a1115: BBC: Haiti: Former friend and adviser of Haitian president criticizes Lavalas (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Benodin <r.benodin@worldnet.att.net>

Haiti: Former friend and adviser of Haitian president criticizes Lavalas
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Mar 7, 2002


Writer Christophe Wargny, who helped Jean-Bertrand Aristide write the book
"Tout Moun Se Moun" ["Every Human Being Counts"] in 1990, has returned to
attack the head of state. He is very critical of the president of the
republic and his party.
In an interview given to the press agency Alter Press, Wargny does not hide
his disappointment. Wendell Theodore explains that the former friend and
adviser of President Aristide presents Haiti today as a country of
corruption, chaos, a country without a future and the country of desolation.
We have the impression of being isolated if we want to promote the country's
culture or image, Wargny laments. The French historian reviews the structure
of the ruling party, the government, the attitude of certain Lavalas
militants and the contested elections.
The intellectual, who answered the questions of the Alter Press network,
stresses that the constitution of the president's political party was
modelled in a terrible way on a Haitian-like party with one chief and a
clan, instead being modelled on a modern party. Wargny says he regrets the
fact that at first some of the militants who were even ready to take risks
are now ready to wear the traditional garments of Haitian politicians with
all that goes with it in terms of partisanship and corruption.
He is also very critical of the orientation and practices of the Lavalas
government. He puts the blame on his former friend President Aristide for
the difficulties that the country is going through. He said that the head of
state favours loyalty to the detriment of competence, which is the cause of
the problems that the country is now facing.
Regarding the contested 21 May [2000 parliamentary] elections, Wargny said
that they have only added to the discredit and provoked the political
impasse. The FL [Lavalas Family] won the elections but it wanted to win too
much. The writer deplores the absence of an alternative for the opposition
except to prolong the signing of a political agreement. His impression is
that the political class as a whole has apparently forgotten that it is the
representative of the Haitian people who are suffering terribly.
Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French 1145 gmt 6 Mar 02
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.