We all know the price that statesmen cost Haiti. We have all read or heard about the sums that council presidents demand to renew certain directors general. The little schemes to appoint certain individuals to subordinate positions in specific ministries are common practices. However, one thing that is not always taken into account exists in the conditions for becoming a leader, such as the cost of becoming a leader for the members of this council. On what principle can they revoke a minister?
To be a “leader” in Haiti, there is always a condition. If we closely analyze the nature of the talks that lead to the formation of council of the presidents, everything indicates clearly what it could be: a space for transactions. Within the parties, there have been transactions. Within the nomination committees, there have also been transactions. Before reaching the top, these nominees enter a space where they already have too many transactions to validate. Thus, they are all in debt. It’s like medical students or Ivy League students in the United States. Before starting to work in the field for which they studied, they already find themselves in debt by hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Becoming a leader in Haiti follows a similar path. Our nominees were not simply chosen based on their merits or accomplishments in society. To be there, they accepted certain things and exerted pressure to displace others. Perhaps it was amid threats that Minister Dominique Dupuy said she renounced a position as president in the system, for example. She may have been that human kindness that had ambitions beyond being a minister: she cared about a certain image of the country.
To caricature the problem, some of them paid for their positions. This is why they may be relentless in searching for where the money hides; they travel to squeeze more margins of power because the people who voted for them demand that they be exempted, that they receive the payments owed to them.
In the administration in Haiti, political positions are purchased. I hope no one will claim this is just my opinion. What I mean to say is that the coercion faced by council members regarding their relationship with corruption and the need to keep their positions is not merely a matter of their greed. They were forced to make compromises. Now, they simply have to pay. They are compelled to amass as much as they can, even at the cost of humiliating a country. Who still remembers when Laurent Lamothe told Martelly that he was there because of his money and not due to a matter of color? Therefore, he would remain there as a minister until he amassed the money he had invested in the electoral campaign. I hope no one will claim that I have instigated this idea with that phrase, although I have reformulated it. But what matters here is the intention. Who can say that this was not the very principle of the Haitian parliament? Stories of blocs of deputies and senators! In the Haitian administration, if you want to be appointed, you must pay, literally and in every sense: sex, money, etc. In other words: "You must serve" to last or keep a ministerial portfolio, a consul general position.
The president of the Dominican Republic demands the minister's head on a platter should surprise no one. It should preferably clarify the place that the Dominican Republic occupies today in public administration in Haiti. It should also highlight the blow and disappointment that Minister Dominique Dupuy inflicted on her during meetings with international human rights organizations. What should disturb us is that Haitian politicians have always had more exquisite tastes for their well-being and future. Why the Dominican Republic? I don’t know what the president of the Dominican Republic can offer on paper and for posterity. But like the stature of the accused, he is a low man; like the eyes of the accused, the spirit underlying this agreement is a bridle…
Nothing should lead to astonishment; members of the political elite live under the constant threat of having to find a more powerful patron to finance their crimes. Lesly Manigat, of regrettable memory, used a biological concept to explain this necessity of finding a master, a patron. He referred to it as a form of atavism: a disposition to seek a master even when the need does not exist. The Haitian politician always wants someone to tell him what to do, as in the times of slavery. The astonishment arises from the fact that today, the master comes from the Dominican Republic. It is a shock.
Moreover, we should not pretend that the shame we, Haitians, experience in the countries where we live and work, studying with the idea of returning to serve our country, is something that only happens in the Dominican Republic. “Our compatriots face racism daily in the United States, France, Russia, Turkey, etc. Unlike other Western countries that the Dominican Republic seeks to emulate, it openly embraces its racist narrative. It is more exacerbated and direct.
Indeed, the problem of the corruption of our leaders exists within this long continuum of rent-seekers, where perhaps the council members find themselves; they must find money by any means to pay those who appointed them. You may say that I am trying to cover up or find a reason to explain the corruption of Lesly Voltaire or the other council members. But what I am trying to show is a practice in the management of power in Haiti. Historically, Haiti has a history filled with examples of this kind. We saw it with the Germans! With the British. Who still remembers the frustration of a Canadian ambassador against a citizen, an official of the administration, who dared to question his statement? Who recalls the anger of an American ambassador against a former prime minister? In fact, they were all dismissed from their positions. What will be the fate of the minister?
I met a lively man, a graduate of the law and humanities faculty. Like students of the ethnology faculty, he remained a Cro-Magnon in his Marxist ideas. Holding two master's degrees, one obtained in Haiti at the FE and the other at the University of Strasbourg. A good talker, with great ideas about classical literature, he speaks four languages. An ideal profile for a diplomat. He had sound ideas about what leading a consulate could be and had been promoted to become consul. But before his letter of credence was granted, the boss had proposed conditions to him. An amount to be sent every month... The money he was asked for the position surprised him; he did not know that a consul position could generate so much money and complained about how he would gather all this sum. The next day, to his great surprise, another colleague was appointed consul general. How can one be surprised by Lesly Voltaire’s stance against a minister who defends a people and a country?
What fascinated me was the regret he expressed for having refused. If he had known that the United States was “that kind of country,” he would have accepted to pay the money he was asked for, rather than living this existential misery. At a certain age, or after having lived certain experiences, a man can lose all the ethical conviction that made him a person of integrity. He would have accepted the conditions that would allow him to live as a leader. To drive a 4x4, pay his mistresses, build houses on the heights, amass as much as he could, because his position as a leader could always change. It is a country where the elite lives in transactions. If I give you this. I must receive that. This may be the case for Lesly Voltaire and the other council members trapped in corruption scandals. But I never imagined that the Dominican Republic would have costs for the expenses of becoming a leader in Haiti. Perhaps the minister is paying for her statement that Haiti does not want Dominican soldiers as members of the mission! But who remembers that photo of Leblanc Fils in a tête-à-tête with the president of the Dominican Republic before mentioning that Haiti would receive aid from the Dominican Republic? But we all know the Dominican Republic’s need to show that they are all white. Perhaps the minister is paying for the pride of an entire people. Will Haiti remain in this disenchanted picture of a Haitian political class trapped by itself in nauseating practices, a system of clientelism and dependence that undermines any possibility of renewal?