6304: Re: 6282: Kozyn responds to re: parallel government (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Amy Wilentz <amywile@panix.com>

I very much appreciated John Kozyn's accurate portrayal of the
Democratic Convergence's "parallel government."

Look, the opposition in Haiti has certain bones to pick that are
legitimate, but it's really an attack on the political legitimacy of the
Haitian people's ballots and political beliefs for the opposition to
assume for themselves the mantle of "government." I don't think that you
can -- morally speaking -- boycott elections and then form a parallel
government. 

Whose government do they think they are, anyway?

It's a shame to see these people, many of them valuable thinkers and
doers with lots of experience and ideas to share -- take such a
deviation from democracy, and it says something, too, both about the
opposition's terrible intransigence at this point and about Lavalas'
inability to seduce and negotiate that the Convergence has taken this 
irresponsible, and, at least to me, silly-seeming step. 

I believe -- although I do not know it -- that it also says something
about whom the Americans are encouraging; someone from Washington must
be giving the Convergence the impression that setting up this
"government" is plausible, even though Washington has at the same time
been urging Lavalas to try to work with the opposition. Perhaps
Washington has utterly given up on this following the election, but I
doubt it.

The parallel government set-up also puts Aristide into a position where
it's extremely hard if not politically impossible to continue or
revitalize any efforts to cooperate with the opposition. It's another
way to isolate and harden Lavalas.


I just don't see how you can get around the fact that Aristide is the
people's choice. That's how democracy works -- in most countries.




Amy Wilentz