18899: (Hermantin)SunSentinel-Poll finds U.S. Haitians split over whether Aristide shou (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Poll finds U.S. Haitians split over whether Aristide should resign



By Alva James-Johnson
Staff Writer

February 20, 2004

While hundreds of Haitian-Americans in South Florida continue to call for
the resignation of President Jean Bertrand Aristide, their actions don't
seem to reflect the sentiments of most Haitians in the United States, the
results of a national poll revealed Thursday.

Fifty-two percent of those polled by the New California Media Coalition, a
San Francisco-based national organization that polls ethnic communities,
said they thought Aristide should stay in office. Thirty-five percent said
he should resign.

The reason most gave for keeping Aristide was that he was democratically
elected. Asked whether his resignation would weaken Haiti's democracy,
nearly half said yes.

Haitian-Americans were also divided over whether the United States should
get involved, with 32 percent saying it should offer military support to
Aristide, 31 percent saying it shouldn't, and 13 percent saying it should
offer military support to the opposition.

But the results of the bilingual telephone survey also showed that a
majority of Haitian-Americans is dissatisfied with Aristide's leadership.

Fifty-six percent said the country was better off economically and
politically under the dictatorships of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his
son, Jean Claude "Baby Doc," while only 14 percent said things are better
under Aristide.

The poll was conducted Feb. 11 to 18 by Bendixen & Associates, a polling
company in Coconut Grove.

The poll surveyed 600 people, a sample of 600,000 Haitian-Americans in the
United States, half of whom live in South Florida and half in the northeast,
mostly in New York and New Jersey. It was the first poll to measure the
community's reaction to the escalating political crisis in Haiti and
President Bush's policy toward the country.

Nine percent of the respondents said they approved of the president's policy
and 33 percent said they disapproved.

Robert Fatton Jr., a leading authority on Haiti at the University of
Virginia, said he was not surprised that many Haitian-Americans think life
was better under the Duvaliers. He said the country is suffering from years
of dictatorship and economic woes.

"That's a simple fact," he said. "The economy is in really bad shape, a
legacy of the Duvaliers, the embargo and the freezing of foreign assistance.

"What's interesting is that despite that finding many people feel Aristide
should stay," he said. "That probably reflects the fact that the opposition
hasn't captured the imaginations of the Haitian people and there's fear of
what might happen if the paramilitary were to take over. When you look at
the alternatives, many people may feel it does make sense to try and reach a
compromise and let Aristide finish his term."

According to the poll results, 55 percent of Haitian Americans said they
thought the opposition movement was fighting for power, while 22 percent
felt it was fighting for democracy.

Jean Robert LaFortune, of the Haitian American Grassroots Coalition in
Miami, said the results of the poll show an extreme polarization within the
Haitian diaspora.

"What we have now is the Haitian people are at a crossroads where the people
must decide whether to take a democratic path or follow the 200 years of
Haiti's past whereby we go from rebellion to rebellion," he said.

The results immediately drew strong reactions from Haitian Americans who
have been demonstrating against Aristide in Fort Lauderdale and Miami and
plan to demonstrate in front of the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale
today.

Also, many are expected to participate in a joint protest on Saturday with
Venezuelans, Peruvians and Cubans, calling for the end to dictatorships in
the Americas.

Samir Mourra of Miami, one of the organizers, said the poll is "fabricated,
and totally wrong."

"The majority of Haitians want Aristide out," he said. "Only those receiving
money from him, or have a financial interest, still want him there. There is
also a silent minority who are afraid to talk, and they don't want to speak
out against Aristide because they fear repression."

Alain Armand, of Oakland Park, said he is one of those who doesn't think
Aristide should resign.

"There's a lesson to be learned about electing people and letting them stay
in office," he said. "That has to happen for Haiti to mature as a
democracy."

He said he is also turned off by the violence in Haiti wrought by some of
the opposition.

"The people taking over right now are thugs and gangsters," he said. "So you
have a situation where any guy with a couple [friends] and some guns can
call themselves revolutionaries and say they're going to liberate the town."

Marcelo Ballve, an editor with New California Media, said he was not
surprised by the reaction from Haitian Americans who don't like the results.

"I understand there are passionate feelings on both sides of the issue," he
said. "But I think any sort of dialogue that we can become a part of is
positive. Even if it sparks demonstrations and people are upset."

He said he was confident in the poll, which was conducted by Sergio
Bendixen, who is known throughout the United States and Latin America for
his polls of the Hispanic communities.

He's a former Dade Democratic Party committeeman and has worked for three
presidential campaigns, including Jimmy Carter's.

Of the 600 surveyed, 27 percent were asked the questions in English, and 73
percent in Creole. The majority of those interviewed in Creole were 50 and
over, and the majority in English were 35 and under. Ninety-two percent were
Haitian-born. Forty-six percent said they were U.S. citizens, and 53 percent
said they were not.

Bendixen said those who answered the poll questions in English and those
under 30 tended to be less supportive of Aristide.

Ballve said the poll is one in a series to gauge the opinions of ethnic
groups in the United States as the presidential election approaches. Of
those who said they were U.S. citizens, 86 percent said they were registered
voters.

"In a country where one out of 11 people are foreign born, you can't really
say you're taking a poll of public opinion unless you make an effort to
reach those people who may not speak English," he said. "Haiti could become
an election issue. And as far as we've been told, Haitians haven't been
polled on a national scale ever before."

Alva James-Johnson can be reached at ajjohnson@sun-sentinel.com or
954-356-4523.
Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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