BY Simone Weichselbaum
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, August 6th 2010, 4:00 AM
Fugees star Pras is endorsing Michel Martelly as the next president of Haiti, and not former bandmate Wyclef Jean.
Brooklyn-bred rapper Wyclef Jean is counting on New Yorkers to back his run for president of Haiti – but he can’t count on his former bandmate.
Soon after the celebrity singer filed papers for his candidacy Thursday, fellow Fugees star Pras announced he’s supporting another hopeful.
“I endorse Michel Martell as the next president of Haiti because he is the most competent candidate for the job,” Pras said in a statement.
Jean is hoping other Haitian expats living in New York don’t agree.
New York, and Brooklyn in particular, is home to the world’s largest number of Haitian expatriates – and Jean told the Daily News he’s looking for their support.
“Wyclef Jean needs to be 3 million strong. Diaspora moving together to engage in help to get these people into a better situation,” Jean said.
Jean came to New York at age 9, moving to the rough-and-tumble Marlboro houses in Coney Island and later to Flatbush, said his older brother, Sam, 39. He went to Public School 199 in Midwood before leaving for New Jersey.
Wyclef has stayed loyal to his homeland – he never became an American citizen and likes to show off his Haitian passport.
After a devastating earthquake rocked the island nation in January, his star power and public appeals for help attracted millions in donations to his charity, Yele.
Still, interviews Thursday with Brooklyn Haitians show Jean might have a tough road ahead of him.
“Wyclef is a musician. He’s not fit for the job. It’s like taking an engineer and putting him in a hospital,” said Yvon Olivier, 59, manager of Chaco International Shipping in Flatbush.
Like President Obama, Jean is relying on younger voters to get him into office, distancing himself from the older candidates – including his 78-year-old uncle, Raymond Joseph, who has been the U.S. ambassador for the past five years.
Aside from the family troubles, Jean will also have to grapple with questions about Yele. Tax returns showed that some pre-quake donations to Yele went to Jean’s Manhattan recording studio and his Haitian television production company.
Jean told The News that he learned from his mistakes, changing Yele’s leadership and opening up its books.
“People say, ‘Are you running for president?’ ” Jean said. “I say no, I am naturally being drafted by my country to serve my country,” he said.
simonew@nydailynews.com
With Ben Chapman, Vinnie Rotondaro and Calvin Men
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COMMENT: HAITIAN-TRUTH.ORG
As if Martelly’s candidacy had any meaning!
He is a good musician.
He has been quite successful in the cocaine traffic.
He has absolutely no credible abilities to become a president of anything.
Haiti is becoming a public farce with Wyclef’s bums in the Hotel Kinam and this former-band member making more ridiculous statements.
Perhaps Martelly has more ability than Wyclef, which doesn’t mean either should be allowed to manage a Burger King outlet.
Let’s get serious, people are dying and the nation needs a real chance, not comic relief.
What egos they have!!!!
You are correct, again.
We need serious candidates, with serious programs and serious cabinet members. What serious businessman would be with a Wyclef cabinet when he hangs out with the misfits around the Kinam lobby
I am sad.
I am Haitian and hope for my country but this fiasco makes me very sad.
Are you all serious about mentioning Pras’s comment on serious matters. What does Pras know about Michel Martelly? And for they record, the guy’s name is Michel Martelly, not ” Michel Martell”. He has always be jealous for Clef’s progress and again, you can see it by comparing his accomplishment and Clef’s. Pay attention to comments of serious authorities so that comments posted on this site can be taken seriously. What gives Pras weight to say any thing with value other than being of Haitian descent? What has Pras done for Haiti lately? Does he know where Haiti is? He might have mentioned Michel Martelly’s name randomly because he is familiar with the name because Martelly plays a lot in the North East. On what ground is he saying Michel Martelly is the best out there. Pras has nothing worthwhile to say because he does not know what is going on in Haiti. He is just hatin’. The person who started publishing his comment was just hungry for a good story to promote his career in journalism.
All three of them are Prevals Great Distraction, and you all are eating it up like candy, while in the background, you are getting raped.
A hip hop artist who did not have the common sense to go to school, even when his career was down while he knew he wanted to become president, but took advantage of Haiti’s dire poverty to promote himself and misappropriated money goodhearted people donate for charity by paying himself and his friends and family outrageous fees.
This is a time when Haiti needs to project something positive in order to attract serious investment. If I were the president of the World Bank, negotiating multi-billion dollar development loans to a country, and my counterpart at the table was some uneducated rap star; I wouldn’t take that country seriously. Wyclef used charity money to promote himself in Haiti, not his own money.
I question the judgment of a guy who knew he wanted to run for president, yet misappropriate charity money and didn’t even go back to school and get a degree. If we are so low in Haiti, that we don’t have college professors, bankers, lawyers, financiers, doctors, or a descent professional to run our country, we are better off under foreign control.
Haiti, the laughing stock of the world, now we pimped by a rapper. Should the rest of the world ever take us seriously?
Sadly, a lot of Haitians have decided to throw their blind confidence in Wyclef, and the corruption is already pretty deep.
..his uncle was what???
US Imperialism = World Cancer
It is really a sad reality that need to be stopped ASAP. All those jokers need to clear the scene of the political land field to make some space for serious candidates with serious agenda for Haiti.
Wyclef, Martelly and so forth make Haiti the joke of the world
Gamaliel…actually, if you were the head of the World Bank or the US…thats exactly, exactly, who you’ d want for president of Haiti..