Tag Archives: kidnapping

May 5 2011

WAGING WAR ON DOMESTIC TERRORISM IN HAITI

Kidnapping and planned homicide in any country are acts of specialized terrorism. In Haiti, such acts have become common practice. Almost every single day you wake up, you hear on the news that someone gets executed point-blank or kidnapped, creating a situation of constant fear in the population. Something must be done and must be done NOW to secure the nation so that investments (foreign and national) can start pouring in the country.

These criminals -kidnappers and murderers -in Haiti are domestic terrorists; we need to call them what they are. Therefore, dealing with them requires bold actions which must be part of a national security strategy apparatus.

Let us be clear on one thing: President Martelly campaigned on the urgency to revamp our agonizing economy by encouraging investments and creating jobs, which is awesome. But, sorry to say it, that will not happen if we cannot secure the country. Investments and criminal activities do not mingle or cohabit. Whenever crimes become a matter of normalcy within any territorial space, investments flee. That is just the way it is. So to attract and keep investments within our borders, we have got to win the war on crimes.

President Martelly must develop a comprehensive strategy to fight domestic terrorism and attract and prevent investments from fleeing to other countries competing against us for cheap labor. What must he do to address this national security issue which is poised to be one of the most pressing challenges of his administration?

To address this national security issue, President Martelly must:

1. ask the help of the international community to train a National Security Force (NSF) with the objective to dismantle the criminal cells and capture the criminals dead or alive.

a. Such specialized elite force will be composed of 500 or 1000 well trained and equipped military personnel.

b. The force will have an Intelligence Unit to infiltrate the criminal cells and collect pertinent intel in terms of their locations and their activities so they can be stopped before they hit their high value targets.

c. To lower the cost of training this force, they could proceed with the recruitment of Haitian citizens who had served in foreign militaries.

2. restructure the Interior Ministry and refocus its mission  to respond to all threats with the potency to compromise or endanger our national security -fighting drug trafficking, kidnapping, organized crimes and secure the nation.

a. The National Security Force should fall under this agency, which should be run by people with expertise in intelligence and national security. These people will constitute the team to advice the president on issues pertaining to national security.

In conclusion, candidate Martelly promised during the campaign to revamp our economy by encouraging investments (foreign and national) and creating jobs. There is no way such promise could become a matter of reality if he does not develop and implement a national security strategy to dismantle the terrorist cells, capture these terrorists dead or alive and secure the country. We cannot let these terrorists control the country and terrorize the population. Fighting terrorist activities is not the job of a police force, especially not of one as limited, ill-trained and ill-equipped as the one we have. Stopping or killing these terrorists requires that we place ourselves ahead of them, and such must be the president’s biggest national security priority. You do not play with terrorists; you capture them either dead or alive.

Oct 5 2010

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY

Some, if not most, in our society are very confused when it comes to the role government must assume in a free market economy. There is a reason why it is called “free market economy.” It is called so because government must not dictate the course the economy should take. When you have government controlling and/or interfering in the course the economy should or must take, then we have an economy that ceases to be free.

The role of government in this type of economy is to guarantee the fluidity and complete functioning of the world of business. That is so easy to say. But how can government make that possible? That’s where the bulk of the challenge lies.

Government makes possible the fluidity and functioning of the business world by enacting and implementing laws/policies that could guarantee the rights of the individuals to own properties and have these rights secured and respected. Also, government must strengthen the institutions that could guarantee the security of the physical aspect of all private investments in a stable political climate.

There is no doubt that government alone cannot make an economy work for the betterment of all its citizens. It does need to partner with a progressive private sector (watch the emphasis put on the word progressive) to make that happen.

Government must not position itself as the ultimate competitor, which, sadly, is and has long been the case in Haiti, our beloved country. When you have government -whose primary job is to guarantee a safe environment suitable for business -competing against the private sector, the market tends to become unfair, which in itself is a detriment to economic development and progress.

It is imperative that government guarantee a secure and politically stable playing field where all the players in the economy can play freely within the realm of fairness and dignity.

What we need to keep in mind is that business people are like migratory birds. They would build their nets and lay their heads wherever they can find their peace of mind to operate, without having to be reminded of the possibility of their investments being ransacked. So when you have a volatile political climate -where any unexpected thing can happen at any given time, which may put in jeopardy the security and good operation of private investments -then you have a situation that cannot synchronize itself with the expectations of the private investors. What will happen next? That’s when you start seeing private investors leaving the economy for places where the security of their investments can be guaranteed, creating an anemic economy.

We need to do more to attract private investments from foreigners and Haitian natives living in the country and in the Diaspora. Money is just as important to the economy as blood is to the human body. No economy can survive without money circulating in it.

I’ve said this before and I am going to say it again –this time I am going to say it louder so it can finally register in the carcass of your heads. THE ERA OF “DECHOUKAJ,” “KRAZE BRIZE,” KIDNAPPING, INTOLERANCE AND LAWLESSNESS MUST BE OVER!!!!! These practices have not produced positive results for the country as a whole and the economy in particular. We have been doing “dechoukaj” and “kraze brize” since 1804, the year our nation was officially created, what have we gained? I can tell you that we have not benefited anything positive. Instead, we are progressing backward.

So, what is the job of government in a free market economy? It is to make sure that the democratic and institutional structures are in place and strong to guarantee a stable political environment and a strong economy. That’s when we’ll start seeing investments coming in, and we will be able to keep the ones that are already in the economy. Needless to say that security and political stability are paramount.