kale PACs want to capitalize on the next elections, among many things they need to do, they need to wage an aggressive and brutal media war against Lavalas.

The Tèt Kale PACs, with small 30- to 60-second political spots (audio and video), need to hit the mainstream radio and TV stations in Haiti and the Diaspora and all the social networking sites. The content of these spots is what will determine their effectiveness. So expert advice is highly warranted to put these spots together.

The purpose of these spots is to highlight the reasons (based on historical data) as to why Lavalas is bad for the country in this era of modernization and social and economic development and why their candidates represent what the country needs to keep moving forward.

Also, the Tèt Kale sector needs to select winnable candidates with a clean record to represent them in these elections. That means a vetting committee needs to be instituted to thoroughly examine the records of these potential candidates before they are selected.

Lavalas can be beaten easily. It will depend on the game plan of the Tèt Kale sector. As I often say, when the playing field is leveled for all the players, the team with the best strategy is the one poised to win the contest.

Mar 7 2011

MARTELLY IS NOT TO BLAME FOR…

Michel J. Martelly, Haitian presidential candidate

The Haitian political class needs not to be infuriated at Martelly for the warm acclamation he has received from the people. Rather, they need to reexamine themselves to find the problem and fix it.

Martelly “tètkalebobis” should be the least of their worries. Tèt fè mal sa yo genyen an, se pa li ki ba yo l. 😀

They are to be blamed for both phenomena -the Aristide phenomenon and the Martelly phenomenon.

You thought these people would have learned a thing or two from the Aristide experience in the 1990 election, right? Apparently, they had not learned anything.

Aristide, a priest-turned politician, slaughtered his rival, Marc Bazin, the face of the status quo, at the polls. He won the election with an avalanche or “lavalas.” That was then.

Today, here we are on the verge of experiencing an encore presentation of that historic experience.

If Martelly, a musician-turned politician, gets elected president of Haiti in this election scheduled for March 20th, it will be another major blow to our political class of traditional politicians. In fact, it will not be just a blow; it will also be a hot and thick load of spit in their faces.

Some are arguing that in a country where things are being conducted with a certain level of standard, Martelly’s name would have never been on the ballot. Well, neither would have the names of these bozos who have been occupying the political landscape ever since after the collapse of the Duvalier regime in 1986.

Now, in an attempt to prevent such an embarrassment from occurring again, some are proposing that the Haitian Constitution of 1987 be amended to impose restrictions (in terms of education level and political experience) to determine who can run for the presidency in Haiti. This is the most preposterous idea I have ever heard in my lifetime as a political junkie.

The determination as to who is qualified or not to be president should be left to the people to make at the ballot box, not by imposing restrictions on honorable citizens. Such idea is very condescending and elitist to say the list. It is like saying that Al Sharpton, Ross Perot, Donald Trump and Ralph Nader are not qualified to run for president of the United States because they have never been elected to serve in any capacity. This is just ludicrous.

Martelly did not emerge out of some type of a spontaneous generation incident of nature. Another words, “se pa yon kout loray ki te kale l.” He is a response to the failure of that class of politicians. Clean your ranks, then you will never have to worry about another Martelly to become a challenge to the status quo.

Martelly is not to blame for the rejection of these bozos by the people. The people have rejected them for a specific reason, which is that they have never missed the opportunity to fail and embarrass the country; they don’t inspire trust. Until they get their acts together, they’ll always be rejected; we will always have another outsider like Martelly to surprise them again.

Oct 27 2010

CHARACTER ASSASSINATION IS NOT A CRIME

Successful politicians do not only know how well to articulate their plans to their constituents, but also how best to assassinate the character of their opponents. How do you assassinate someone’s character? You assassinate someone’s character by using their vulnerabilities to convince the electorate to believe that the person is UNFIT for the position. You don’t know about your opponents’ character flaws by looking and smiling at them. You have to dig and unearth the stinky corpses.   

Here in the United States, we see nothing but that. Character assassination is the essence of American politics. Do not take my words for it. All you have to do is to take a few minutes of your time to watch a few political ads. A very slim portion of them is dedicated to introducing and positioning the candidates. For the most part, they are attack ads, and their sole purpose is to assassinate the character of the challenger.

In the Haitian political landscape, the politicians do not create or raise controversies, which is probably the reason why I have found it to be overtly boring. I barely see a political advertisement introducing a candidate, let alone an attack one. The ones I have come in contact with only tell the electorate what the candidate’s identification number is and where to make the check mark to vote him/her.

These Haitian politicians do not even talk about themselves in the ads; they worry more about putting the illiterate and hungry masses in the streets playing RARA POLITICS. I have seen a few candidates doing this crap, which I think is embarrassing, disparaging, condescending, demeaning, low and outdated.  

Anyhow, let’s go back to the topic. As I was saying, character assassination is the best way to fight political battles. You do not win these kinds of battles simply by presenting and positioning yourself; you do by assassinating the character of your opponents.

Have you ever asked yourself what had stopped Marc Bazin, the leader of the MIDH, from winning the 1990 presidential election in Haiti? That man was unstoppable. He had the persona, the savviness and the money to finance and run a well-structured campaign. But what he failed to realize was that money alone does not win elections. You need to be presenting yourself and your agenda and attacking your opponents. The strategy for his defeat was perfectly crafted that he was politically dead before the news even got to him.

How did his character get assassinated? The Haitian left painted him as an emissary of Washington. That’s exactly what they did, and before you know it, he was powerless with all the money he had.

The framing of the leader of the MIDH as Washington’s emissary worked perfectly because the public sentiment at the time was VERY antagonistic towards Washington. And the left did not spend a dime in presenting their candidate, Jean Bertand Aristide, who had just been relieved of his priesthood duty by Vatican for his revolutionary and leftist ideology of liberation theology. Aristide, as popular and powerful as he was, did not need any introduction to the political scene. With only a few months of campaigning, he could topple Bazin’s chance to win the presidency.  

Other politicians got eliminated from the scene simply by being labeled the M word –MAKOUT. Coming from the brutal dictatorship regime of the Duvalier, the people were highly repulsive of anyone having ties or acquaintances with the regime. So if you are a candidate, once you are framed as a TONTON MAKOUT, the ceremony for your political funeral is inevitable.

In conclusion, character assassination is a great strategy of battle which politicians use to annihilate their challenger. It works wonders. Politics is not supposed to be fair. How could you be fair in playing a game which must be won psychologically? Before you win in the polls, you must win in the minds of the people. So politicians should not be spending money in just presenting themselves and their agendas to the electorate; they should also work just as hard to assassinate the character of their opponents. It is despicable to see in this 21st century these Haitian politicians using the same archaic RARA POLITICS as political tool to get the attention of the electorate. Character assassination is not a punishable offense, so use it.