There is a historic sentiment in Haiti that the island it shares with the Dominican Republic should be one and indivisible – not only geographically, but also politically, economically, and in virtually every other regard.  Such sentiment, if analyzed objectively, is to be interpreted as a Haitian drive to undermine the Dominican Republic’s sovereignty as an independent country with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities thereto appertaining.

Before the magnitude of such a threat, any responsible government should take the necessary steps to deter those who seek to subvert its sovereign laws from transgressing them.  Yet, when attempting to do so, the Dominican government has been highly criticized by a multitude of NGOs like the Clinton Foundation and threatened by powerful people of the likes of billionaire George Soros and New York mayor Bill de Blasio.

While elites from OECD countries argue that the Dominican Republic’s concerns over sovereignty do not hold water.  We see Haitian social activists such as Julio Rubain Bastien saying that “the only solution to solving Haitian mass migration to the Dominican territory is opening the border and allowing for the free movement of people between the two countries.”  Moreover, as he stated in an interview that made it to the cover of the Dominican Republic’s most prominent newspaper, “in Haiti there is a movement to raise awareness of the need for the island to be one.”

Rubain, who is a self-proclaimed pastor of a local church in the Haitian community of Juana Méndez, also said his congregation is praying for “God to help bring about the unification of the two countries into one as soon as possible.”  Statements like this would not be a matter of concern for the Dominican government if Rubain and many others like him did not have the backing of well endowed international NGOs with on-site operations in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

These NGOs and their leaders are basically blackmailing the Dominican government by threatening to impose economic sanctions on the country.  That’s right: they are threatening to penalize a democratically elected government for operating lawfully to protect and strengthen its country’s sovereignty.

Few NGOs would pose threats of that nature against the United States for taking steps to secure its border with Mexico.  As a matter of fact, any threat made on that basis against the USA would amount to a mere “all bark, no bite” publicity stunt.  Unfortunately, when it comes to small countries like the Dominican Republic, such threats carry weight and can put the neediest of the needy under a lot of financial stress.

Hence, on the surface, it looks as though international NGOs want to help Haitians in distress.  But what they are really trying to do is compel Dominicans to solve the Haitian predicament and, in doing so, rid rich countries of the need to take on that heavy burden.

Academics like Professor Daniel Rodriguez from Mercy College of New York make the idea of unifying Haiti and the Dominican Republic seem innocuous by saying it would be “like the reunification of East Germany and West Germany.”  The comparison could not be more inappropriate.  East and West Germany at least had a common language and were unified on equal and peaceful grounds in the past.

The case with Haiti and the Dominican Republic is extremely different.  Beyond the striking level of cultural, linguistic, and religious heterogeneity between one country and the other, one must consider the conditions under which Haiti and the Dominican Republic were unified once upon a time.  So here’s a bird’s-eye view.

Haiti gained its independence from France in 1804.  At the time, the whole island of Hispaniola was under French rule.  After removing the French from their side of the island in a bloody war, Haitians, with the aid of British forces, pressed on and drove the French out of the city of Santo Domingo.  Thus, Haiti began making inroads eastward.

The occupation of the other side of the island of Hispaniola became official in 1822, when Haiti sent members of its army to police the eastern territory, and they did so until Dominicans declared their independence in February of 1844.

During the Haitian occupation of the Dominican Republic, whites could not own land; people were forbidden from speaking Spanish, their native tongue; and Santo Domingo’s Autonomous University, the first institution of higher learning founded in the Americas, was shut down.  Moreover, the Haitian government levied heavy taxes on Dominicans, and the occupying military personnel seized food and other goods from the population as the Haitian government did not provide for their sustenance.

The grievances perpetrated in that period are water under the bridge.  But if Haitians nowadays continue to invoke, promote, and act upon the seditious ideas that emanate from that moment in history, the Dominican government must take the matter seriously – especially when Haiti’s naked ambitions to bring the Dominican Republic’s sovereignty under submission are backed by people with billions and influence that can significantly disturb the Dominicans’ economic and political existence.

D’Oleo is a management consultant, author, and speaker.  He holds a Master’s of Science in public policy from University College London and a double-major in economics and politics from Brandeis University.  Twitter: @JonathanJDOleo

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This guy is from the planet Mars!