13853: Pina comments on calls for overthrow of Aristide

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

FROM: Kevin Pina                   <kpinbox@hotmail.com>

These insistent calls for the overthrow of Haiti's constitutional government
are verging on the theater of the grotesque. Those advocating for misusing
the Haitian constitution, to declare a vacancy of the presidential office,
mean to convey the message that if Aristide ever leaves the country he is
not coming back. The dream of a bloodless coup where the poor and
dispossessed have no say in the matter whatsoever, a bloodless coup where a
small group of men give the final verdict of life or death for millions of
their countrymen. Dupiton and Belizaire pushed the same through the near
vacant chambers of parliament when they divvied up the spoils from their
bloodless coup in 1991. As we know that coup was in fact anything but
bloodless despite the attempts of Haiti’s wealthy elite in Washington to
rewrite history. I only have pity for those who would trivialize the
carnage, death and suffering that followed that bloodless coup.

Democracy is in her infancy in Haiti. She is just learning to crawl while
grasping at the furniture to stand up on her own two legs. It is true she
can be messy at times, but no more trouble than any other infant learning
and struggling to understand the demands of life and liberty. Certainly the
democracy we love in our own country had challenges in her infancy but we
continued to love her and nurture her into the mature adult she is today.
Many disagreed along the way and many of us disagree with her behavior
today, but as a people we never lost respect for our fundamental principals.
We’ve fought long and hard and continue fighting to keep her just and
respectful of the rights of others.

I am certain there were those who thought our young democracy so unkempt and
tattered at times, they advocated abandoning her to the wolves in the
forest. There were long lists of scandals, intrigues and corruption but we
never abandoned our faith in the rule of law, and we stayed the course and
courageously built traditions. Democracy takes time, commitment and hard
work and it should be given a chance to succeed in Haiti.

As a nation we should put the long-term interests of Haiti’s impoverished
masses ahead of those who would abandon her to the wolves before she learns
to walk. Anything less will be giving the wrong signal to the people of
Latin America and the Caribbean.


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