Calling for Aid, Investment and Continued Occupation:
Préval Visits New York and Washington, DC
Continuation of Haiti’s foreign military occupation, promotion of "private investment," appeals for international assistance, and recruitment of"competent” technocrats: such is the program Haitian President-elect René Garcia Préval articulated during a two-day visit this week to the United States.
Trailing a large delegation of economists, businessmen, former collaborators, and new "recruits" of the splintered Lavalas Family party, Préval traveled to New York on March 27 and Washington, DC on March 28. He met with United Nations and White House officials about the continuing U.N. “peace-keeping” mission in Haiti, which Préval has invited to remain in the country indefinitely.
In Washington, he also discussed Haiti’s economic problems with officials of various international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the Interamerican Development Bank. He visited the Organization for American States (OAS) where met with the OAS Secretary General and the body’s Permanent Council.
Préval also held large meetings with the Haitian communities in New York and Washington.
After arriving by American Airlines at New York’s JFK airport on Sunday evening, Préval was whisked to a $100-a-plate reception for the benefit of his Espwa platform, at the Millennium Hotel in U.N. Plaza. The hotel suite could not hold all that clamored to attend the reception, and several people were unable to get in.
The next morning, Préval with some of his delegation crossed First Avenue to attend a meeting on the 38th floor of the UN headquarters with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Immediately afterwards, Préval met with the Security Council, which took up the situation in Haiti.
Kofi Annan opened the session by saying that Haiti "is only beginning its long journey towards a stable and democratic future" with René Préval’s election. He called for a "vigorous partnership" between Haiti's government and the "international community."
In his presentation to the Council, with the head of the Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH) Juan Gabriel Valdès at his side, Préval declared that "Haiti today is a country to be built. The problems are enormous and urgency is everywhere. Poverty, massive unemployment, the decrepit state of basic infrastructure essential for development, chronic insecurity, all represent major challenges which the next government must face." He said that "increased financial assistance from the international community will be essential to consolidate the democratic process and to provide the socio-economic foundations for durable development in Haiti." In reality, the "international community," at least the rich and powerful nations that adopt that label, has been behind the coups and meddling which have derailed and sabotaged democracy and development in Haiti in recent years. Préval was just being diplomatic, one might venture.
Préval said that he would like international assistance for "the reform of democratic institutions such as the Parliament, municipalities and local authorities, the legal system and professionalization of the police force," and, in fact, "a long-term aid program for Haiti." Préval asked "funders to continue to honor their pledges by distributing without delay the funding they announced" within the "Temporary Framework of Co-operation," now extended until December 2007.
Préval also hailed the MINUSTAH "which carries out a very difficult task. In conjunction with the Haitian National Police [PNH], it works to improve the country’s security situation." He also made an ambiguous reference to the shameful international agreement illegally signed by Valdès and de facto Prime Minister Gérard Latortue on February 22 (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 23, No 52, March 8, 2006). "It is important that an agreement which conforms to constitutional guidelines and to the internal rules of the Police force be negotiated with mutual respect," he said. "I invite the MINUSTAH to work more closely with the new Haitian authorities, to bring about the necessary changes to professionalize the police force and justice system."
He closed his address to the Council by saying that "I currently am undertaking talks with politicians and other components of the nation so that we arrive finally at political and social reconciliation." Saying that he wants to establish "a peaceful and democratic socio-political system," Préval called on "politicians and the other components of the civil society... to sit with the new government, in an honest and sincere dialogue, in order to define a pact of governability" to lead to "healthy, democratic, and participative governance."
Immediately after Préval, Valdès spoke. He said that, for him, the MINUSTAH must "certify all agents" of the PNH, one of the points in his illegal agreement, to guarantee PNH’s "reform and professionalization." Valdès also called for "reconciliation and dialogue on a national scale" so as "to avoid a return to the past of political crisis, violence and destabilization." This suggestion would be better addressed to U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton and French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sablière, whose governments actively shunned dialogue and backed destabilization in Haiti two years ago.
After these speeches, 29 other countries spoke, among them the United States, China, France, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Canada, South Africa, Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela. The representatives of Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Organization of the American States (OAS), and the UN Development Program(UNDP) also spoke.
At 1 p.m., Préval held a press conference at the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA). In answering questions, Préval said that the two "main axes" of his government were "the reinforcement, the establishment of institutions foreseen by the Constitution" and "the creation of conditions for private investment."
Margareth Dominique of the program "Haiti: The Struggle Continues" at WBAI, Pacifica Radio Network’s New York station, asked how Préval intended to rule in a country under military occupation. Préval answered that the MINUSTAH "has achieved satisfactory results and we asked that the mission to stay on because we have a police force which is extremely weak, corrupt and non-professional... It would be irresponsible to ask the MINUSTAH to leave prematurely just as it would be irresponsible for the international community to have the MINUSTAH leave prematurely. We have lives and property that we must protect.”
Answering a question about infant mortality in Haiti, Préval said that this problem "results from the general situation of the country just as education, just as the infrastructure, therefore we cannot isolate health problems from other problems."
He also spoke about the "effective cooperation" of Cuba. "Approximately 750 students, of which 120 have already graduated and returned to Haiti, and who will go to the towns where they were recruited, their hometowns," he explained. "At the same time, we have approximately 500 [ Cuban ] medical personnel in Haiti who help us to bring health to our populations. These Cuban doctors will be replaced gradually by Haitian doctors. Cuba is a poor country, Haiti is a poor country: we are trying to find a third country, a country which has much more financial resources, for trilateral cooperation to improve the medical care for our population."
