#2265: Dictator/democracy discussion: a reply to Auguste

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:HYSEKA@aol.com

Dear Auguste:

There is definitely no contradiction at all in those statements. One of the 
problem in our political cultures, is that we believe if, we have a democracy 
in Haiti, this will mean inevitably that power will be in the hands of the 
poor and uneducated. Indeed they will be (and are) in power. In the sense 
that they've chosen their elected leaders. That does not mean however, that 
their elected leaders are not, or will not be educated because they were 
elected by the poor.

The poor and uneducated (as we like to call them), choose their leaders to 
represent them in Parliament, at the municipal level, as president, etc. They 
know what they want. They usually listen to the argument, more carefully than 
some of us would like to believe. Then they make their decision.

The other problem (and I believe the most important), that we have, is with 
the fact that we tend to associate a political party with a certain "class" 
of people. For instance, if you say you are with the RDNP, that means you're 
with Manigat. That almost automatically places you in a socio-economic 
category. However, the core of your ideas may very well be of a Lavalas 
orientation But because our country is so poor, thus so "class-oriented", we 
do not realize that you belong to a political party because of that party's 
ideology and political orientation, not because a group of people belong to 
it.

This is why the argument of "Le pouvoir aux plus Capables", has always found 
a way to survive and to resurface, even amongst some of our best minds.

I will say finally that in Haiti, the political power belongs to both, "les 
plus capables et la majorité". That's the only way we'll make it!!

Whether you believe it or not, we might well be on our way!!

Hyppolite Pierre