Tag Archives: Michel J. Martelly

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.

Apr 4 2011

MICHEL “SWEET MICKY” MARTELLY DID IT BIG!

President-elect Michel J. Martelly

I am speechless. I hope I can find the words to express my contentment for such a great victory by the Haitian people. Michel J. Martelly has won the presidency in Haiti with an avalanche (Martelly: 67.57% against Manigat 31.71%), which makes him now the newly elected president of Haiti.

I would like to personally take this moment to congratulate him for such a great and unbelievable victory over his rival Mirlande H. Manigat. He is the one to finally harmer the last nail to the coffin of the status quo. Now we can be certain that the old generation, which has never missed the opportunity to fail the country, has been buried. No more of these old faces. A new chapter now has begun for the Haitian people.

Martelly is an inspiration. He inspires me to always believe in yourself even when the multitude doubts you. When he entered the race, many, myself included, could not take him seriously. But he managed to transform himself in a very short period of time to reshape the attitude or sentiment of the electorate and get them to accept him. That is beyond political ingenuity.

He was being called all sorts of condescending names –immoral, uneducated, idiot, brute, moron; he never gave in. He had made his case to prove his opponent wrong. Do not take my word for it. Trust the latest poll. According to the official poll issued by the Provisional Electoral Council, the immorality argument, which he was arguing against, failed badly.

Now, to the Manigat supporters: the campaign is over. We cannot be on campaign mode beyond the campaign. We must switch mode. I am calling on all of you to come join hands with the new president so together we can take the country out of the abyss it has been for decades. We can do it only if we work together as one nation. I am sure you all love Haiti with the same fervor as President Martelly. So you have your seats around the table. We are all Haitians, in spite of our politics. But this is not about politics; we have something greater than that to live for, and that is our beloved Haiti.   

I have one message for President Martelly: DO NOT DECEIVE US. We will accompany you to the promise land. As long as you stand with us, you cannot go wrong. Together we shall make it. The job you just got hired for is not going to be easy; you already know it. But you can only succeed IF you lead with the people. The moment you decide to turn your back on us, you can prepare to live your own demise.  DO NOT BE AFRAID; WE ARE WITH YOU.

Mar 20 2011

MARTELLY WAS NOT AN EASY CHOICE FOR ME

Michel J. Martelly, Haitian presidential candidate

I am not Martelly’s friend, and I am too young to have been his classmate. During his 25-year tenure as an entertainer, I only attended two of his live performances. So I am not going to tell you that I grew up with him or he is a family friend. He is only a Haitian citizen who, undoubtedly, loves his country with all his heart and is willing to die for it.

I had dismissed his candidacy at first because, like most, I could not take his candidacy seriously.

How did I end up becoming a strong supporter of his? Well, it was not an easy decision for me. I studied both of them and became convinced that he is the right person for the job for the moment to put Haiti back on track.

Unlike Manigat, his opponent, he is a man of character. Throughout the campaign, he had always kept it honest. When the tough got tougher, he would stand on his two feet to fight. I had never seen him back down or try to apologize for the things he had done and said on and off stage during his entertainment career. When he used to be wrongly and unfairly accused of the fabricated things, he would fight them with all his strength. You need that level of character and stamina in your leader to inspire trust and confidence.

He is a strong, disciplined and no-nonsense type of guy. He is not someone to be messing with, for if you do, you will regret for having stepped on his big toe.

He is a unifier, not a divider. He can bring our divided country together, under the same roof, for a common purpose –regardless our socioeconomic, religious, political and ethnic differences –to inspire all of us to do for ourselves what we have been waiting on others to for us.

Martelly is a leader, not an intellectual. He is a doer, not a fancy talker. That’s how I ended up buying into his candidacy. I consider myself a smart buyer -one who would weigh the pros and cons of anything before closing a sale. I am not the type to be buying anything for the fun of buying.

So my decision to support Martelly for president of Haiti, someone whose candidacy I did not take seriously at first, was well thought of; it was not a simple and easy decision. That is why I could give it my unconditional support. He will be the next president of Haiti, and he will be an amazement to all those who did not believe in him and a matter of pride to all of us who had stood by him to get him elected.