By Joel R Deeb October 19, 2010
In a dynamic world, changing times and circumstances redefine a nation’s security needs and the strategies required to meet them. In the United States, for example, Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were both transformational events, as was the expected but sudden implosion of the Soviet Union. Today, China’s military buildup and weapons development program with new capabilities in space and in international waters, as well as Iran’s nuclear adventure, call for a new appraisal of world security and peace. For the first time in the entire history of the United States, a significant security challenge is posed by the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and Al Quaeda’s efforts to recruit American citizens for jihad in the American mainland.

Like every country in the world, Haiti must constantly reevaluate the threats to its national security, in the long term as in the short term, so that effective public policies can be formulated and implemented that properly protect and defend its national security interests, as I argued in a previous article written for Omega World News.[2] In the evolving security matters facing its people, one can state that the national security of Haiti today has to do with the nation’s ability to recover its sovereignty and territorial integrity, to defend and advance its economic and political interests nationally and in the world, to achieve the social peace and political stability of free societies, to protect the individual freedoms and human rights of its citizens, as well as to build, develop, maintain and protect the nation’s established and new institutions of liberty, for all the foreseeable future and beyond.

On all counts, at this time, the fraudulent and potentially violent elections scheduled for November 28 are the greatest threats to the national security of Haiti, in addition to the unending series of kidnappings for ransom and the murders of private citizens at the hands of domestic terrorists. In both cases, the enormous negative impact on the individual freedoms and human rights of Haitians cannot be ignored, as is the damage that will be inflicted to the cause of representative democracy, to the analysis of which we now turn.

Haiti: Elections as a tool to subvert democracy

If one accepts the definition of national security for Haiti as stated above, one will also admit that the current regime’s madness, so unequivocally exposed in its obsession to go on with its planned electoral coup d’état on November 28 of this year, constitutes an imminent and dangerous threat of the highest order to Haiti’s national security, to the cause of democratic governance in our hemisphere, as well as to the Caribbean region’s stability, and must be stopped immediately, at all costs.

In a free society, free, fair, honest, transparent and credible elections are the only source of legitimacy for the powers of a democratic government. When elections do not meet such standards, individuals in society loose their freedom to choose the leaders of their country, for the implementation of an agenda preferred by the majority, after a careful review and analysis of the alternatives. In the case of post-earthquake Haiti, the population is not yet prepared to bury itsr grief over the death of more than 250,000 of their fellow citizens, and the fate of over 1.5 million displaced persons who are now refugees in their own country. Given the serenity and the deliberations required for people to vote responsibly, Haitians resent the obsession of a government, infamous for its incompetence and corruption, to want to carry out general elections in which the dead and the missing are sure to vote.

In addition, the Haitian Provisional Electoral Council has been rejected as partisan, too responsive to the orders of the National Palace and too corrupt by the overwhelming majority of stakeholders, more particularly after the apparent arbitrary manner in which it rejected the candidacy of some while accepting others in violations of the constitution and other applicable laws, as well as its casual announcement that it finds it impossible to purge the country’s electoral list or to reissue over 450,000 voting cards burned in the arson fire of its offices at Les Cayes, in the south of Haiti. To top it all, President Preval’s former Prime Minister has denounced this Head of State’s partisanship and the distribution of weapons he has undertaken throughout the country. For what purposes, one may ask, is it to arm the gang leaders who have been released from the national penitentiary in a poorly choreographed prison rebellion?

There is no democratic governance in Haiti, and it must be recognized that tyranny is the order of the day. The fraudulent elections programmed for Haiti violate the individual freedoms, the civil rights and the human rights of Haitians. And, free people everywhere have the right to rise against tyranny and defeat it by any means necessary. In post-earthquake Haiti, the challenge of finding and using scarce international resources to build a new country and a new society of liberty and prosperity, makes the case against tyrannay particularly compelling. How will the economy of Haiti be built up amidst the protests, the tensions, the acrimony and the violence that will surely result from elections so clearly fraudulent, unfair and non-inclusive. that they amount to an electoral coup d’état? What could constitue a greater and more imminent threat to the national security of Haiti today?

Domestic terrorism and its impact on Haiti’s national security.

For more than a decade now, the kidnapping and murder of Haitians of all ages have become an integral part of the daily news Horrendous crimes, in broad daylight, have transformed Haitians into captives in their own country, unable to enjoy their individual freedoms and their rights to carry on with the business of life, without fear or intimidation. Worse yet, through its complicity with known, hard core domestic terrorists, the government of Haiti has not only abdicated its right to exercise politial power and but also to act in the name of law and order.

Success in building a free society, in which individual freedoms, civil rights and human rights are guaranteed to every Haitian and foreigners living among us, will remain out of reach as long as domestic terrorists are allowed to decimate Haitian families on behalf of failed political ideologies of the past century . In such a context, Haiti’s reconstruction plan will remain ill defined and difficult to achieve, and the money to finance it runs the high risks of being cleverly or forcibly re-directed to occult ends. There cannot be economic and social progress in a lawless society in which terrorists are tied to a profoundly deceptive government, more interested in playing cat and mouse with the civilized world than in insuring the well being of citizens over which authority has been acquired by fraud, lies and deceit. For Haiti to live, domestic terrorism must be defeated.

Looking forward

Fraudulent and potentially violent elections, as well as domestic terrrorism, represent the most important threats to the national security of Haiti, today. In addition to violating the freedoms, civil rights and human rights of Haitians, these threats also have international implications, the consequences of which Haitians cannot ignore any longer. The continued invasion of the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Cayman Islands and the United States, for example, by hordes of illegal immigrants from Haiti, voting with their feet and by boatloads to flee the horrors of hell in their own country, must be stopped to preserve peace and stability in the Caribbean region. Haiti’s support for the OAS charter and that organization’s commitment to representative democracy and human rights must be renewed and made credible by our renewed faith in democratic principles, democratic elections, democratic governance , and the institutions of liberty.

Joel R Deeb

October 19, 2010

deebjr@omegamilitaryconsultant.com

deebjr@aol.com

202-239-6567

[1] A Professional Political Consultant with over 20 years experience providing sound analysis, interpretation, problem solving skills and public policy recommendations for solving various political problems that affect national security, public safety and the effectiveness of government, Chairman and CEO, Omega Military Consultant, 1994 – Present Analyst, Strategic Studies / Counter Terrorism Action Plan, Latin America 1980 – Present Vice-President, Caribbean Communications Corp., 1991 – 1993. Board Member, International Fruit Basket Corp., 1979 – 1983.Board Member, Sea Food Maritime Exports Inc., 1979 – 1980. Founder and Team Leader, Hector Riobe Anti-Duvalier Front, 1980 – 1986.Member, Haitian League for Human Rights, 1979 – 1980.Analyst, Strategic Studies / Counter Terrorism, Caribbean Region, Asia/Africa, 1979. Research : New Technologies for Defense and Collective Security in 2004.

[2] Deeb, Joel. Planning for Security in Haiti, Omega Military Consultant Website, Most Recent Update on 10/10/10, www.omegamilitaryconsultant.com