An open letter to Jerry Tardieu, coordinator of En Avant, in response to his recent memo on “The current political impasse” in Haiti, published in November 18, 2023.
Dear Jerry,
I have read with great care your latest memo on the political development in Haiti. While I am grateful to finally see (and read) En Avant’s response to the current political crisis, I don’t get the deference displayed in it to Ariel Henry in the political position you are advocating for.
I fail to see any redeeming value in this man’s administration. If he has other personal redeeming values outside of his medical training, that is for others who know him personally to judge. I can only go by his public accomplishments or lack thereof, in the case before us. If this is En Avant’s positioning to keep the door open for a compromise and to remain in the good graces of Ariel (or his handlers) for whatever reason, it is a cowardly posture to assume at this late hour, and
considering the gravity of the crisis in our country.
Now I appreciate that you may want to reach out to Ariel’s sense of patriotism or to appeal to his conscience. That is the gentlemanly thing to do and clearly in tune with your personal nature. However, I believe this is naïve. Ariel is no patriot; Ariel is not even his own man; Ariel has a boss. Therefore such an appeal for relief or to cease and desist on behalf of the Haitian people must be presented to Ariel’s boss.
With respect to creating or avoiding a political vacuum of governance in the sudden absence of Ariel as head of government, again this is a valid concern. But there is a bigger principle at play here.
The man is illegitimate and incompetent. If he were only illegitimate, maybe we could be discussing ways to rehabilitate him. We have nothing to work with here. Therefore, how Ariel departs the political scene in Haiti becomes secondary, although as responsible citizens, we must always seek to avoid a leadership vacuum in any institution whenever possible.
Ariel has a choice: he can either have a sit-down with his bosses at the CORE group and murmur NO MAS to their ears and pack his bag; or he can have a sit-down with the responsible leaders in our country and work out an arrangement that is fair to him, but good for the nation.
In either case, Ariel Henry can make suggestions regarding his replacement. But in no circumstances should he have a veto vote over his replacement. Failed leaders, especially one who stands credibly accused of partaking in the plot to extinguish the life of his predecessor and benefactor must not get to make future leadership decisions for the citizens of our nation.
Out of charity and in the spirit of magnanimity, the only thing we « owe » Ariel is safe passage. That is way more than « his » gang or sponsors had afforded the last president.
Should the de facto PM refuse the above generous and amicable offer, in addition to petitioning his bosses both national and international to demand Ariel’s removal and replacement, we must also bring pressure to bear on Ariel’s gatekeeper, as both Ariel and his gatekeeper get their orders from the same source in Tabarre.
Ariel will sense no pressure to do anything differently so long as his gatekeeper is ignored as if he has nothing to say or do in the matter, not held to account and keeps taking orders from forces that are antithetical and/or inimical to the national interest.
The gatekeeper is none other than Frantz Elbė – the current police chief and the less than patriotic command staff Elbé is surrounded by.
Because Ariel is not a constitutionally sanctioned employee of the Haitian people, Elbé owes Ariel nothing. Elbé’s loyalty must solely rest with the Haitian people, unless of course Elbé just like Ariel, knows where the bodies are buried and are subject to the same fate.
Mr. Elbé must at once be reminded of his civic duties and the imperative necessity to return the country to constitutional order, if he has clean hands and especially if he does not have clean hands. To him, we impart no guilt or innocence. We shall allow history to reveal his true character and time to expose whether his hands too, are stained with President Moïse’s blood. Thus far however, we can say with complete confidence: « Elbé is no Traorė! »
As the gatekeeper to the indefensible, all he needs to do is to find his patriotic backbone and for once in his life, place the nation’s wellbeing ahead of his personal interests. In fact it is Elbé primarily, not Ariel, who is emblematic of our nation’s tumble into chaos by his subservient temperament and any semblance of national pride and his abject inability to restore order and tranquility in the country. He is too content to protect the forces of corruption that are hindering the forces of progress in Haiti. He is an enabler—a powerful one.
Why the opposition leadership in general keeps tiptoeing around Elbé is beyond my comprehension. There is no Ariel without Elbé!
