28760: Felix (Article) Interesting Article on Neptune (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: love haiti <loveayiti@hotmail.com>


As today is Neptune Day I found this interesting Bio on him from 1.5
years ago...Enjoy



Not much has changed





 http://www.diacritica.com/sobaka/dossier/yneptune.html<?xml:namespace
prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />



Name: Yvon Neptune

Location: Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Affiliation: Fanmi Lavalas

Profession: bureaucrat, political prisoner

Born: ?

Died: -n/a-

Claim to Fame: the only prime minister to put up with his president

Body Count: undetermined; probably none

Other:



 WORKING FOR A NATIONAL messiah ain't all its  cracked up to be. But the
Son of God himself would have gone down in history as little more than an
eccentric, heretical rabbi if he had the same caliber of slappers around
him that went down with former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
The betrayal of former allies aside, however, the poverty of Aristide's
advisors is for the most part his own fault.

Resembling the worldview of the Lord and the policies of George W. Bush,
to the former priest you could be an apostle or an infidel, but you must
be one and you could not be both. The payoff in Haiti being worth
something less than Heavenly Peace or tenure at the Carlyle Group, the
only people willing to tend to Aristide's whims in his final days
represented the bottom of the barrel.



Jesus had twelve apostles and one Judas; Aristide had twelve Judases and
one Yvon Neptune. The former prime minister (and present inmate) had a
remarkable gift of forbearance, tolerating all of Aristide's caprices and
eccentricities, including his almost legendary lack of scruples when it
came to scapegoating his deputies, and especially his prime ministers.



Couple that with his equally famous mistrust of popular subordinates, and
you can understand why Neptune was such an unusually qualified candidate:
he rarely questioned His Masters Voice, and never publically. Almost
alone in the hothouse of infamous intriguers and schemers in Haitian
politics, Neptune never aspired to be anything more than hands more
capable had made him.



The tandem of Aristide and Neptune is one of the least passionate but
most serene political marriages in recent memory. Neptune was chosen to
become Aristide's longest serving minister on March 15, 2002 not because
of his abilities but because of his impotence.



Aristide always believed (even if the results are a rather poor show of
it) that a strong hand was required to govern Haiti. He believed just as
strongly that no hand was stronger or more agile or guided more wisely
than his own. Since governing even a small and poor country like Haiti
requires the delegation of some tasks, he preferred to find a simple
manager who would show a minimum of initiative but, more importantly, a
minimum of resistance when the chief executive abruptly reversed course.
Neptune was his perfect mate.



Being a dutiful wife, Neptune was prepared to sacrifice his own love for
the betterment of his spouse when Aristide brokered a deal with the
Americans to bring the opposition into the government during his fateful
final days. That the opposition jilted his lover was even more terrible
news for Neptune's political fortunes than the proposed divorce.



As the most senior member of Lavalas to remain in the country after
Aristide's February 29, 2004 flight to Africa, Neptune bore the brunt of
recrimination from the new authorities as well as his comrades. Lavalas
militants accused of him of caving in to pressure by presiding over the
swearing-in of Supreme Court Justice Boniface Alexandre as the country's
new president (the decision must be approved by the parliament, which had
been out of session for months, and therefore was - and is - illegal).
The interim administration on the other hand accused Neptune of presiding
over the distribution of weapons to chimeres in Port-au-Prince on
February 27, as well as a murky "massacre" of opposition activists in
St.-Marc.



Like the disciples after the Crucifixion, Neptune went underground,
moving around at night and frequently changing his place of residence.
The government first barred him from leaving the country, canceled his
passport, and then arrested him for the incident in St.-Marc and supposed
financial crimes. International backers of Aristide cried persecution,
but the reaction from Aristide's supporters within the country is
curiously muted: one senses they object more to the arrest of a generic
"senior leader of Lavalas" rather than the imprisonment of an uninspiring
lackey.



The charges against Neptune are almost totally without merit. The lines
of command (to the extent such can be demarcated) for the chimeres
bypassed Neptune's office entirely. Furthermore, Aristide by his nature
kept most of his deputies in the dark as to the larger picture when
delegating tasks; after the first coup against him, Aristide did not
trust any subordinates to fully control something as delicate as internal
security.



As to the corruption charges, Aristide's government was certainly
corrupt, but little of it was indulged in by senior leaders such as
Neptune. Control over certain markets was doled out to reward powerful
members of Haiti's elite, but personal enrichment was never a factor. The
only evidence so far produced (outside of a general chaos of
record-keeping, which Aristide wasn't the first leader in Haiti or the
Third World to tolerate) is literally in shreds: thousands of dollars in
moldy, decomposing American banknotes looted from Aristide's palace, and
which from the looks of them had been there for decades (none were in the
new US Treasury's currency designs introduced over the last several
years).



Neptune's imprisonment is in the end little more than a continuation of
the practice of scapegoating, in which Aristide was a master. He first
blamed the Americans and then the French for Haiti's deprivation, which
certainly had historical justification but posed little hope for the
future barring his insane plan to extract "reparations" from the latter.
Now, the new government can point to the tiger of Lavalas, submissive in
a cage, and assure the public that they are now protected from the great
cause of disorder. It's difficult to imagine someone as milquetoast as
Neptune organizing protests, much less a real "counter-revolution." But
the Haitian government has decided to protect society from this
frightening man with the silk tie, wire-rimmed glasses and beard, which
probably makes the rag-tag armies of the north breathe easier as they
clean their rifles at night.



Despite his present imprisonment and his own limitations, however,
Neptune isn't without potential for the future. If the uprising against
Aristide and the checkered background of some of the insurgents proved
anything, it's that jail isn't forever in Haiti. If Neptune can somehow
extricate himself from solitary confinement, he's probably the best bet
to take over the remnants of Lavalas, if such a creature will still exist
in the uncertain times to come.







Cali Ruchala