As newly-elected President of Haiti Michel Martelly awaits parliamentary endorsement of his first appointed Prime Minister, business executive Daniel-Gerard Rouzier, he may discover, sooner than later, that he needs much more than soothing words of assurance from the international donor nations to keep the power secured at the controversial second-round presidential run-off election in March.
With no certainty at this time of obtaining the support of the National Assembly, controlled by people loyal to former President Rene Preval, for endorsement of Prime Minister-designate Rouzier, President Martelly is naturally anxious for “delivery”, in the meantime, of pledged financial assistance for Haiti’s post-earthquake reconstruction.
The pledges had encouragingly flowed at a United Nations conference in New York on March 31 last year, in the wake of the devastating earthquake of January 12 that killed and injured more than 300 000 Haitians and left more than a million dislocated.
One of Martelly’s top priorities, following his inauguration, was to hop on a plane bound for Washington, where he met with, among others, United States Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and leading officials of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
One media report out of Washington quoted the United States Secretary of State as declaring after her exchanges with Martelly: “We gave him a strong endorsement. We are behind him . . . . We have a great deal of enthusiasm . . . .”
Well, the Secretary of State’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, who is the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for post-earthquake Haiti, is well placed to remind her that unless that “great deal of enthusiasm” is translated into practical forms of pledged aid as soon as possible, it would remain a meaningless gesture even as Haitians are now praying against warnings of likely further disaster during this hurricane season.
Haitians have found that leading donor nations and the international financial institutions are generally long on statements but short on delivery of promised funds.
Late last year the focus was seemingly more on Haiti’s presidential and parliamentary elections than the urgent aid required to ease the extent of widespread human suffering in that poverty-stricken Caribbean nation.
Now Martelly has to hope not only for speedy release of the promised millions for Haiti’s national reconstruction, but that he could secure what does not seem likely to materialise soon – parliament’s endorsement of his Prime Minister-designate, to succeed the incumbent Jean-Max Bellerive, who has been the Prime Minister of former President Preval since November, 2009.
Amid reports out of Port-au-Prince of a low turnout of voters for the second round presidential run-off, contrary to earlier expectations, and widened post-election differences between the parties of Preval and Martelly, there are doubts about Rouzier getting the required votes to succeed Bellerive, from a parliament where Preval’s “Unity Party” holds 49 of the 99 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and controls 17 of the 30 Senate seats.
It appears that Haiti is back on the frustrating path of old politics where, after its latest presidential and parliamentary elections there is the bartering game of who gets the endorsement as Prime Minister. There have been quite a few prime ministerial casualties along the way.
