HAITI AND THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY 2000-2001

EXCERPTS FROM PETER HALLWARD'S BOOK:

''DAMMING THE FLOOD ,HAITI AND THE POLITICS OF CONTAINMENT""

The year 2000 is the pivotal moment of the LAVALAS political sequence to date.In the year that ARISTIDE was finally in a position to harness his principles and popularity to a systematic program of significant social change.
It's also the year that it became clear to the enemies of the LAVALAS movement that narrow parliamentary maneuverings would no longer suffice to divide and divert it.

By 2000,ARISTIDE'S OPPONENTS BOTH IN HAITI AND ABROAD REALIZED THEY NEEDED TO DEVELOP A NEW AND MORE ACTIVE PROGRAM OF DESTABILIZATION AND COUNTER MOBILIZATION.

In keeping with a familiar formula ,this program included four distinct though mutually reinforcing components :

A)the preparation on the model of NICARAGUA'S CONTRAS of a force for paramilitary intervention so as to create a CLIMATE OF FEAR AND INSECURITY AND UNDERMINE GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY,obliging it to take costly measures of self-defense.

B)Intensified forms of economic pressure and asssault ,so as to bankrupt the government and limit its capacity to deliver on its promises to alleviate poverty and inequality

C)The recruitment of suitably ""pluralist"" representative of the public sector and civil society ,including members of internationally validated non-governmental organizations,which might be presented as a legitimate opposition to the government .

D)The MANAGEMENT OF A MEDIA DESINFORMATION CAMPAIGN TO CHARACTERIZE THE GOVERNMENT AS CORRUPT,AUTHORITARIAN AND UNDEMOCRATIC.

All of these measures were designed to provoke the government or at least some of its more frustated supporters into responding in ways that might plausibly be presented as brutal and dictatorial,which might then recruit new members to the ""democratic"" opposition and motivate new forms of ""popular"" protests,in turn soliciting renewed bursts of ""brutality""

Once the cycle started to spiral out of control.THE FOREIGN ALLIES OF THE LOCAL ELITE WOULD GET THEIR CHANCE TO STEP IN AND SAVE THE DAY.
AS IT HAPPENED LAVALAS RESISTANCE WAS STRONG ENOUGH TO KEEP THEM WAITING FOR FOUR LONG YEARS

DAMMING THE FLOOD;HAITI AND THE POLITICS OF CONTAINMENT ;BY PETER HALLWARD

DAMMING THE FLOOD -EXCERPTS:

For obvious reasons ,both the domestic elite and its foreign patrons have a vested interest in the weakness of the state and the instability of its government.
A weak government means minimal taxes or tariffs ,minimal regulations ,minimal interference in the exploitation of labor ,trade or CONTRABAND.

In the immediate aftermath of their defeat ,local anti-ARISTIDE politicians could do little more than wring their hands in the face of what they denounced as an ""electoral coup d'état"".The OPL immediately called for the ""entire electoral proces to be annuled"" and CONVERGENCE DÉMOCRATIQUE spokesman MICHA GAILLARD declared that ""We will never ,ever accept the results of thee elections.But nor did he need to :since the results were obviously unacceptable ,FRANCE and the U.S never accepted them either.

IN WHAT MUST RANK AS ONE OF THE MOST IMPRESSIVE AND IMPROBABLE PROPAGANDA EXERCISES IN CONTEMPORARY POLITICS ,AN ALLIANCE OF ARISTIDE'S FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC ENNEMIES SOON MANAGED TO PERSUADE MOST OF THE INDEPENDENT MEDIA TO PRESENT THE GOVERNMENT ELECTED IN 2000 AS UNDEMOCRATIC AND ILLEGITIMATE..

The awkward fact that this government had an electoral mandate incomparably more powerful than that enjoyed by leaders like BUSH or CHIRAC was never allowed to interfere with the central point :
IN 2000 AS IN 1990,THE HAITIAN PEOPLE HAD AGAIN MISUNDERSTOOD THE TRUE MEANING OF DEMOCRACY.THEY HAD FAILED TO CHOOSE THE LEADERS THAT THE GREAT POWERS HAD CHOSEN FOR THEM

The actual strategic function of the political opposition to FANMI LAVALAS soon became clear enough.It was intended to extract ,through interminable dicussion,THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF CRIPPLING CONCESSIONS WITHOUT EVER YIELDING ON AN ESSENTIAL AND NON NEGOTIABLE GOAL:THE REMOVAL OF ARISTIDE'S GOVERNMENT BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

All of the losers of MAY 2000-former allies like EX-COMMUNIST GÉRARD PIERRE CHARLES,ex-Lavalassian PAUL DENIS,ex-social democrat SERGE GILLES and ex-anti-duvalierist EVANS PAUL ,as well as DUVALIERISTS ,RIGHT-WING EVANLEGICALS and CONSERVATIVE BUSINESS LEADERS-had a common interest in getting rid of the winner.

Almost as soon ,the MAY 2000 RESULTS were announced,the leaders of the vanquished parties formed a loose MADE-FOR-MEDIA COALITION called the CONVERGENCE DÉMOCRATIQUE.
THIS ALLIANCE OF FAR- RIGHT AND EX-FAR-LEFT OPPORTUNISTS WAS HELD TOGETHER BY SOMETHING RATHER MORE FORCEFUL THAN SIMPLY A SHARED HATRED OF ARISTIDE.

DEVISED AND SUPERVISED BY THE MOST REACTIONNARY WING OF THE US FOREIGN POLICY ETABLISHMENT ,THE CD'S STRATEGY WAS BASED ON RECOGNITION OF A SINGLE AND SELF-EVJDENT PRINCIPLE::the futility of electoral politics so lpng as ARISTIDE'S FL remained an organized and coherent force.

With a touch of poetry CD leaders EVANS PAUL and GÉRARD PIERRE CHARLES named their alternative OPTION ZERO

DAMMING THE FLOOD :HAITI AND THE POLITICS OF CONTAINMENT by PETER HALLWARD (PAJ 84)