How ironical that while arrangements have been completed for the start tomorrow of a three-day planning consultation in Jamaica to help disaster-plagued Haiti, outgoing President Rene Preval finds himself at the centre of political protests that further threaten the future of that Caribbean Community state.
Just before the start of the Christmas holidays, an agreement was reached at a December 21 consultation in Port-au-Prince on Capacity-Strengthening Planning for Haiti to deal with the enormous challenges of the devastation from last year’s January 12 earthquake.
The agenda for tomorrow’s consultation is to focus on “implementation strategies” of post-earthquake reconstruction projects already identified for priority action. CARICOM’s Special Envoy on Haiti, former Jamaica Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, and President Preval were leading players at last month’s meeting in Port-au-Prince that took place against continuing tension over the controversial outcome of the November 28 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Representatives of CARICOM governments and the private sector, as well as the Community Secretariat and other regional institutions, are to be involved in the Kingston consultation. Earlier, President Preval had proposed, as we editorialised a week ago, that rather than the creation of a “transitional government” pending the outcome of a second-round presidential poll, his term be extended for a three-month period to avoid having to demit office next month on February 7.
However, by last weekend angry street protests erupted to coincide with Haiti’s 207th independence anniversary from French colonial rule. Some protesters were calling for the “arrest” of President Preval, whose administration they blamed for the disputed election results.
Independent observers, who had participated in monitoring the elections, feel that it is unjust to single out President Preval for blame when other leading actors would have included the Provisional Electoral Council and the security services in place during the conduct of the poll.
A team comprising technicians and legal experts, put in place by the Organisation of American States with involvement of CARICOM, is currently engaged in a process of verifying the results of the elections before a date could be announced for the proposed second-round presidential poll.
President Preval has warned that the spreading controversies over the presidental elections, coupled with the problems from the earthquake and cholera epidemic, had placed Haiti on “a dangerous course” that required sober and urgent responses.
In the prevailing chaotic state of affairs, President Preval’s observation could be viewed as an understatement. Yet, creative efforts must continue, against the odds, for solutions. The three-day focus in Kingston on implementation strategies for post-earthquake national reconstruction is, therefore, to be welcomed.