20999: Esser: Out With the Bad, In With the Worse (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. E s s e r <torx@joimail.com>

Africana
http://africana.com

March 31, 2004

Haiti Update VI: Out With the Bad, In With the Worse

If Aristide was a failed or tragic democrat, then this new regime
seems to be something worse yet: cynical democrats.

By Avi Steinberg

A relative calm has settled over Haiti and some semblance of
normality has returned. And that's precisely what worries many in the
Caribbean and abroad. While the calm has restored a measure of
day-to-day security (for now), it has also been marked by a
re-assertion of an old type of Haitian normality: the politics of
cynicism, retribution and instability, of wealthy ruling elites and a
vast impoverished underclass.

Instead of food and hope, the Haitian people are being fed aggression
and despair. To put it mildly, these struggles never truly went away,
even under Aristide. But there's something about Louis Jodel
Chamblain's smug assertion that he is not afraid to stand in front of
any court that indicates Haiti might be moving backwards. From what
we can tell, the "democratic" regime that has pushed out Aristide is
at least as undemocratic as Aristide's and it is likely much worse.
If Aristide was a failed or tragic democrat, then this new regime
seems to be something worse yet: cynical democrats. If Aristide's
regime resorted to corruption and repression as the result of its
political powerlessness, the new regime has founded its "democratic"
authority on exactly these methods.

Haiti's new rulers have, for the moment, put down their rifles and
machetes and picked up new, larger weapons — diplomacy, the
judiciary, the legislature, and the presidency. This week they began
testing their new weapons. Following Jamaica's controversial move of
inviting Aristide for an extended stay, an invitation offered in
direct defiance of US wishes, the new Haitian government went on the
offensive. In the name of democracy, they claimed, Aristide ought to
be extradited and tried.

This was a warning shot aimed at the Caribbean Community ( Caricom).
And, even more so, at pro-Aristidists at home: the only way Aristide
might return is in shackles, the fight is over. These types of dire
warnings are followed up at home by aggressive actions including
round-ups, blacklisting, intimidation, torture and assassinations of
members of the popular Lavalas party. In the name of democracy, the
new regime has recast its popular political opposition as dangerous
foes worthy of arrest and worse. We must imagine that the new regime
reserves the right to weed out not only former politicians allied to
Aristide but anyone who speaks as a supporter of his or as a
proponent of his ideology. What we are seeing is an anti-democratic
backlash, a systematic disenfranchising of most of Haiti and all on
the U.S.'s dime.

This isn't the first time that a new regime in Haiti, having taken
control by force (this time in the guise of a "democratic
revolution") has asserted its authority through violence directed at
civilians. After Aristide was pushed out in the 1990s, a military
regime headed by Raoul Cedras sponsored a campaign of rape and
torture of pro-Aristidists. Will the activist judiciary that now
seeks justice for the Lavalas Party also seek justice for the women
who were raped and maimed? This seems implausible, considering that a
number of people in control now are the same people responsible for
the violence of the early 1990s. Will Chamblain and others face
justice for their recent atrocities? This too is unlikely, since
these criminals are now part of the ruling order (at least according
to the new prime minister, who recently lavished praise on the armed
rebellion). This judiciary is being used as a means of political
control and oppression. And this is only the first week.

There is bound to be more strife. A show-trial of Aristide and the
persecution of his throngs of supporters will only sow more hatred
and violence. The employment of democratic institutions in the
service of political repression is not only a travesty, it's
dangerous. Millions of Haitian citizens are hungry and powerless. As
long as that continues to be true, there will never be stability in
Haiti. Instead of food and hope, the Haitian people are being fed
aggression and despair. But the Haitian people are proud of their
freedom and will eventually turn against this regime. Will Haitians
accomplish this next coup peacefully in the polls or is the electoral
system the next democratic institution to fall prey to cynical
democracy? If the latter turns out to be the case, then the current
calm will quickly give way once again to violence and chaos. This is
the norm of Haiti — what's needed now is not a return to the status
quo, but a decision by Haiti and its sponsors to defy it.

First published: March 31, 2004

About the Author

Avi Steinberg is a freelance writer living in Boston. After studying
American foreign policy at Harvard, he received a fellowship in
2002-3 to live in Jerusalem and study international conflict. He is
on staff at Transition Magazine
.