25374: Hermantin(News)Infighting costly to Haitian candidates (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sun, Jun. 12, 2005


NORTH MIAMI | MAYORAL ELECTION
Infighting costly to Haitian candidates
The mayoral race in North Miami became a debate about haves and have nots for 
the Haitian community -- and about who controls their vote.
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@herald.com

Four years ago, a rising Haitian-American votership achieved its promise of 
electoral strength by making one of their own mayor of North Miami.

Four weeks ago, that same Haitian-American votership -- now plagued with 
political infighting -- tossed it all away with one of the lowest voter-turnout 
elections in recent North Miami history.

How the Haitian community lost its political clout in a city of just over 
61,000 residents, one in which they outnumber other ethnic groups, is a lesson 
about how even local elections can't escape the bitter divisions raised by 
Haiti's political crisis.

In the end, longtime neighborhood activist and newly sworn-in Mayor Kevin Burns 
beat former North Miami councilman and fundraising front-runner Jean Monestime 
by 58 percent to 36 percent in an election in which many Haitians apparently 
stayed home.

''Jean Monestime didn't lose. We all lost,'' local Haitian-American radio 
personality Ed Lozama of 1700 AM Planet 17 said. ``We did it to ourselves. 
Kevin Burns didn't beat us, we just didn't win.''

Unlike in 2001, when a united Haitian community help elect Joe Celestin North 
Miami mayor, this year's race was overshadowed by a divide-and-conquer campaign 
anchored on Haitian radio and led by a handful of Haitians who had declared war 
on Monestime and his supporters.

It began early when popular Haitian radio personality Nelson ''Piman Bouk'' 
Voltaire told voters to vote all of the elected Haitian officials out of 
office. Voltaire is a supporter of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the elected Haitian 
president who was ousted in a 2004 rebellion but who still is considered by 
many to be Haiti's constitutional leader.

For Voltaire and Lavarice Gaudin, another radio host and prominent member of a 
pro-Aristide grass-roots group, Veye Yo, North Miami's election became a way of 
showing they still wield control over South Florida's Haitian community despite 
dwindling support at recent pro-Aristide rallies.

Led by Haitian-American professionals, strategists and elected officials, 
including state Rep. Philip Brutus, the first Haitian-American elected to the 
Florida House, other Haitian-American leaders rallied around Monestime.

Yet some observers of the race believe there was a concerted effort to derail 
Monestime's candidacy and the legitimacy of the so-called Haitian power brokers 
aiding him.

''It's all the work of one person who is very shrewd at politics, and he's 
good,'' said Lozama, who refused to name the individual.

That individual, according to sources and accusations flying in Haitian 
circles, is Ringo Cayard, executive director of the Haitian-American Foundation 
and founder of Miami Mardi Gras.

''Ringo is a power broker,'' Monestime said. ``Ringo is not a community 
activist, so therefore Ringo may have a lot more responsibility in the loss of 
this election.''

Cayard denies being the mastermind -- but doesn't deny his involvement in 
Monestime's loss.

''There is a leadership in this community, and people have a tendency not to 
respect the leadership in this community. When they don't respect them, they 
will get slapped on the wrist,'' said Cayard, whose family has been here since 
the 1970s.

The Haitian community's failure to support Monestime on Election Day was 
payback for alleged remarks and radio attacks Monestime supporters made on 
Haitian radio against him, Voltaire and Veye Yo, Cayard said.

In the final days of the campaign, callers jammed Haitian radio phone lines, 
responding to a mudslinging campaign involving a rumor that Monestime, who 
holds a master's degree, had called Voltaire, a businessman with a general 
equivalency diploma, ``dumb.''

Voltaire controls 25 hours of weekly airtime on Creole-language radio and 
employs 17 people through two businesses.

Monestime denies making the comment.

Still, the rumor touched off heated feelings on issues of class and education 
-- issues that forever have dogged Haitian society and continue to play a role 
in Haitian politics.

Gaudin and his Veye Yo group not only made class a rallying cry in the 
election, they flailed at the failure of Monestime, Brutus and other campaign 
supporters to speak out against the current situation in Haiti.

One thing Monestime supporters and opponents agree on is that Monestime ran a 
lousy campaign -- failing to come out swinging against rumors that he voted to 
have the city's water bill go monthly, and that he handed interim Haitian Prime 
Minister Gerard Latortue -- an unpopular figure among many local Haitians -- 
the keys to the city during a visit last year.

But Brutus said the Haitian-American community has to stop listening to ''radio 
terrorists'' and think for itself.

Herald Staff writer Tim Henderson contributed to this report.