21924: Esser: Why South Africans Should Roll Out the Red Carpet for Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Sunday Times [Johannesburg, South Africa]
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za

May 16, 2004

COLUMN
Why South Africans Should Roll Out the Red Carpet for Aristide
By Molefe Tsele, Johannesburg

We have an obligation to take in this victim of global bullies

It is now official: Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is to
make South Africa his next home of asylum. While in many countries of
the world this act would have been a routine executive decision, not
so for us in South Africa.

Predictably, it has become yet another issue exposing the wide chasm
that still characterises our social and political fabric. To be sure,
this is much more than simply a foreign policy disagreement. It shows
how history becomes a victim of political debate, leading to morality
taking the back seat, if not being consigned to the scrap heap. Thus,
amid the political noise, the history of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and
of the Republic of Haiti is rehashed and rewritten.

There is a debate about the political legacy of Aristide in the
context of the history of Haiti. What is not in doubt are some facts
of that history. We know for a fact that Haiti became an independent
republic in 1804, being ruled since then by a series of strongmen,
dictators and thugs. We cannot dispute another fact; that the first
democratically elected president was a Catholic priest of the Society
of Saint Francis of Sales, a liberation theologian called
Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was first elected in 1990.

As a liberation theologian, Aristide followed a tradition that sought
to infuse faith into the pursuit of political and social justice. His
parish work in the poor slums of Port-au-Prince became the grounds
for mobilising protests against the dictatorship of the Duvalier
government.

But with Haiti being beset by class contradictions which continue to
this day, with the upper class dominating the church and politics,
the theologian of the poor of Port-au-Prince was soon expelled from
his order in 1988 for organising and leading protests against
Duvalierism.

In December 1990 the first ever free elections were held and Aristide
won with 67% of the vote, assuming office in February 1991. But
within a year he was ousted by General Raoul Cedras and was forced
into a three-year exile in the US.

Aristide returned to Haiti on condition that he not stand for
election in December 1995. But in the election of 2000, he was
re-elected by an overwhelming majority in an election his opponents
boycotted. By the time he resumed office in February 2001, his
presidency was shaky.

As the bicentenary year of the Haitian Republic dawned in 2004, an
armed rebellion by anti-Aristide groups began in a number of cities
in early February. On February 29, Aristide went into exile for the
second time. It is worth noting here that both the French Foreign
Minister Dominique de Villepin and the US Secretary of State Colin
Powell began to suggest that Aristide step down, despite
acknowledging that he was legitimately elected.

Much of this version is historically accepted, with disputes around
whether or not the 2000 elections were fraudulent. But alongside this
dispute, another charge has emerged, seeming to suggest that Aristide
is in the same league as all the past dictators of Haiti, if not the
worst, and that he was corrupt beyond comparison.

It is this latter version of Aristide which has evoked vociferous
opposition from some South African quarters. It is also true that
Human Rights Watch and other international groups have accused
Aristide's supporters of violent reprisals against the opposition.
But they have also recorded similar violations conducted by
opposition thugs.

But which version of the Haitian leader should define our foreign
policy intervention? The liberation theologian from the slums of
Port-au-Prince who dared to annoy his own religious order and incite
the poor against the wealthy - or the corrupt rights abuser and
dictator?

Much of the political noise does not pay sufficient attention to what
has been going on in Haiti, that a popular leader, who is most hated
by the upper-class of society (and Washington), has been forced from
an elected office he won for a second time.

South Africa will be failing in its values of solidarity and
internationalism were it to refuse Aristide asylum. If any country
deserves to do that more than any, it is South Africa. We should give
Aristide a home, not only because we have been requested to do so by
the Caribbean Economic Community but because it is morally right to
do so.

The fact that some people are making this act of solidarity the
subject of controversy reflects how morally bankrupt we have become.
In fact, those opposing Aristide's asylum should be ashamed of
themselves. The Cabinet should be congratulated for coming to the
help of a leader who is the victim of global bullies. There might be
some costs down the line for South Africa, but the same was the case
when poor countries like Zambia and Tanzania gave our leaders asylum
during the dark days of apartheid.

Like many liberation theologians who were inspired by Aristide' s
courage and spirituality, I cannot wait to welcome him to South
Africa. And I pray that he will continue to work for the liberation
of the Haitian poor, from South Africa.

Tsele is the general secretary of the South African Council of
Churches. This article was written in his personal capacity and does
not reflect the position of the council.

Copyright © 2004 Sunday Times.
.