The correspondent of Radio Verité in New Jersey asked if Préval has a plan to release the many political prisoners illegally held in Haiti’s prisons. "I am not inaugurated yet," Préval answered. "However, I have asked the current President, the interim Prime Minister, and the Justice Minister to look at this problem and to see, if, as quickly as possible, one can respond to this problem."
Kim Ives of Haïti Progrès, referring to a quotation which appeared in the Feb. 20 New York Times and Préval’s speech to the Security Council, asked the president-elect why he thinks he can succeed in reconciling Haiti’s owning and dispossessed classes a project exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide also undertook. Rather than accept reconciliation, Haiti’s bourgeoisie and landowning class have made two coups d'etat in the past 15 years, Ives said, and a coup attempt against Préval in November 2000.
"I will never succeed because I never said that," Préval answered. "I think that reconciliation of the classes is impossible. I think that collaboration is possible. I said that we will work with all the politicians, all civil society, and these various components, i.e. the owners, the workers, various associations, to take part in the development of a common vision of Haiti." He said that the disastrous state of Haiti’s environment is "a problem which goes beyond the question of social classes."
"The conflict between labor and capital will always exist," Préval concluded. "I never said that I would solve the problem of the classes in Haiti."
On Monday evening, there was a community meeting at CUNY’s York College in Queens, where nearly 2,000 haïtiens filled an auditorium. The atmosphere in the room was very congenial and ebullient. President Préval stood on a corner of the stage in shirt-sleeves, affecting the relaxed style which was the hallmark of his 1996-2001 presidency. He kept the audience giddy with jokes and anecdotes, and frequently called upon a member of his retinue – usually an economist – to explain a point he was trying to make. Standing in a constantly shifting semi-circle behind him, members of the Espwa coalition, like Préval’s right-hand man Robert Manuel, former KOZEPEP peasant leader Charles Souffrant, and François Pierre-Louis, secretary general of the Parti Louvri Baryè (PLB), stood shoulder to shoulder with leading members of the New York branch of the Fanmi Lavalas, who helped organize the event: Alina Sixto, Pierre Florestal, Yvon Kernizan, Jacques Dossous and others. Those on the stage moved around constantly, shaking hands with each other and with audience members, going on and off stage, lending an impromptu and anarchic feel to the encounter.
While constantly reminding the audience that he promised nothing and was not even yet sure how he was going to tackle a number of problems, Préval’s message was very traditional, and one had a sense of déjà vu in hearing the same themes which have been so often repeated over the past 15 years: we must increase private investment, we must improve security, we must build infrastructure, etc., etc.
In fact, two themes stand out from Préval’s long and rambling discourse. First, he kept hammering that Haiti’s problems needed “competence” to resolve.
“We don’t have people in Haiti,” Préval said. Then he corrected himself. “We don’t have enough people in Haiti.” What he meant was that there are not enough competent and educated cadre in Haiti, many brains having been drained away due to the political and economic troubles of the past 20 years.
Of course, Haiti needs competent officials to run its government and public institutions. But putting the emphasis on competence (one is reminded of the slogan of Haiti’s 19th century Liberal Party “power to the most capable”) smacks of a technocratic vision, which accounts for the arrogance and utter failure of classic technocrat Gérard Latortue and his clique. Never have “experts” in “development” led Haiti so deeply into poverty and misery.
Haiti’s problems are not primarily technical, not matters of competence, but political. They are the result of the irresponsibility, cynicism, and greed of Haiti’s ruling class and until their power and leadership are truly, and not just nominally, overcome, Haiti’s problems will continue.
Secondly, Préval constantly referred to the Dominican Republic as a model. “Last year, the Dominican Republic had one billion dollars in private investment,” Préval said. “Haiti had only seven million. It is no wonder we are so far behind.”
On this track, he touted the Dominican Republic, with its checker-board of Free Trade Zones, as a model for Haiti’s development. His remarks and enthusiasm were reminiscent of his embrace of neo-liberal Bolivia as a model for development in 1996. Bolivia has since suffered an economic meltdown and a popular uprising which has brought the fiercely anti-neoliberal Evo Morales to the presidency. One might ask why Préval doesn’t now hold up revolutionary Bolivia as a model or look to the West, to revolutionary Cuba.
Instead, Préval seemed to be looking for a third way. “I would like to find some kind of formula to get private investment into state companies like Teleco,” he said. He said he would like to see “popular capitalism.” It sounded rather like the “democratization” campaign that was briefly put forward as a euphemism for privatization when businessman Smarck Michel was President Aristide’s Prime Minister in 1995.
Préval also repeated often that his government would be “inclusive,” in other words have members of his bourgeois and Macoute rivals, a feature which U.S. Ambassador John Bolton insisted on in his Security Council intervention. “The door is open to all except thieves, criminals and drug-dealers,” he said.
Finally, it is worth asking why President Préval felt so compelled to make his visit to New York and Washington before his inauguration, now announced for May 14, when he had to rely on the de facto authorities in Haiti’s Consulates and Embassies, putschists like Ray Joseph, who mingled at Sunday’s reception and facilitated all of Washington’s meetings.
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