THE EDITOR, Sir:
YOUR "LETTER of the Day" in the Sunday Gleaner, and the column "But For the Grace of God" by Kevin O'Brien Chang, in the 'In Focus' section of the same paper has forced me to write.
I have been nauseated by the almost universal clamour against the 'resignation' of President Jean-Bertrant Aristide in our local papers. Most of these articles, editorials, and letters, have denounced the forced removal of Aristide on the grounds that it is wrong to remove a democratically elected government.
Aristide has never been a democrat; has never treated the Haitian opposition in a democratic way; countenanced the intimidaton, and even murder of journalists, by his supporters; did not abide by Haiti's constitution in terms of free and fair elections to the legislature; failed to make any attempts to remedy or respond to the complaints of the opposition about the corrupt elections; and failed to hold elections when the terms of office of the legislature so corruptly elected expired, but instead continued to rule by fiat without any legislature at all. Was he to be allowed to continue ruling in this way forever?
I supported the Haitian attempt at democracy, and hailed the return of Aristide with the help of the Americans, led by President Carter(sic) and the very man we are now vilifying, Colin Powell. I still support democracy in Haiti. But it must be a democracy that respects Haitians' views and allows them to express those views freely and without intimidation. It has never been so under Aristide.
I have firsthand knowledge of the situation that Mr. Jean-Jude Beaumanoir complains of in his letter. I am presently hosting in my home a Haitian-Jamaican who started a business in Port-au-Prince and ended up in jail for many months, until his missionary parents could borrow money to pay officials under the table to bail him out of jail, and then get him out of the country. His crime? That he had the initiative to begin a business which was being successful. He was therefore suspect, and, failing to pay extortion money got him thrown into jail, and his passport and other documents confiscated.
The people who felt it knew that their only hope was for Aristide to resign. I do not blame them. He brought about his own removal. I for one shed no tears for him.
I am etc,
LLOYD A. COOKE
lcookemia@cwjamaica.com
P.O. Box 642,
Mandeville P.O.,
Manchester
