By Dr Lesly Kernisant

January 22, 2015

As troubling as it is for the Prime Minister of Haiti to step down in the interest of peace and reconciliation, it is also comforting to note that the democratic process is being respected and followed as per the prescripts of the country’s constitution. Subliminally, we have been conditioned to expect this display of power every few years by disgruntled legislators casting their vote of “no confidence” as a political gimmick being used in the name of the people. In fact, this “change of the guard “ ritual is routinely performed in most parliamentary governments of the world to pacify the raucous elements of the opposition. With the recent installation of a new cabinet, the raging tides of the troubled waters may subside for a while clearing the way for the politically divisive wounds to begin the slow process of healing.

That being said, this should now clear the way for cooler heads to prevail. Enough of these explosive street outbursts, enough of these paralyzing protests intended to restore democracy. The resignation of the Prime Minister is definitely a clear compromise on the part of the actual government. It shows a true willingness to comply with the Presidential Special Commission’s  recommendations in order to avoid further disruption of the daily routine of the people  whose livelihood is most affected by these spontaneous eruptions. It can also be viewed as a vindication of the people’s call for action. All in all, it is a wake-up call for the rest of the government to take notice of the power of the “Vox populi” when accountability and transparency are being substituted by a form of crony capitalism operating in the dark corridors of unsupervised power. What’s next?  We should now face the brutal facts of the past 5 years since the earthquake. Where did we go wrong? Are all our present failures attributable to what is widely perceived by the opposition as managerial clumsiness of the present government? An objective analysis of the facts should uncover the truth.

First, there is the ghost of our past failures. Faced with the magnitude of such a devastating earthquake 5 years ago with an existing infrastructure too weak for an immediate life-saving intervention, the government was powerless and essentially played a ‘puppet role” in a recovery drama directed by international donors. In the aftermath of the earthquake when Haiti received an outpouring of sympathetic well-wishers with large donation pledges, this environment also created a financial powerhouse in which “he who pays also rules”. Subsequently, close to 7 $billion donation  disbursed was largely managed by foreign agencies and NGOs. On the surface, there appears to have been a lot of rapid action disbursements and life-saving aid packages that include the daily bread for the hungry, the temporary shacks for the displaced, the  emergency care for the wounded. Then, there was the next phase of aid to reconstruct some of the most damaged and non-existent basic infrastructure, including airports, ports, roads, schools, government buildings and hospitals. In other words, the government has been operating as a mere conduit to facilitate what is now widely accepted as the “International donors” list of priorities which are for the most part designed and executed by foreign contractors with a price tag that is usually two to three times that of our local contractors. When we tally the total recovery expenses incurred so far, 35%  of all donations are used for administrative cost to house , feed and compensate our foreign benefactors.  Only 15% of these funds are channeled through the Haitian government for specific projects. The Haitian government has direct access to less than 2% of these disbursements for discretionary use.  As we  painfully reach the 5th anniversary of the earthquake, the recovery is still in the same lingering stage of assessment and planning. So far, we have cleared the rubbles, erected temporary shelters and fed the poor. And yet, we have not created the expected job market economy nor did we improve the economic activities outside of Port-au-Prince as we envisioned 5 years ago. The promise of the post-quake recovery was to rebuild a much better Haiti with all $10 billion in international pledges. Instead,  we continue to use the “business as usual” approach, the same old culture of poverty allowing the world to continue providing us with our daily bread and begging for help to treat our sick. In comparison, other countries struck by similar disasters in the past were able to follow a much quicker path to recovery because they have been able to use their own internal human resources to manage and invest with their country’s priorities in a government-led manner.