This is my way of saying to you that the Third way your party has proposed is well and good. But it lacks leverage in addition to being too lenient on Ariel & co. We will return to the Third way, below.
Where do you get leverage? In the spirit of brevity, I will only mention two sources or means: 1) by applying real, unified, sustained political and diplomatic pressures on the actual holders of power in Haiti; and 2) by getting the Haitian people to rise up, both in Haiti and in the Diaspora, to demand real change at last.
Number one is virtually impossible without number two, though in rare cases number one can occur without fully achieving number two…in a country with a patriotic and responsible elite for example. We are not that fortunate.
With number one being a long shot or at least difficult without number two, you and all the other sincere political leaders in Haiti and in the Diaspora must remain laser focused on organizing the people of Haiti to demand the change we want. Change can only come to Haiti from Haiti itself.
In your proposal or presentation, you laid out the three ways or « tendencies » currently in vogue in Haiti on how to resolve the political crisis there and made mention of the weaknesses in tendency one and two. We are in agreement there. However you sponsor or support a Third way
or » third tendency, » to stick with your terminology. I will attach your proposal below for readers to make up their own mind.
The common denominator in all the proposals or accords we have had thus far – including your Third way proposal – is that none of them involve the people of Haiti at the grass roots levels. They certainly don’t involve the Haitian people at the regional levels in any way. All the proposals on the table are « made in Port-au-Prince » for the benefit primarily of Port-au-Prince politicians or a couple of regional leaders, in some cases literally, who are hanging out in Port au-Prince.
Ironically, when the Port-au-Prince-made proposals would not generate any meaningful interest among the general public in Haiti, instead of basing the next proposal in one or more of our regional departments to obtain the backing of the people, its leaders or authors fled to Louisiana, USA; and low and behold, the Louisiana deliberations produced virtually the same results as the Montana one and received the same fate: Ariel laughed at and played with both. The virtually identical outcomes proved without any doubts that the various proposals, whether promulgated at Montana or in Louisiana had the same players and job-seekers behind them.
Why did these proposals/accords fail so miserably? They are certainly elegantly written – especially Montana. It’s because none of them had a serious mandate from the people of Haiti. Somehow a person who could not be elected the mayor of Ouanaminthe in a fair and democratic election because of his shady past, ended up atop the heap in both accords. You know the dice is rigged when no matter how you roll it, you end up with the same number. We have to do better by our people for history to be kind to us and for the world to stop laughing at us. Wisely, you had stayed far away from these « accords » as their failure was foreordained.
If Ouanaminthe teaches us anything, it is that: these approaches not only would not work; they would not be seen with a good eye by the Haitian people. The days when Port-au-Prince alone can decide the fate of the nation are long gone, thankfully and should never come back.
Similarly, the days when leaders in the diaspora can decide the fate of Haiti had never arrived and never will, despite our pretension here. The diaspora can only assist, suggest and guide our brothers and sisters in Haiti.
So, I am proposing that the decentralization of political thoughts and actions in Haiti begin in earnest during the transition itself – the real transition that is yet to kick off – despite what Ariel may want us to believe.
Haiti is not yet in a real political transition. Haiti is in a prolongation of the status quo. Ariel Henry and Mirlande Manigat are merely directing a farce with Ariel as stage master, Manigat as curtain operator and Elbé as security guard.
Your third way my friend, is a mild improvement, though laid out in good faith.
So if your « Third way » or tendency leaves plenty to be desired, what about a Fourth Way? The Fourth way brings all the missing ingredients together to create the massive movement and the potent political pressure alluded to above. In short, the 4th way would seek to gather the
competent and honorable regional leaders in their respective regions for the purpose of naming their political representatives in the new transitional government.
So for example, instead of having one Catholic leader in Port-au-Prince calling for dialogue, the Fourth Way would organize ALL competent and honorable leaders in the faith, intellectual, business, finance sectors and the workers representatives to name THEIR representatives for each of the ten geographic departments of our country.
