=?x-unknown?q?14002=3A__Pierre-Louis=3A__Aristide_must_go=3A?==?x-unknown?q?_The_reasons_why__=28Anglais=2Ffran=E7ais=29_?==?x-unknown?q?=28fwd=29?=

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Serge Pierre-Louis <spierrelouis2000@hotmail.com>

                                   Aristide must go: the reasons why  (Par
SPL, inc. vers. franc.)

Yes, Aristide must step down!!! Many reasons call for that; in my head they
make up a sort of traffic jam to take a few out. Never a head of State
concentrates so many reasons pushing a whole country to get rid of him. Look
the stupid way he is trying to hold on power: He is spending (from public
fund) thousands and thousands of dollars for big color posters, tracts,
psychotropic products he distributes to some wretches to stage depressing
spectacles all over the country. Carnival bands in those months of November
and December of year 2002!! Aristide’s argument according to which he has a
5-year mandate does not stand. It is not only dumb but it is criminal. In
Argentine, a year ago, a president quite legally elected had resigned
because he could not face up to the economical, social and political crisis
of his country. Fujimori, in Perú, took a stolen mandate. He tried for a
while to hold on then he came to understand he had to leave and he left.
Same for Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia. While, us, in Haiti and
elsewhere, we know Aristide received no mandate, the 26th of November 2000.
How can he talk about coup d’État? He knows damn well he is confronting a
real and very large movement of the civil society. I am saying:
intellectuals, writers, scholars, professionals, college students, highs
school students, women organizations, unions, merchants, industrials,
peasants, some ashamed police officers… In short, citizens that got enough.
As one says in Haitian Creole ki bouke.

Ki bouke (tired) seeing a man who camouflaged himself in ‘‘petit père des
pauvres’’ (the small father of the poors), who is in fact one of the biggest
crooks. A man affected by the  ‘‘millionite’’ disease. A man who,
surreptitiously, burst some public enterprises, who controls the ins and
outs of the national banks for his own pockets (no wonder the national
currency collapsed: 40 Gourdes for one US dollar). Ki bouke seeing the man,
not only staging expensive shows, but wasting public money to pay lobbyists,
just to get himself invited in international forums.  Ki bouke (tired) to
see how the man is so anxious to see himself all day long in the State
television. Ki bouke to be part of flawed elections. When Aristide put
graffiti all over and sponsored demonstrations saying during 5 years for
nothing in the world he was not going to change the results, 5 years without
taking into account the contestations, even from OAS, and to change abruptly
his propaganda, after having robbed and defalcated the public coffers
(remember the Taiwan cheque of US $20.000.000.00).

Ki bouke (tired) seeing press freedom, freedom of speech, people movement
trampled underfoot; many young journalists are forced to exile and nightlife
has become an expression of the passed. Ki bouke to see how Aristide wants
to put his hands over the media and the University. Just the way he
accaparates the national police as his private property. How can such police
assure security in the land? Ki bouke to realize the rottenness of the
judicial system; it is a way for the system not being able to judge him for
his wrongdoings. We note he refused to declare his wealth according to the
exigency of the Constitution. Ki bouke the way Aristide is lying to us,
Haitians, but also to Bill Clinton, to Jean Chrétien, to George Bush… Ki
bouke hearing Aristide long-playing generalities responding to reporters’
questions. He only wants to hoodwink everybody. I take as proof his own
declarations about the biggest sting suffered by the Haitian people; the
cooperatives. Aristide, himself, orchestrated the rip-off. How? He came up
with something he called Alphaéconomique, including savings and credit
cooperatives that sprung up like djondjon (mushrooms). The people, among
them Haitians in the Diaspora, rushed in, attracted by the tempting rebate.
Aristide, then, timed the closings/bankruptcies and sent the owners
overseas. Each one for his count, the scam took place. Few days after the
scandal broke up, he started saying the State and the Government will assume
responsibility for it all, that nobody will lose, that parents can sleep
well and soundly since they will receive their assets before school opening.
Let me quote the July 10, 2002 Aristide, himself, in a word-by-word
translation:

“The Government will reimburse entirely all deposited money. The money is
already available. There is money for that. For that we had already spoken
to Finance Minister… It is what we call State accountability (responsab), a
State doing his duties in order and discipline. For that I you lost money,
you’ll recover it. The most important is to preserve the papers in your
hands those documents, you must protect them. They will allow you to
recuperate all your money.” What the situation, now? Well, less than 1/100
of the depositors received their money back. I investigated. Anybody can
investigate. I, personally, know tens of people that lost it all. Living now
in distress and despair.

You understand the people have gotten enough… I, too, am tired (bouke), not
only enumerating the endless list of Aristide crimes but tired of suffering
in my tripe the misadventures and calamities of my country. Aristide has to
go… A new era must be opened… For the better, this time.
                                  serge pierre-louis, Haiti, 12-03-02