19864: Esser: Haiti: walking on eggs (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

The Jamaica Observer
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com
Columns

Haiti: walking on eggs

by Geof Brown
Friday, March 05, 2004

There is nothing so clear from the Haitian crisis as that the
principled but powerless Caricom nations are walkng on eggs. They
behaved correctly in negotiating a power-sharing plan between the
beleaguered Aristide and his militant opponents. They behaved
correctly in involving the relevant metropolitan powers of the US,
France and Canada. They behaved appropriately in involving the United
Nations before taking any unilateral action in a matter concerning
their immediate neighbour. It all came to naught. A single swipe of
the powerful erased the careful plans.

But even now, faced with the in-your-face breaking of faith by the
powerful, all that Caricom leaders can do is express "disappointment
and dismay". They dare not show righteous and well-deserved anger.
Their collective hand is in the lion's mouth and they need to be
careful how they twist or shake it. For that which they need from the
powerful can be suddenly bitten off even as the Haitian president's
fragile hold on power was suddenly and decisively severed. The
language coming from the two-day consultation after the coup d'état
on Haiti's legitimate regime, is so carefully controlled to disguise
true feelings, it is painful to behold.
Perhaps we should weep far more for Caricom than for Haiti. Because
here at last the often phlegmatic slow-acting collective showed some
real muscle. They acted with uncharacteristic despatch under the
leadership of the Jamaican prime minister. And only to be shown, in
the words of an old popular Jamaican song, What the police can do.
Whether the "corporals", so to speak, acted on their own in forcing
Aristide out, or acted on orders from above, Caricom leaders have
been forcefully reminded that the real power lies with the remote
"police" commanders.

Even the Central African Republic, in similar vein, is also walking
on eggs. For it cannot allow Aristide to air his side of the story in
full honesty, for fear of offending the power. It, too, knows only
too well that it has its hand in the lion's mouth. It may be
physically distant from the geopolitical realities of the Caribbean,
but it is now inextricably linked in a conspiracy of relative silence
on the truth of the ouster.
Might is right, pure and simple. And don't you forget it, you poor
aid-beseeching powerless third world near-sychophants, beholden
beyond your own secret desires.
This is not a matter of cowardice on the part of the
carefully-treading Caricom leaders. It is easy for commentators like
me, nicely shielded from reprisals, to rail about what Caricom should
or should not have done. It is they who are in the fire of naked
power politics and they who are on the firing line. Indeed, they have
my sympathy, and in the nature of things, they deserve our
congratulations for statesmanship in the whole episode. Which is more
than can be said for their truly powerful opposite numbers with their
demonstrated capacity to pull the plug at will.

When you walk on eggs, walk very, very carefully. You must avoid a
mess that will be blamed on you and it is you who will have to clean
it up - unaided. And therefore I believe the best that Caricom
leaders can do, is seek the aid of countervailing power. What is
countervailing? The black caucus of the United States Congress is.
The most powerful black nation in the world - South Africa - is. The
voting blocks of Caribbean people in the diaspora are also. It is
through the voices of such active or potential allies that Caricom
can hope to exert any real political muscle to abort the rape of
Haitian democracy.

It was not possible to block the ouster of Aristide, but through
careful cultivation of countervailing allies, it will be possible to
prevent the triumph of the murderers of democracy. Rebel leader, Guy
Phillippe, simply showed the true hand of the illegal opponents of
democratic rule a little too early by his self-proclaimed takeover of
power in Haiti. And, it would be very foolish to accept at face value
his backing off in apparent collaboration with the American forces,
now belatedly forcing him to keep quiet. He and his cohorts will
simply go underground for a while, only to re-emerge at an opportune
time.

This is the year of presidential elections in the US. Pro-Caribbean
black leaders like Congresswoman Maxine Walters and Congressman
Charles Rangel, plus liberal democratic leaders like front-runner
John Kerry and Democratic Senator Dodd, have shown that they fully
understand the real situation in Haiti's power politics. They are the
promise of the use of countervailing power vicariously by Caribbean
leaders, to block prevailing covert or overt rapists of Haiti's
fledgling democracy. It is such as they who can become the conscience
of the powerful - and persuade the right course (pun intended).
Meanwhile, Caricom leaders, tread carefully on eggs.

browngeof@hotmail.com
.