Hugh Cholmondeley served as Chief Coordinator of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Task Force on Haiti until February 2007. At the end of his assignment, Guyana Review asked him to share his personal thoughts about his experience and Haiti's challenges.
What can end Haiti's long night of turmoil and herald a new dawn of national consensus? Like most complex questions, there is no simple or easy answer. In searching for answers, it is probably best to start by examining events, actions and changes that indicate some forward movement. As Chou en Lai answered when asked about the impact of the French revolution on the rest of the world "It is too soon to tell!"
Two hundred years ago, taking into account its natural resources, its people and its potential, Haiti was considered the richest country in the hemisphere. Today, it remains true that it is the imaginative exploitation of these very resources that will lift Haiti's poor out of the vicious cycle of poverty and inequality. Few West Indians ever visit Haiti. Most of us do not go beyond the stock stereotype: an impoverished war-cursed country with trees from diminishing forests being cut down for use as fuel for cooking. But Haiti is much, much more. It is a country of contrasts. Those who visit discover a patient, proud, creative and resourceful people struggling for release from a century-long chronicle of foreign intervention, conflict, tyranny and resistance.
Subverted by a history of political instability, economic mismanagement and exogenous shocks, Haiti has suffered negative economic growth in thirty of the last forty years. Even when economic growth has taken place, it has not been sustained as less of its gains have been shared by the poor. For nearly three years I have had the privilege of visiting and working with the Haitian people and their international partners. Resilience stands out as their most striking characteristic.
Haiti's strengths are numerous. Endowed with one of the richest eco-systems in the Caribbean its mountains, valleys and plains are nourished by rivers and streams and harbour an amazing fertility. Exotic flora and fauna of the most striking colours abound. Numerous species of birds, seventeen of which are indigenous, inhabit the countryside. Apples, peaches, strawberries, blackberries are found in uplands, while tropical fruits and vegetables including oranges, citrons, bananas, shaddocks, plantains, pineapples, coconuts, mangoes, sapodillas, pears and artichokes are plentiful on the plains. Nearly two hundred plants with medicinal properties are an untapped pharmacological resource. Haiti's sandy beaches, with their blue-green waters, coral reefs and year-round warmth are among the world's must alluring within and beyond the Caribbean islands.
Sugar, coffee, cotton, indigo, syrup, cocoa, raw and tanned hides, sea shells and mahogany, cedar, pine, logwood and lignum vitae are among its many exports. Sand, clays and limestone support the manufacture of cement and undeveloped deposits exist of gold, iron ore, platinum, copper, lead, silver, sulphur, tin, antimony, gypsum, and nickel. Haiti's contribution to world culture is well known and its National History Park is designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage site while the Centre d'Art has provided a meeting place and training ground for many prolific painters and sculptors for over half a century. Thousands of visitors come to see and purchase these works which are not only displayed in sophisticated galleries but also at street corners where prices are negotiated that leave most purchasers with a deep sense of guilt.
Presidential Palace, Port-Ah-Prince
In striving to galvanise Haiti's recovery, the labours of ordinary people and the efforts of their international partners are driven by hope and expectation. Unfortunately, these appeals to emotion have so far proven inadequate for establishing a convincing "contract" for future success. Yet the traditional pre-conditions for this contract have already been met. International Financial Institutions conclude that the transition away from uncertainty has been established. Macroeconomic stability has been restored. Fiscal discipline and economic governance have improved. Economic growth has resumed. The national currency has stabilized. Inflation has been halved. International reserves have significantly increased.
Against this background, however, is the reality of deep and bitter social divisions between Blacks (about 95% of the population) and Mulattos (about 5%). While Blacks have an overwhelming majority, Mulattos have an historical advantage in business, education and government. Most Mulattos speak French, the language of higher education and most job opportunities, while the vast majority speak Creole. In late 2003 persistent violence and instability created a state of affairs in which the Caribbean Community and others were engaged in a last-ditch mediation effort to assist Haiti's many conflicting parties to reconcile differences and difficulties. CARICOM concluded that if unchecked, the situation would escalate into worsening violence and civil war. But this effort failed. President Aristide abruptly departed office in February 2004 and the UN Security Council authorised immediate deployment of a multinational force to maintain law and order.
Within Haiti, a hurriedly convened Council of Wise Persons appointed Boniface Alexander as interim President and Gerard Latortue as interim Prime Minister. With the approval of the Council, a Cabinet of distinguished professionals was selected. Its members made a public commitment not to accept office in any future elected Government. CARICOM, concerned about establishing a precedent that endorsed unconstitutional removal of an elected government, prevented Haiti, a full member of the Community, from participating in its Councils until such time as electoral democracy was restored.
Much to the annoyance of interim Prime Minister Latortue, formal contacts with the Transitional Government were suspended. During its two-year life, relations between Haiti and CARICOM blew hot and cold. With support from the Canadian Government, CARICOM established a Task Force to coordinate assistance in those areas of CARICOM capacity and within the limits of its resources. Mandated to continue support for the people of Haiti, the Task Force designed several technical cooperation interventions. However, implementation was often stymied by the heat generated by official statements emanating from Port-au-Prince and other Caribbean capitals.