Subsequently, the representatives would meet in a convention that is naturally representative of the entire country plus the diaspora to form a National Governing Council or NGC (that is my name for it; the representatives can change the name as is their right). And the National Governing Council would in turn select a Transitional president and a Transitional PM by a super majority vote of the members.
This is how you obtain a true mandate for a serious transitional government.
Once seated per the undeniable will of the people, the representatives of the nation would be fully empowered to decide the fate of Ariel and thus avoid the political vacuum you so fear. With such a process, no one could credibly claim that the governing body lacks legitimacy. Every region and every constituency would be fairly represented-including the diaspora. It would then become a contest between the people of Haiti through their duly chosen representative Vs. Ariel Henry (and the CORE group). My bet obviously is on the people.
My humble suggestion to you thus would be to convert your group from a political party seeking to elect you as president to an advocacy movement seeking real change in Haiti. I believe you have the capacity and the temperament to lead this people’s movement. But you cannot do so as a candidate for presidential office. You would have to operate from a base of unquestioned neutrality.
If somehow we ever get to an election this February 2024 as is the rumor, my advice to you furthermore, would be to pass. In fact, you should devote all your energies to prevent any such hasty election and almost certainly, a fraudulent one. Do not sully your good name à la Manigat by participating in such a farce. You are still relatively young in electoral terms and still have a bright political future ahead of you, if you can remain uncorrupted by the criminal pollution that has been engulfing Haiti.
Jerry, you were in America or about to reach the American shores when the following slogan came of age here: « It’s the economy, stupid! » To paraphrase that famous slogan, I say today: « It’s the transition, stupid! » That is to emphasize that: without a proper political transition, nothing will work in Haiti. Nothing! Mark my words! We would be lucky, if we get a Jovenel again. It is more likely we would get another Martelly to preserve the status quo and for the present criminals who are leading and surrounding us to cover their misdeeds and flee from justice.
This is an « all aboard » and all-hands-on deck moment for all patriots to save the nation.
At this juncture, we do not need politicians; we need citizens – citizens in the full meaning of the word. It ought to be an honor to be a citizen of Haiti, the little country that changed the course of
history despite tremendous adversities. But instead, we have had the basest breed of men and women serving only their personal interest and for sale to the highest bidder. These people are stunningly shameless.
That is not what we need with our nation in peril and getting deeper into the abyss on a daily basis, with no bottom in sight. We need patriotic citizens to stand in the breach to protect the motherland from her enemies, foreign and domestic. At this juncture, all of us who profess to be citizens of Haiti must be of one party – Haiti.
To that end, the transitional organization I am advocating for here would be strictly nonpartisan and religiously agnostic. When one joins this band of Citizens for Haiti, all we would care about is your loyalty to the wellbeing of the nation. Character would be one’s ticket of entry; competence and integrity would ensure your place at the table and nothing else.
We must at last stop fighting among us for who shall be the president of Haiti and begin the fight for who or what will make Haiti president.
When we adopt this Haiti-First vision and do so sincerely, the inevitable outcome will be unity. And unity will assuredly bring us to victory and the Haiti we all dream of.
I believe this is a vision the people of Haiti will embrace and die for and a vision patriotic Haitians abroad will support morally, emotionally and financially.
Jerry, are you ready to postpone or give up if necessary, your dream to become president of Haiti to make Haiti president?
This question is not just addressed to you by the way, but also to all your political competitors. If you and they truly care about Haiti, the answer to that question should not come with any hesitation. It only has ONE answer.
I hope this correspondence finds you in good health and good spirit and that your family is safe and well. Looking forward to your public response to me and the nation we both love.
I appreciate your courage and your determination to bring change to Haiti.
Kind regards.
Bb Auguste
Boston, USA. 11/22/2023R
Please find below the link to how we create a real political transition and place Haiti on a foundation for lasting progress and the link to En Avant’s proposal. https://guertonauguste.medium.com/the-best-course-for-haiti-903f94e0988c https://www.juno7.ht/le-parti-en-avant-fixe-sa-position-sur-limpasse-politique
