An JIYÈ 2006-Pwofesè PETER HALLWARD INIVÈSITE KINGSTON,LONDON) te fè yon ENTÈVYOU ;yon entèvyou manch long ak ARISTIDE.Misye te poze misye tout sòt de kesyon.Entèvyou an ekstann sou anviwon 30 PAJ.
PETER HALLWARD abitye ekri sou GOCH lan AMERIK LATIN lan.
Lan PAJ 370 ;misye te poze ARISTIDE yon kesyon sou AVNI mouvman popilè an ,ann AYITI.
Men kesyon an ,ak repons lan:
PH--How do you envisage the future?What has to happen next.Can there be real change in HAITI without directly confronting the question of cla privilege and power,without finding some way of overcoming the resistance of the dominant class?
JBA-We will have to confront these things one way or another.The condition sine qua non for doing this is obviously the participation of the people.Once the people are genuinely able of participating in the democratic process,then they will be able to devise an acceptable way forward.In any case the process is itself irreversible.It's irreversible at the mental level ,at the level of people's minds.
Members of impoverished sections of HAITIAN society now have an experience of democracy.THEY WILL NOT ACCEPT LIES IN THE PLACE OF THE TRUTH,A IF THEY WERE TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE ,BETWEEN THE TWO.
Everything comes back,in the end to the simple principle that TOUT MOUN SE MOUN-every person is indeed a person ,every person is indeed of thinking things through for themselves.Either you accept thi principle or you don't.
Those who don't accept it when they look at the NEGRES of haiti-and consciously or unconsciously ,that's what they see-they see people who are too poor ,too crude,too uneducated to think for themselves.They see people who need others to make their decisions for them.
IT' A COLONIAL MENTALITY,IN FACT,AND THIS MENTALITY IS STILL VERY WIDESPREAD AMONG OUR POLITICAL CLASS.It's also a projection:they project upon the people a sense of their own inadequacy,their own inequality in the eyes of the master.
S o for me ,there is a way out,a way forward.and it has to pass by way of the people.E ven if we don't yet have viable democratic structures and institutions,there is already a democratic consciousness,a collective democratic consciousness and it's irreversible.
What remains unclear is how long it will take.We may move forward fairly quickly,if through their mobilization,the people encounter interlocutors who are willing to listen,to enter into dialogue with them.If they don't find them,it will take longer.
The question is how long ,it will take.
The real problem isn't simply a HAITIAN one,it isn't located within Haiti!The people who control it can speed things up,slow them down,block them altogether,as they like.
BUT THE PROCESS ITSELF,THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS IN HAITI ITSELF,IT WILL MOVE FORWARD,ONE WAY OR ANOTHER,IT'S IRREVERSIBLE.THAT'S HOW I UNDESRTAND IT.
As for what will happen now,or next,that's unclear.The unknown varaiables I mentionned before remain in force and much depends on how thoe who control the means of repression both at home and abroad will react.
We still need to develop new ways of reducing and eventually eliminating our dependence on foreign powers '
(DAMMING THE FLOOD,PAJ 370 ak 371)