Dec 18, 2017
PERHAPS “LACK OF LEADERSHIP” WOULD BE A MORE BALANCED OBSERVATION.
PROTEGER ET SERVIR
There is a reciprocal to this promise, in order for the equation to wok.
HONOUR AND RESPECT
If we expect our underpaid, challenged police force to function efficiently, it must possess at least the basic Respect of our community.
Unfortunately, certain elements of our community have never Honored or Respected those who serve our Nation. These elements want only chaos and the deaths of a few PNH officers is fuel for the inferno they wish to create, an inferno that will destroy our weak remaining infrastructure, leaving Haiti open to their unlimited, ongoing, perpetual depredations.
Of course, the PNH is not a simple organism. It is made up of various levels, with various agendas.
Many have a loyalty to Aristide/Lavalas, since he personally picked all officers during his Presidencies, firing any and all Canadian/American trainees. Some have a personal loyalty/involvement with the drug community, while many are true police officers, determined to give their community what it deserves.
Strangely, some bridge all three sectors and would like to generate.
LAW-AND-ORDER!
This minority is in grave danger from the other PNH elements, plus members of the civilian community.
Aristide/Lavalas initiated this cancer that was twice placed in remission by his removal from office. The Preval resurgence supported the Aristide/Lavalas goals.
A momentary remission with Michel Martelly in office but the disease revived with the Criminal Privert who pirated our government and took his illegal months to permeate it with several thousand Aristide/Lavalas loyalists. The Governor of our Central Bank, Director of Doane and other key players but the most dangerous appointment – for our National Survival – was that of Lavalas Loyalist Gedeon to become Chief of the PNH.
This cynical man has done much to weaken our police sector, creating disloyalty, dissension, disrespect and disgust within the ranks. The magic of Gedeon’s efforts can be found in the fact the blame is placed on others, for the PNH’s unrest, seeing president Moise held up for criticism.
President Moise inherited Privert Poison and must work to neutralize this and regain some balance of true law-and-order.
There must be a first step.
Perhaps firing Gedeon would serve as the stepping stone to a stability that existed in eighties, before the American infliction of Democracy destroyed many things. Before this man, woman or child could walk our streets, 24 hours per day, in complete and total safety.
But once the Genie has been released from his bottle, nothing can ever be the same. But we must try.
There must be a beginning and an end.
Life is a fragile thing.
It starts with a small cry the newborn in a palace a cardboard-covered shelter in a bidonville or, like Christ, a straw filled manger when no other shelter was available that Christmas Eve so long ago.
Each path between birth and death is an individual one, of infinite variation. No two are even the same but all pass through the same, final door.
DEATH!
And, the differences don’t end there. A Prince gets a royal ceremony while the Pauper might find nothing other than shallow hole in the ground. A soldier may have no grave at all, but will be remembered by family and friends over the coming years.
Between these extremes there are many, many possibilities, but all should end with Honor and Respect – those two words, used as challenge and reply, by the Haitian peasant on passing trails in our countryside.
Our PNH consists of officers who have earned, or deserve a wide variation of public regard.
But, when a PNH officer is lost in the line of duty, the entire Nation must Honor and Respect this sacrifice.
It must also honor the force – the PNH!
Like most police organizations, throughout the world, one would expect the PNH to be a Fraternal Group, a Band of Brothers in the service of Haitian society, their society, their family’s society. Unfortunately, senior officers like Gedeon look at the lower ranks as something worth little consideration.
Haitians will remember the recent tragedy when PNH officers were ambushed while searching a building in La Ravine. Several lost their lives in this assault.
Some criticized the specific backgrounds of some officers involved. This critique ignores the simple, basic, graphic fact that – at that specific moment in time – these officers were placing their personal lives on the line!!!
Several lost their lives.
Within the past day or so, one of these officers’ funerals was held.
This, and others, reflect the true feeling of our PNH leadership, either through planned intent, or simple insensitivity and disinterest in their lower ranks, and their families.
And the government has failed to pay funeral costs, for some for which they are obligated! Not only PNH funerals but others of high level.
What a final insult to good Haitians, and their families who have gathered to honor and say good by to their friend and loved one.
Imagine this situation.
The honored PNH officer has been viewed, for what should be a last time, before the coffin is sealed. Then 6 good friends move to carry this sacred burden to a waiting hearse.
The coffin breaks, dropping the body onto the floor where it remained until someone from the mortuary could arrive to remove it from the stage.
This is not a Tonton Bisha TV commercial.
This is the stark reality of a ceremony that should have been managed in a truly respectful basis, rather than one which borders on the farcical!
Was this situation contrived, in an effort to embarrass the Jovenel Moise Presidency or was it the result of ongoing insensitivity by the command structure towards its lower ranks.
Or even more simple, greed by someone in the chain of commend, actually stealing from their dead brother by cheating on the quality of coffin? A cardboard box would have been more secure.
Remember, we have a Minister of Justice who stole the money for prison food, effectively murdering 20 of those in his custody. Anything is possible!
Following this outrage, PNH officers blocked the Freres Route with burning tires, making the roads impassable.
A sad reality when our representatives of law-and-order had to resort to their enemy’s tactics to gain attention.
Instead, they should have burned Chief Gedeon’s car, but was he even at the service?
President Moise must take immediate steps to gain control of the PNH and restore morale among its hard-working officers. President Moise needs PNH loyalty if he is to succeed, survive.
Perhaps a new Chief would be in order!
Just visualize this sad reality. The last memory of the lost PNH officer should have been his silent face, in peaceful repose, as the coffin lid was lowered and seald for Eternity.
Instead, the family and friends, mother, wife, children will forever, to Eternity, remember the contorted body, dumped when the cheap, cheap, cheap coffin spilled its contents before them.
We salute this PNH officer.
Perhaps his final act will see the resolution of many flaws in the PNH upper ranks. His memory deserves this.
The Nation deserves this.
