Phyllis Thomas, News Editor
HAITI'S UPRISING occupied much of the news last week. It has been the focus in Jamaica because of the growing number of boat people seeking refuge here and because of the key role that Jamaica is playing in trying to avert a coup there.
Having taken control of key cities, burning police stations and freeing prisoners, rebels have threatened to take Port-au-Prince, the capital, and arrest President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the man they once revered, but whom they have now turned against, accusing him of murder and of using state resources as repressive weapons against the people.
So rebel leaders, who were once bitter enemies, are now united in their war against Aristide.
In Jamaica, there seems to be general sympathy for the people who have fled Haiti and have landed in Portland. Aid agencies have reported that many have turned up offering all kinds of assistance. But on a broader level it is difficult to spot the pulse of the Jamaican people to Haiti as a country with 32 coups in its history, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, with one of the highest illiteracy rates.
Robert Buddan, Sunday Gleaner columnist and lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies, indicated in his argument in a recent article, that since Haiti had helped to give us liberation from slavery, CARICOM must help Haiti to secure its democracy.
On the other hand, Chairman and Managing Director of the Gleaner Company, Oliver Clarke, addressing the annual dinner and awards presentation of the Guyana Manufacturers' Association (GMA), in Guyana, has said that CARICOM should reconsider the inclusion of Haiti in CARICOM.
Implicit in his argument is that because Haiti has nothing economically to contribute to CARICOM, it is therefore an economic burden which should be dropped.
Where Mr. Buddan's argument is concerned, I believe that any systematic attempt at trying to help Haiti secure its democracy, remarkable though that may be, would be a formidable task though not a write-off. But history records that in 200 years Haiti has not been able to do it.
Along the lines of the other suggestion, our partners in CARICOM whose economies are performing much better than ours could very well take a similar position about us regarding our membership in CARICOM, given the state of our economy, our inability to attract investment and stem the crime wave.
In fact, there are a lot of similarities between Jamaica and Haiti, their penchant for bloody revolt apart. Some of these similarities are set out below:
There is a relationship between politicians and thugs in both countries.Both are church-mouse-poor, Haiti just a nose in front of Jamaica. There is high unemployment Haiti 70 per cent of its workforce. In Jamaica, of a labour force or 1.1 million at the end of October 2002, 21.1 per cent females and 10.7 males were unemployed. The Haitian society is fractious; Jamaica is polarised by politics. Haiti numerous and bloody insurgencies; Jamaica numerous and bloody unrests.I believe that while Aristide's predicament is self-inflicted with fraudulent election and his failure to deliver on promises made to his people when he was first elected, if he is overthrown, CARICOM should suspend Haiti from the grouping.
A similar treatment to that given by the Commonwealth to Zimbabwe. And just as how work is being done to make Zimbabwe eligible for re-entry into the Commonwealth of nations, efforts are to be made, Herculean though they will be, to steer Haiti to democracy and back to CARICOM.
In the context of what is playing out in Haiti and the implications for its future, is there any reason why we should be worried in Jamaica? We certainly need to follow and study the events there very carefully so that we avoid the mistakes that they continue to make.
And with all that is happening, their reported casualties have not reached Jamaica's murder figures. So far, just over 70 persons have been killed, it is reported.
In Jamaica, more than 160 persons have been murdered since the start of the year in only two months, and we are not in any civil war.
Comments? e-mail me at phyllis.thomas@gleanerjm.com
