Carving Out A Real Role For Caricom In Haiti

By SUNITY MAHARAJ
 
Sadly but predictably, Caricom’s response to the Haitian earthquake disaster was comprehensively bungled. But we’re in good company. Global sophisticates in the art of emergency diplomacy are daily showing that they are no less gifted at tragic-comedy. In the end, the real rescue mission has been mounted by the people of Haitian themselves.
Long accustomed to a world out-of-step with their interests, needs and values, Haitians did what Haitians have been doing for centuries: they picked themselves up, surveyed the damage, wept, prayed, gathered their resources and soldiered on. To lighten their loads, they beat their drums and sang their songs of poetry and prayer. And with much of the international security forces trapped behind barricades of boulders, Haitians invoked their tribal codes of honour and established a workable form of order: Communal justice for thieves; communal sharing of means.
The Haitian culture and attitude to life have not been lost on the world’s media. Overnight, it seems, the close-up encounter has transformed the “poorest country in the hemisphere” into the “most resilient people” in the hemisphere.  In the face of daily miracles of body, mind and soul, the world is beginning to sense that there is much about Haiti that just does not fit the stereotype; that the real story might not be about why Haiti is such a basket case, but about how, despite being such a basket case, it succeeds in surviving and enduring and giving itself the chance of living to fight another day.  Haitians may be poor, but as the world is discovering, they are far from impotent.  Which, as improbable as it may seem, helps to define the critical role that Caricom must play in the reconstruction of Haiti..
Already relegated to observer status in Haiti, Caricom can choose either to throw a few dollars at the Haitian disaster and return to business as usual or rise to the responsibility of  representing a member in a time of great human need and geo-political risk. What muscle it can flex should be brought to bear on the side of the sovereignty of the Haitian people and their government as they face the task of reconstructing their country along the lines of a more viable republic.
For too long, international aid has substituted for governance in Haiti in ways that satisfy the needs of both foreign donors and Haitian governors. In the process, Haiti has become everybody’s favourite charity in an insidious arrangement that persistently undermines the country’s ability to develop indigenous capabilities and infrastructure required for moving forward on its own steam. Well-meaning NGOs and churches proliferate throughout the country, operating outside -and often  even working against- any coherent national framework for development.
 What the January 12 earthquake has done is to escalate this reality to its illogical extreme. Haiti has been reduced to being a country without sovereignty; where the entire world and its sister can descend at will and assume duty and responsibility without consultation with any agency of Haitian authority.
Whatever else may be said of Rene Preval, he is the duly elected leader of Haiti and Caricom has to raise its voice in support of the urgent reconstitution of the Haitian government as a pre-condition for developing the architecture for national reconstruction towards a more viable and democratic Republic of Haiti.

Caricom’s message to the UN, the US, France and others should be unambiguous: In addition to the humanitarian effort, high priority should be given to getting the Haitian government up and running to look after the business of the Haitian people. On no account should Caricom take its  cue from anyone else, including the UN.
For too long, governments in Haiti have been allowed to surrender the responsibility of governing to all and sundry. The result is a well-meaning but incoherent hodge-podge of development initiatives, many of them working against each other and very few of which fit into anything resembling national policy.
For a people accustomed to taking up their beds and walking  and whose lives  are largely alienated and insulated from central government, the road to effective representation might seem elusive. But the very elements of communal succour and self-sufficiency that Haitians have evolved over the years as protection against abuses from the Port-au-Prince Palais may actually offer a template for decentralized government on which democratic representation could be anchored.
Strategic reconstruction as opposed to mere re-building may now be possible in post-earthquake Haiti . Deployment of resources in a more decentralized manner will do more than just ease congestion in the capital; it will resource outlying communities and strengthen the connections between government and the people. 
As Haiti’s partner in the reconstruction effort, Caricom must lobby for domestic input quotas to ensure that reconstruction does not become a trough for contractors from donor countries. The money being brought into Haiti must be encouraged to stay in Haiti as an economic stimulus to kick start its long-stalled economy. There should also be quota commitments regarding the use of Haitian labour and operational agreements for transfer of technology.
If Caricom could help bolster Haiti’s shell-shocked government into taking charge and setting parameters for engagement with the rest of the world, it would have achieved far more than money could buy.