Nonetheless there was mutual recognition that regional expertise could provide support for Haiti's efforts in several areas, particularly in meeting the dictates of Haiti's Constitution that required three[N6] elections in 2006. A CARICOM Elections Support Group was established and composed of six Chief Election Officers. Through its Chairman, this mechanism undertook several technical assessments and submitted reports to Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council, the interim Government, the UN, the OAS and other donors. Given the scale and scope of the international assistance effort, the UN Security Council requested CARICOM's presence as a full participant in the regular meetings led by the World Bank and in which donors were tasked with mobilising financial and other resources and designing the framework for a programme of reconstruction and recovery.
In support of these efforts, CARICOM missions observed elections for Haiti's President in January 2006, Parliamentarians in April and for Local Government and Municipal officials in December. Experts from Trinidad and Tobago's state-owned oil company undertook the first phase of a fuel supply and energy study. Discussions with the University of the West Indies and Haiti's state university focused on regional intra-University cooperation. CARICOM member states and non-governmental organisations responded to flood and hurricane damage with relief and other resources aimed at assisting Haiti's vulnerable population.
First, international partners must accept that sustainability can only be guaranteed when Haitian ownership of the recovery process is established. Providing momentum for reconciliation and recovery requires aid donors to recalculate the value of domestic contributions and investments. The worth of Haitian knowledge, experience, technical and other resources far exceeds that of international financial assistance. For the future then, acknowledgement of this fact demands that external aid takes its proper place as catalyst and auxiliary to, but never the driver, of Haiti's reconciliation, reconstruction and development.
Second, focused attention on improving conditions for a vulnerable population demands that such efforts are built on making respect for human rights real and practical while restoring law and order. In this regard, intensive political action must be directed at forging a public consensus on the anvil of political cohabitation between conflicting interests. Combatants must disarm. A culture of transparency, fairness and justice must be established in state institutions. Economic interventions must be built on coherent plans for the future. Energised commercial activity must result in the creation of jobs and livelihoods. Communities must be vested with responsibility for managing change and maintaining basic social services, functional schools and neighbourhood health centres.
These would be huge tasks for any stable country with functioning institutions and where justice, fair-play and accountability are the norm. For Haiti, the lessons of the past must inform the strategies for the future. Apart from the spectre of deepening violence, there is no better alternative on the table. Simultaneous attention to these challenges seems the only way of navigating the journey to a secure future for all Haitians. Responsibility for managing recovery and development programmes must now be shouldered by Haitians. This is the only practical way to address chronic problems of apathy, hopelessness, theft, corruption, slow disbursement and poor implementation. Rewards must follow achievement. Consequences must follow the failure to perform. Haiti will never develop a culture of political and fiscal accountability if it is always possible to pin blame for poor performance on foreigners, however well intentioned.
The Haitian government knows that despite the complex conditions under which it functions, it must capitalise on its many achievements by hammering out a new political consensus for an achievable vision for the future. All Haitians agree that the time has long past for an end to their long night of instability that has been born out of violence propagated by zero-sum political programmes. Contradictions within and between reconciliation, security, political, economic and social strategies must be urgently resolved so that these policies continuously complement, reinforce, strengthen and support each other.
These are key challenges facing Haiti's eight million citizens, their regional neighbours and their international partners. The return to democratic governance and political cohabitation has highlighted the imperative of reconciliation. Restoring public confidence and preparing for a secure future has emphasised the desperate need for jobs and livelihoods. Popular demand for due process, justice and basic services has set the agenda for building functioning institutions. Hope and expectation must now be moved to a higher plane. Haiti's people have a right to own the programme for their country's recovery; just as Haiti's international partners have a duty to insist that external contributions must be utilised in a transparent and responsible manner. International assistance must promote Haitian ownership where this offers fairness, transparency, accountability, human rights and justice.
Ample opportunities exist for promoting democracy in creative ways that mobilise the knowledge, wisdom and energies of ordinary people, whose help is critical in devising policies, formulating programmes and implementing community and other projects that demonstrate progressive improvements in conditions. During my work in Haiti I've been honoured to listen to views of young people, unemployed men and women, vendors, mechanics, farmers, office workers, taxi-drivers, painters, graduates, sculptors, artisans, business persons, government officials and public servants. Despite the anguish of violence and uncertainty, all these conversations reflect a choice made long ago between hope and despair.
Haitians hope for a breakthrough into a new era of cooperation and productivity. Haitians go about their daily business demonstrating virtues of courtesy when services are provided; tolerance when citizens board dilapidated buses; patience when crowds gather to vote in elections; imagination when artisans repair aged vehicles; creativity when artists compose paintings for sale; hard work when street vendors display and sell fruit, vegetables and other items; thrift when the first lien on income is paying for children's education. These are some of the qualities which must be respected and which are needed to underpin the processes that will transform hope and expectation into sustaining a safe and secure future.