A House Divided Cannot Stand
I don’t
remember exactly where this is found in the bible, but I am sure that there is
such a concept in the new testament, that, a house divided within itself cannot
stand. The Haitian forefathers held a noble view – Union is equal power. It
has been over 200 years now since Haiti claimed its sovereignty by the violent
liberation of the slaves from their French Captors. Toussaint Louverture, the
architect of the revolution, envisioned a nation of unity under the greater
French imperialism. It did not work. The French desired continued slavery of
the Negro beings.
Jean Jacques
Dessalines accomplished the Independence by eliminating all bonds with France.
Together, he and his colleagues declared unity under the flag of liberty. They
swore to live freely or die. Unfortunately, right in the days following the
Independence, the concept of unity disintegrated. The nation became divided:
white, mulatto, black, and whatever. And, the fight continued with special
interest groups of black and mulatto, supported by white, (American, French,
Germain, and whichever).
The Division Goes On
Today is the
21st Century, 210 years after the Independence. It is unfortunate
what is going on in Haiti. The world has moved a long stride from 1804 to 2014:
Complete liberation of the mankind from institutionalized slavery, Universal
human suffrage, Substantial exploration in space, Great advances in science and
technology, and the globalization of our society into generally a
one-world-market. In Haiti, the division persists, and the nation is moving
backward.
From the
fall of the Tonton Makouts to the rise of the Lavalas Regime, neo Haitian
generations have experienced the enormity of the division that was suppressed
by the rods of the Tonton Makouts. Throughout the Lavalas era, it was a
continual fight between the two extremes, supporting generally by the merchants
on one side and poor militants on the other. In 2010, a new form of government
came to life. They say that the Tonton Makout has made his comeback. A level of
division started like has never seen before.
Duvalier,
Baby Doc, the present symbol of the Tonton Makout is back in the country.
Aristide, the father of Lavalas is also back. The tension is high. People are
calling for the arrest and prosecution of Duvalier. Likewise, people are
calling the same for Aristide. Both sides have their pros and cons. It is
therefore an extremely politicized and polarized environment. No side wants to
accept defeat and no effort to bring about unity.
What do you
think then? A loser nation.
The Nation Is The Ultimate Loser
Since the
beginning, it was like that. The nation loses. Toussaint is betrayed;
Dessalines is murdered; Christophe is pressured to suicide; Petion is pushed
into his deathbed. It has always been the Division. They are taking sides. They
are killing each other. The motto, union equals power has been crushed.
The Haitian remains weak; and, in weakness there could only be defeat.
The Haitian ancestors
traced the way for the freedom of mankind from slavery by the genuine
leadership of Toussaint Louverty. The
greater world was looking upon the Haitian nation to continue this leadership
into society at large. However, a nation divided can never succeed. The Negro
race has suffered as it witnessed the Haitian nation degraded to the lowest
level. Haiti has been declared a “Failed State”. And you have the United
Nations over there, maintaining order, and trying to establish some stability.
The Stability Is Not Coming
What is the
role of the United Nations? They say they are there basically to maintain order
and create stability. We do not see that in the near future. (1) The
organization has not been doing much of nation building. (2) The Haitians
themselves have not been much receptive.
Critics have
maintained that the United Nations should focus more on nation building. We
have not seen much of that. The international community has maintained its low
momentum of infrastructure developments in the form of roads, food
distributions, and health. Other than that, not much. They are not undertaking
any major campaign to further the development of the nation. They blame it on
the Haitians themselves. When Bill Clinton was sent as a goodwill ambassador in
Haiti, he noted that his greatest worry was to find human resources in the
deprived country. This reverberated greatly some years later with his principal
project in the northern part of the country. Critics have considered it a
botched job.
This brings
us to the second point. The Haitians themselves have not been much receptive.
How could they be? Haiti is a divided house. A divided house cannot be a progressive
home environment. It is not without reason that Clinton could not find Human
resources in Haiti. It is not without reason that Haitian leaderships cannot
build adequate programs to work along the United Nations.
Stop The Fight
A word of advice
for the Haitian people – Stop The Fight. It is unfortunate that the nation has
suffered so much misery that the people consider themselves fallible and not
able to master their dignity. It should not be so. If the fight stops, the
nation would prosper. If you don’t want to believe it, take for example the
Dominican Republic, or Jamaica. They have been moving ahead since they have
been able to contain their internal strifes. Haiti could do the same, starting
with the current government.
I would like to see this government
starts by giving up the prosecution of both Aristide and Duvalier. What would the nation gain from those
prosecutions other than greater division and more misery? The incarceration of
one of these individuals, particularly Aristide, would lead to a state of
instability that I don’t think even MINUSTAH could contain. Instead of winning
from such an action, not only that the nation would see greater misery, but
Martelly himself would come to a point that, the international community may
even require his departure. That is so bad I imagine the instability could be. The
nation does not need that.
Martelly should
instead encourage Duvalier and Aristide to invest and to seek investments for
the development of the country. Does not that sound nicer, smoother, and safer? Isn’t that what the nation wants, to
leave behind the bullish misery and to prosper? Why encourage fighting and
division, then? Why not go for development and prosperity?
I challenge
any Haitian, anybody reading this blog, who is interested in the prosperity of the Haitian nation, to join the movement - A Call To Unity In Haiti - by Join this conversation on this blog
or facebook or twitter @ecgranmoun.
By E.C. GRANMOUN
E.C. Granmoun is the author of "Bully: A Novel" ebook on amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Bully-Novel-E-C-Granmoun-ebook/dp/B00HNEOA16
