May 23, 2021
The entire “Constitutional Question” reminds me of the Irishman, who, arriving for the first time in a new country, walks down the ramp of the aircraft challenging.
“What’s your government? I’m against it!”
Everyone agrees the 1987 Constitution, morphed into the 1987 (Amended) Constitution is an unworkable disaster and must be replaced.
President Moise was pressed, by the International Community, to replace the Constitution and, now that he is doing his best, many are suggesting he has dictatorial aspirations.
Come on guys!
Reality sees a small flock of cuckoos, pressing for a “no vote,” on the Constitutional Referendum, when a “yes vote,” would help the country and its people by replacing this fatally flawed document, making the Nation governable.
If the process only eliminates the Senate it will have been worthwhile. Our Senate bleeds over $100,000,000 fom the economy when one adds up wages and fringe benefits, not including a few hundred million stolen from Petrocaribe.
What is the history?
Duvalier could have stayed forever if he had held free-and-fair elections, closely supervised by the International Community. A few businessmen and agitators pressed against him – in a mirror of today’s turbulence against President Moise.
Had the vast Traditional Society been given a say, they would have kept Duvalier.
Under Duvalier we had infrastructure, law-and-order, (Theft was almost non-existent. You could leave your possessions sitting somewhere, and they would still be there when you returned.)… investment, tourism, an accelerating literacy rate, medical facilities and Hope.
Duvalier’s problem was what people call the “Yellow Pages Coup,” because some agitators, in the final days, used the Yellow Pages to threaten businessmen with destruction, if they did not support the government’s collapse.
But then, Democracy isn’t geared to hearing the vast Traditional Society’s voice. It listens to a tiny minority who have access to the media, cash and foreigners, looking for an agenda.
If one listened today, in vast areas of the countryside, Jovenel Moise is extremely popular. One criticizes him there, at their own personal peril.
One could have amended the Duvalier Constitution, by removing the Presidency for Life, we would have a workable document.
That would never do.
There was a frenzy to create a new Constitution and 41 people haggled away in Gonaives to create the 1987 document – badly flawed.
The 1987 Constitution was recognized for what it was and years later the Senate approved certain amendments, passing these along to President Rene Preval for publication in Le Moniteur.
Somewhere between the Senate and Le Moniteur, the approved amendments were replaced with those drafted by the Preval team, effectively making the Nation un-governable.
It is the Preval Amendments that have placed Haiti in its present ungovernable situation.
The Senate was mute when their voice could have correted things.
Everyone agrees that a new Constitution in required.
However, a new Constitution, good or bad, is not the question at this point in time. Haiti’s small flock of troublemakers, finally realizing they cannot put demonstrators on the street, will now try to create chaos by working against the referendum as a means to derail our Democratically Elected Government, a government which happens to be, at this time, that of Jovenel Moise.
The next time around, these same people will be against whatever replaces President Moise.
The Irishman would be proud of them.
That is the nature of the game, a game of Perpetual Transition that must be blocked, here and now.
THE REFERENDUM VOTE HAS BECOME A TWO-EDGED SWORD – FOR THE BASIC SURVIVAL OF DEMOCRACY- AND FOR EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE, NOW AND IN THE FUTURE.
A “YES VOTE” ON THE REFERENDUM IS A VOTE FOR HAITI’S SURVIVAL.
PRESIDENT MOISE IS ACTING IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF HIS PEOPLE, THE HAITIAN PEOPLE – YOU!!!!
THAT IS WHAT HE WAS ELECTED FOR!!
Adelina Dayiti
