Tag Archives: Marc Bazin

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.

Feb 1 2011

THE POLITICAL FATE OF THE HAITIAN BOURGEOISIE

Will the traditional Haitian bourgeoisie ever win the presidency in Haiti? Not in my lifetime they will. Why is that,

Dr. Reginald Boulos

 especially when they have the financial hegemony to put together and finance winnable presidential campaigns?

Commonly, whoever controls the economy controls and dominates the politics inside that domain. Well, In Haiti, it seems as though money does not tilt nor sway presidential politics. What you need to win the presidency is not money, which only matters when corruption and fraud are added to the equation. In Haiti, what you really need to win elections is simple -you need to win the trusts and hearts of the people, which the bourgeoisie can never get to do.

The people distrust the bourgeoisie because its interests conflict with theirs. They have never been in synchrony with the people. They are the reason why guys like Aristide and Preval happen to surface as political figures and become relevant. These guys (Aristide and Preval) have been dominating the political landscape for the past two decades. Let’s not forget they both got elected twice. The only two elected presidents we have ever had in the past 20 years are Aristide and Preval. Where has the bourgeoisie been all this time? Keep reading; you will find out.

Aristide, a priest with no political platform, no political experience, no real budget, and no time to campaign won the presidency hands down over Bazin and Dejoie -who had been present actively on the ground way before the fall of the Duvalier regime in 1986.

Dejoie was the face of the little click; he was not even a close second in the 1990 presidential election that catapulted Aristide to the highest office of the land.  

Rene Preval, an amateur politician and a symbol of failure, won the two elections he participated in with a landslide over many faces of the bourgeoisie.

Wyclef, a rapper who had never been actively involved in the country’s everyday politics, if allowed to run in the November 28 presidential election, would have won the presidency with an avalanche over Baker, the chouchou of the bourgeoisie, who has been on the ground for years.

The bourgeoisie has a major problem, and it seems as though none of its so-called leaders has ever bothered to find out what it is and what needs to get done to fix it. The reason is that they are too busy sabotaging governments the people put in place to take care of the nation’s affairs.

Who are the leaders of that click again -Baker, Apaid and Boulos? If so, can someone please tell these guys that they have work to do? They have a brand problem.  They need to work towards the refurbishment of the image of their little click. They are businessmen; therefore, I figure they should know when a business needs a revamp, a reinvention or a makeover. That’s basic marketing. They don’t need an Emann Joasil to tell them that.

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.