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(Haiti Liberté’s editorial from the Jul. 28, 2011 edition.
Translated from French.)
Everyone knows that the latest electoral farces that catapulted
Joseph Michel Martelly to Haiti’s presidency and the majority of
Parliament’s members into the Legislature were the product of
manipulations, maneuvers and interventions of the “international
community” led by the United States.
But since the
birth of its runt, the “international community” seems to be
taking a cautious approach, waiting for the new Haitian leaders
to start up the government’s machinery so as
to pretend that the country is functioning, despite the MINUSTAH-introduced
cholera that continues to kill the poor masses still living
under the tents of misery.
More than two months after the Tèt
Kale regime’s installation, nothing yet has moved towards
crystallizing a definite policy that favors putting the country
onto another path, towards a new horizon. Everything that’s been
done up to now shows that the forces in power are nothing but
troublemakers, elements hostile to the change so desired by the
Haitian people.
It is not from this perspective that the
“international community” has hurried to come and dictate the
rules of the game to the different protagonists, but rather from
one of not letting the situation degenerate so as not to lose
control. Thus, U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten has stressed the
impatience of the “international community.” Henri-Paul Normandin of Canada, for his part, has considered that the
political crisis that prevails since Michel Martelly’s
arrival in power has grave consequences for Haiti’s cooperation
with these “friendly” countries.
The Secretary
General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José
Miguel Insulza, did not mince words in stating: “It is my
hope that an agreement is quickly reached between the President
and the Parliament, of a sort that allows a government to be
quickly established, in order to revive the great projects of
reconstruction and development.”
France has also
had a word to say: “We truly hope wholeheartedly that the
Haitian elites, particularly the political elites, make the
necessary compromises so as to ensure that there is an
interlocutor facing the international community,” declared
three French Parliament members visiting Haiti on Monday, Jul.
25, 2011.
They have
clearly succeeded in putting a little water into the wine of
some recalcitrant members of Parliament but also and especially
into that of their good fellow, Martelly. In fact, during the
seventh meeting of the Board of the Interim Haiti Recovery
Commission (IHRC) on Jul. 22, 2011, the forces occupying Haiti
had an easy time of putting all their weight in the balance for
placing the dots over the i’s and tamping down the rhetoric of
the Martelly sector, with which in essence they have no
fundamental disagreement.
Beyond the
lesson in political cooptation that has been inflicted on
Martelly’s clique, it would seem that Bill Clinton and Insulza
have gone much farther in letting Martelly know that they
totally disapprove of his campaign of denigration and criticism
of the IHRC.
Indeed,
Martelly, with the demagogic zeal that is characteristic of the
way he hides his worthlessness, blasted away at the Clinton-led IHRC and outgoing Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. He had even
threatened to fire Bill Clinton and to put an end to the IHRC’s
mandate, which is supposed to end in October anyway. And it is
from this same perspective that he categorically refused to keep
Bellerive as the head of government, which would have ensured
the continuity so desired by Clinton.
It did not take
long for this caricature of a president to adapt himself to the
orders of his bosses, given that he lost no time in changing his
mind to quickly accommodate himself to their dictates. To show
that he learned his lesson well, he stopped taking aim at the IHRC. Instead, he asked Parliament for a one-year extension of
the IHRC, and to top it off he declared: “The President that
I am must be objective in recognizing that the IHRC can be a
good tool for supporting the development of Haiti if the
problems with which it is confronted are addressed.”
To give
himself a clear conscience before the one who made him Haiti’s
President, Martelly showered Clinton with the most vile flattery
when he chose to honor him for so-called services rendered,
while for us Haitian patriots, proud in our verticality, Clinton
is nothing but the worst enemy of the country and of the Haitian
people.
Even though
this same Bill Clinton himself has recognized all the harm he
has inflicted on us and our economy, his knave however declared
to him: “We will never forget that you were one of the very
first international figures who came to bring us relief [...]
and since then, you are showing us an undeniable interest by
your repeated visits over the course of these last 18 months. We
are certain that this interest is motivated by your sense of
humanity coupled with the proverbial generosity of the United
States [...] You are a great friend of Haiti. In the area of
aid, you have not contented yourself with being the
representative of our country; you have engaged yourself, and
continue to personally engage yourself for Haiti [...] the
humanism that animates you has led you to invest here in
agriculture, education, housing, food, drinking water,
electricity [...] Mr. President, the country of Haiti has trust
in you [...] You are thus for us a valued friend, irreplaceable
in the long and difficult road of reconstruction on which we
have embarked [...] Mr. President, by the powers vested in me, I
bestow upon you the Grand Cross of the National Order of Honor
and Merit, by way of appreciation of the Haitian people for what
you have already undertaken and for what you will be
undertaking.”
The reply by
the Empire’s son was curt, with even a hint of disdainful
condescension that the Clinton lackey, ensconced in his base
servility, surely didn’t detect: “I don’t think that former
American presidents need decorations, but this one, I accept
with honor.”
Still today, the country is caught between the devil
and the deep-blue sea. The promises of reconstruction are
nothing but silly fables. The victims will never be rescued.
Thus the IHRC is just forging ahead, with lies, hypocrisy and
scheming. It is an imperialist, colonialist, racist and
neo-colonialist project of the ruling groups, accompanying the
humanitarian operation which began after the January 12, 2010
catastrophe and which continues smoothly, with the complicity of
the on-call indigenous who want to kill Haitian nationalism. |
