21030: radtimes: Haiti Update VI: Out With the Bad, In With the Worse (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

See URL for numerous embedded links.
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Haiti Update VI: Out With the Bad, In With the Worse

http://www.africana.com/articles/daily/bw20040331haiti.asp

To read more Haiti Updates, click here for the February 25th dispatch, here
for the March 3rd dispatch, and here for the March 10th dispatch, click
here for the March 17th dispatch, and here for the March 24 update.

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

March 31, 2004
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.

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.
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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.

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