Earl M. Bartley
THE VIOLENCE occurring in Haiti is essentially a falling out between President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and members of goon squads formerly affiliated to his Lavalas Movement in which the citizens of the country are trapped like hostages.
There is more than a passing
lesson in this occurrence for Jamaica, considering that our politicians have a long history of wrapping up with goons. When such arrangements go awry, they can have terrible consequences for innocent citizens which we have experienced, given our long history of criminality steeped in politics. If Jamaica has not reached the nadir of Haiti, I think we should humbly pause and acknowledge "There but for the grace of God goes go I" because we have not been virtuous.
Still, for many Caribbean people, especially black people, what is happening in Haiti is a cause for concern, exasperation and not a
little shame. The first black nation to have thrown off the shackles of slavery and the second nation in the hemisphere to seize its independence and grasp the illustrious promise of liberty, equality and fraternity is today among the most backward, troubled and unsettled countries in the world.
With unemployment running at 70 per cent of the labour force, it means only about 1.5 million of Haiti's 8 million people are gainfully employed. About 70 per cent of its people are living on less than US$1 or US$2 per day. Average life expectancy of Haitians is only 52 years compared with an average 75 years for the rest of the Caribbean, and over 50 per cent of the population is illiterate. Less than 24 per cent of the roads are paved and 70 per cent of the natural forests are gone. A limping economy like Jamaica's has twice the level of output of Haiti, though our population is only about one third as large and Jamaica's per capita income of US$2,820 is six times as large as the US$440 of Haiti.
CAUSES
The causes of Haiti's backwardness and poverty are several, though after 200 years, many of these explanations are starting to sound like excuses. Historically, the largely illiterate black ex-slaves who fought the 12-year revolutionary war that won Haitian Independence wanted freedom, not necessarily independence, except where it was necessary to ensure their freedom, and they knew little or nothing about democracy. This last was not unusual. Democracy was still a fairly new idea echoed by the American and French revolutions, and the systems and processes for operationalising equality, liberty, fraternity were largely unknown. Though the Americans had made a good start with a broadened but still limited franchise, separation of powers in public administration, and pluralism the right for organisations to propagate their ideas and compete for political power democratic procedures were just being born when Haiti won its independence in 1804.
MILITARY DESPOTISM
The ex-slaves who led the Haitian revolution knew little of these ideas, and like their Latin American counterparts 50 years later, fell almost inexorably into military despotism mostly out of ignorance, inexperience and necessity. There was a real threat during the first decades of Haiti's independence of being overrun by one of the big powers and driven back into slavery and the country had to maintain a strong military defence and readiness facilitated by military control of power.
After 1820 when Haiti paid France 150 million francs for its independence and certainly after 1838 when slavery ended in the British colonies, the threat of invasion receded. Yet between 1844 and 1915 Haiti showed the greatest instability with 22 changes of government in the 70-year period. This instability was partially a consequence of the absence of orderly means for transferring power in a despotic system, but it also suggests a high degree of fractiousness among Haitians.
The arguments that Haiti was deliberately isolated by white powers to make an example of her to discourage other black populations with similar aspirations seems overstated. Toussaint was able to buy 30,000 guns from the Americans in 1801 to prepare for the war against France, and after France received its undeserved compensation in 1820, whatever trading restrictions being practised by the white powers relaxed. Haiti's trade isolation, such as it was, probably lasted no more than 20 years.
A more substantive reason for the poverty in Haiti probably lies in the fragmentation of the land after Christophe died in 1820. Like Toussaint and Dessalines, he had tried to maintain the old plantations even compelling the ex-slaves to go back to work as hired labour. But after Christophe died and Petion the mulatto took over and united north and south Haiti, he relented and allowed the breaking up of many of the large plantations into subsistence plots. Functioning with low technology, Haitian farmers have not been able to greatly increase output on these small plots.
But possibly the worst period of stagnation for Haiti was the 50 years after World War II. Up until 1955, Haiti's per capita GDP of about US$400 was not too far behind the other Caribbean countries about US$550. Over the past 40 years, however, Haiti has stagnated and has fallen further behind other Caribbean countries. During the 30-year reign of the Duvaliers, Haiti hardly participated in the infrastructural modernisation and industrialisation by invitation that was occurring in the rest of the region. During the 1990s, because of continued political instability and international embargo, Haiti's GDP actually declined by 25 per cent.
ARISTIDE A DISAPPOINTMENT
Aristide has to be one of the biggest disappointments for Haitians since Toussaint executed one of his most popular commanders, his cousin Moise, for fomenting insurrection amongst the blacks in favour of independence, against his Uncle's go-slow policy on the issue to appease the whites and mulattos. This former priest who was rescued from the streets as a small boy by Selesian Fathers and trained in their order, and who as a fire-brand priest won 67 per cent of the popular vote in 1990, before being deposed, then reinstated by the U.S.-led coalition in 1994, is probably the disappointment of the century for the Haitians.
The Selesian Fathers saw in Aristide human potential to be nurtured. Supposedly trying to reprise his childhood opportunity by creating a similar organisation for street boys, Aristide seemingly could not resist the temptation of so many other Caribbean politicians, who claim to be helping youths by converting them into goons to carry out their political dirty work.
The immediate cause of the falling out between Aristide and his goons is an allegation by Alexis Metayer former head of the Lavalas-related 'Cannibal Army' gang that Aristide had paid him to stage an attempted assassination on the President. When Metayer turns up shot in both eyes, Metayer's cronies demand Aristide's ouster, and seems determined to effect it themselves by force.
Other charges levelled against the Aristide Government by
opposition groups the Democratic Convergence a multi-party
coalition, and the 'Group of 184' a civil society grouping are
electoral fraud, assassination of two journalists and intimidation of
others, and burning down the
headquarters of political opponents. Aristide is also accused of using the police and judiciary for political persecution. I am wondering, is the priest as innocent as he looks?
COSTS
The World Bank outlines five ways in which the prolonged
political instability is costing Haiti. Namely, it has weakened Haiti
policy analysis capacity and
limited most policy work to crisis management. That the high literacy rate has caused underdevelopment of human capital and hindered institutional capacity building. The Bank also blames political instability for causing macroeconomic instability and dis-incentivising investments. The fears of Haiti's neighbours, is that the collapse of civil order could flood us with refugees.
The most immediate challenge is to bring an end to the current crisis where the people are trapped in the middle of a shooting war between goons intent on ousting Aristide and the small and weak police force defending the State.
Based on the allegations, it seems like the most appropriate remedy would be to arrest and lock up Aristide and his former goons into a jail cell and let them work out their differences or die trying. But since that remedy seems
forbidden the international
community will have to decide how it is going to back up its proclamation that systems and processes be observed in Haiti, by confronting the goons threatening to overrun and take over the State. Certainly, international intervention should not be used by Aristide to shore him up and bail him out of a stew he created for himself. Those with evidence of human rights violations or other abuses against Aristide should, therefore, be encouraged to bring these forward so that they can be evaluated by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, and if found to be substantive Aristide be ordered to call early elections.
In the longer term, the crises highlight the need for CARICOM to develop a human, civil and political rights convention enforceable by the Caribbean Court of Justice. This would provide an extra-national body, which would permit citizens to file complaints and obtain redress in the form of fines, the voiding of elections, and even prison terms for violating public officials and politicians.
Earl M. Bartley is an economist and businessman. You can send your comments to aapapa@cwjamaica.com.
