29373: potemaksonje (News) Miami Herald on Preval (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

potemaksonje@yahoo.com



(Miami Herald, 10/23)  In a sparsely furnished sunroom
in Haiti's Presidential Palace, René Préval's vision
of the future unfolds in color: pink for what has
begun, red for what is and what he hopes will soon be.
''This,'' Préval says, standing in front of one map of
the country showing a meager few red lines,
''represents the roads, those with asphalt, currently
in Haiti.'' He points out the pink lines. "These are
the roads currently under construction. '' Then he
pauses, as if to give his point time to sink in,
before showing a second map with a much larger web of
red lines covering Haiti -- roads the president, only
five months into his five-year term, hopes to build.
''This is what Haiti should look like,'' he said.

"Without roads, there cannot be development. '' For
Préval, roads have become the cornerstone of his quiet
-- some say too quiet -- but determined effort to
bring economic prosperity and political stability to a
nation of eight million people racked by abject
poverty. ''The people are not looking for a miracle,''
Préval, 63, told The Miami Herald in an interview last
week. ``They only want to see an improvement in their
lives.''

But achieving even this minimal objective will be no
easy feat even though Préval was reelected in February
-- in 2001, he was the first president in Haitian
history to finish a full term and hand over power to
an elected successor -- with the overwhelming support
of the poor. He has raised great expectations, but the
reality is one of unprecedented crime; poor government
services; the stench of corruption; and tepid
enthusiasm among foreign investors and aid donors.
Nearly everything, from medical care to hot meals for
schoolchildren to security in the streets, is being
provided by the international community. With only 10
working state-owned garbage trucks in the capital,
streets are littered with trash. After a relative
calm, fighting erupted again last week between gangs
and U.N. peacekeepers in the volatile slum of Cité
Soleil. Government workers fired by the interim
government that replaced Aristide took to the streets
again last week to demand their jobs back. Critics
also note that Préval's low-key leadership style is
creating frustration among Haitians who do not see him
wielding power. Even foreign diplomats have expressed
concern to him about his refusal to hire an official
spokesman to publicize what the government is doing.

''I thought things would have moved faster,'' said
33-year-old Excelent Jean-Baptiste during a Préval
visit last week to the central town of Marchand
Dessalines, the country's first capital. ``We are
waiting for several promises, and we don't see
anything happening.'' During the visit, the crowd
surged toward the president, who, in turn, waded into
their waiting arms -- evidence that despite the
frustrations with the slow pace of progress and other
complaints, Préval remains personally popular. Foreign
diplomats living in Haiti and others who have visited
recently indeed give Préval and Prime Minister
Jacques-Edouard Alexis high marks for the strides they
have made in returning a sense of order and putting
the country on what everyone hopes will be the path to
reconstruction. ''I'm very encouraged by the way
things are going on,'' said Edmond Mulet, head of the
overall United Nations mission in Haiti, noting that
Préval has delivered on vows to form a coalition
government and to rule by consensus. In response,
Mulet said, the attitude of Haiti's political
leadership has improved. ''I think they are kind of
tired of all the squabbling and the infighting and not
moving forward,'' Mulet added. ``And I think they do
have a sense of a window of opportunity, and are
putting aside many of their differences and histories
and making an effort to work together.''

The president now meets routinely with lawmakers and
members of various political groups. But Préval, who
wound up dissolving a hostile parliament during his
first presidential term, will need to maintain that
rapport if he is to accomplish some of the major tasks
on his agenda. None are easy, and almost all will
generate some controversy, perhaps even violence.
Earlier this summer, Préval and Alexis canceled all
foreign travel to focus on the country's security
problems, meeting with commanders of the 9,067-strong
U.N. force and 4,000-member Haitian police force to
coordinate efforts to reduce a spate of for-ransom
kidnappings and disarm or crack down on the armed
gangs terrorizing the capital. Among other critical
tasks: judicial and police overhauls; downsize and
partially privatize the government-owned telephone
company, a major source of public revenue; require
anyone handling government money to disclose personal
assets annually; change the constitution to give
Haitians living abroad a voice in public affairs; and
crack down on corruption and contraband. Préval also
has been preparing for a conference in Spain next
month of Haiti's main foreign aid donors, at which his
government will push to win a stronger voice in all
decisions, rather than allowing foreign governments
and nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, to set the
agenda and spending plans. ''Haitian law says when a
nongovernmental organization does something, it needs
to do it with the government. But we've yet to achieve
that,'' he said. ``Eventually, the government needs to
take control of the NGOs . . . so that people are not
doing a bunch of things without oversight. They have
to do things in conjunction with the government.' '

Préval says he remains optimistic, despite the
challenges. ''There is an atmosphere of trust from the
side of the international community and the Haitian
population,' ' he said. "They see the government isn't
practicing partisan politics, and they see this is a
government pushing transparency. '' Foreign observers
in Haiti tend to agree. ''There is a strong commitment
on the part of the leaders of this country and a
strong will; the vision is clear, they want to
reconstruct on a strong basis,'' said Canadian
Ambassador Claude Boucher. ``Now the challenge is to
get the critical mass to mobilize behind them and
implement the vision.'' But that implementation will
depend to a large degree on foreign aid -- and not
just promises of aid, but money actually delivered.
The Bush administration has asked Congress for $198
million as part of a $500 million, multiyear
commitment of aid to Haiti. And in July, a group of
donors meeting in Port-au-Prince pledged $750 million
over the next 14 months to help rebuild the
dilapidated infrastructure. The government's current
one-year budget, which includes the pledges, is $1.6
billion. At the donors conference in Spain, Haiti
plans to ask for an additional $180 million for road
construction. So far, there's $210 million worth of
road construction already taking place, and another
$280 million in financing pledged. The new roads will
not only make traveling faster in this country, where
the roads have Jacuzzi-size potholes, but also allow
farmers to get their crops to market faster -- and
make a better living. Haiti, about one-third the size
of Florida, has about 626 miles of paved roads,
according to the World Factbook, a Central
Intelligence Agency compilation of data.

Meanwhile, Préval keeps plodding along in his
low-profile style, even refusing to campaign on behalf
of his Lespwa Party members running in the Dec. 3
municipal elections, because he doesn't want to create
unnecessary political frictions. ''The people don't
want to hear what you will do, they want to see you
doing,'' Préval said during the interview with The
Miami Herald, still energetic after a 12-hour workday
despite speculation about ill health. More public
appearances will come, he said, when he has results to
show, like those spreading red lines on his road maps.
''The other day I was reading a U.S. newspaper
article, and it said . . . there was nothing happening
in Haiti,'' he said. ``The fact there is nothing
happening in Haiti is a good thing. It means there is
no coup d'état, no protest. But it also means you've
yet to feel like something [good] is going to happen
in Haiti.' Then, indicating that something is cooking,
he said, ``When a chicken sits on an egg . . . one day
-- a month, 26 days later -- a little chick appears,
beautiful and young.''


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