Haiti: Ezili Dantò on the election of Michel Martelly

Question to Ezili Dantò of HLLN:

From: RL
[ezilidanto] Carnival Musician Michel Martelly Elected President of Haiti
To: erzilidanto@yahoo.com
Date: Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 12:04 PM

Hi Danto, its been a while since i ask question or even reply to any of your comments in here. I notice you spent years fighting for the return of President Aristide now the X-president is back he seems very quiet since his return was there any plan for him to power to power, and how do you feel with the outcome of the presidential result, what do think did the people make the right choice ?

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Ezili Dantò’s Answer:

To RL:
April 5, 2011 1:19 PM

President Aristide, as far as we know, wishes to work in education and Martelly has yet to take office, so we shall see.

For years we Haitians at HLLN have been struggling to vindicate the bicentennial insult and assault by the former slaveholders on Haiti in 2004 and have insisted that these powers show respect for the value of Haitian life and vote.

Yes, the return has ease the insult but not the assault. Justice has yet to be done and the lives destroyed valued.

Back around 1915, before the first US-long term occupation in Haiti (19-years), a similar deportation was accomplished to stop Dr. Rosalvo Bobo, then head of the Caco rebels and the people’s most likely choice from taking office. Dr. Bobo was deported and never returned from exile.

After the 1957 Duvalier ascendancy, Daniel Fignole, another much loved Haitian leader, was also sent to exile by the Oligarchy and former slave-holding Western countries we face today and never returned, except to die late in his life around 1986.

The return of Aristide, at a fairly young age, is a success not seen for a defenseless country and peoples, ravaged by the elite’s rabid rage.

We hope president Aristide a long and productive life in the field of education and his family well. We hope he continues his work with the poor in health and education.

As for Martelly;
Haiti is a lawless country. Rendered lawless, despite every effort of Haitian lawyers like the HLLN and I, by powerful US and Western forces, by the lawless NGOs and the Haiti Oligarchy. Martelly is lawless and recognizes no establishment. ("First thing, after I establish my power, which would be very strong and necessary, I would close congress...Out of my way... For the first year he would outlaw all strikes and demonstrations." http://bit.ly/hHHkHV.)

For what it was, his election, even though only 22% of the electorate were able to vote, but for what it was, he WON that election squarely. Not enough cared about 70- year old, out-of-touch, Manigat and this vote was the REJECTION of the current political class in office since 2004 and all its “technocrats.” It was a REJECTION vote for Preval and his INITE party and it was a rejection of politics that’s never garnered change for those most in need - basically for most of those who voted for Martelly in Haiti.

In the parliamentary results, you also see very clearly the rejection of the current US/UN parliamentary puppets.

As human rights advocates and lawyers, we are heartened that no one died yesterday after the announcement because the people’s vote was acknowledged. Now, let’s see what the US just bought itself!!!

Martelly is untamed. Perhaps that will work to bring some real schooling, health care, national production and counter the international predators, end the occupation, void the power of Bill Clinton/Paul Farmer’s UN and its un-elected HIRC. That is our best hope for the situation. We wish the people of Haiti to have less dependency, more dignity and to get rid of the UN, who now has what mission? So, it could be a brand new time and change could come, if Martelly pays attention to those who went out and voted for him.

Martelly knows the Haiti Oligarchy, knows their voracious greed, he knows himself in their circle – that gives him an advantage that those other past recent president, who were too schooled-trained tolerant, more structured and diplomatically concerned with self-image perhaps, did not have. Perhaps he can elevate the standard of living of the people, nix the dependency and the NGOs, bring Haitians back at the center of Haiti life and heart. On the other hand, Martelly is pals with the former bloody military and drug dealers like Michel Francois as well as death squad enforcers for the US like FRAPH’s Louis Jodel Chamblain and US-Special forces-trained, Guy Phillip.

This makes him even scarier. As far as we’re concerned at HLLN, Haiti is lawless, US is lawless in Haiti, and Martelly is lawless. Perhaps that’s what’s needed for a change to happen. Decent folks get beaten too easily. Logic hasn’t worked. Decency hasn’t work. Maybe indecent will. For, it may not be that easy to beat untamed Martelly and his crew. So we shall wish for the best for the disenfranchised and just continue our work.

Be well,

Ezili Dantò of HLLN
Se fè ki koupe fè

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Forwarded by Ezili’s Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network ("HLLN")
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BACKGROUND
recommended HLLN Links:

The African Trickster by Ezili Dantò
http://bit.ly/ctrTf6

Erasing Haitians, New York Times style
http://bit.ly/gK2AhY

US Embassy on Arrival in Haiti of US troops to Haiti
http://1.usa.gov/hSJ0j7

************BACKGROUND POST*********************

- Carnival Musician Michel Martelly Elected President of Haiti By Ingrid Arnesen | Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2011 | http://on.wsj.com/eqwRvf

- Former musician Michel ‘Sweet Micky’ wins Haiti presidential runoff By Jacqueline Charles | Miami Herald, April 4, 2011 | http://bit.ly/guNLEN

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Carnival Musician Michel Martelly Elected President of Haiti
By Ingrid Arnesen | Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2011 | http://on.wsj.com/eqwRvf

Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly, once known as the “President of Kompa” — Haitian carnival music – has been elected President of Haiti in a landslide

Mr. Martelly, a shaven-headed 50-year performer, known for his ribald lyrics and outrageous performances won 67.5% of the vote against Mirlande Manigat, a 70-year former first lady and law professor, who styled herself the “mother” of the country during the election.

The streets of this devastated capital erupted in cheers and honking horns when the results were announced late Monday. But it’s not official yet. Mrs. Manigat may choose to legally challenge the results, which won’t be official-official until they’ve withstood any potential legal challenge. A final winner will be announced later this month.

Before entering politics, Mr. Martelly, who just recently decided to run for president, was known for his outré performances which included cross-dressing on stage, wearing diapers, and dropping his pants to moon the audience. But it was all an act, Mr. Martelly, a father of four, says now.

If history is any guide, being president of Haiti will probably be the toughest role in Mr. Martelly’s life. In modern Haitian history the only president to complete a term was Rene Preval, Mr. Martelly’s predecessor, who twice accomplished the feat. Most others have been deposed by military coups.

During his campaign, Mr. Martelly was supported by his good friend, famed Haitian American hip-hop superstar Wyclef Jean. Mr. Jean had hopes of running for president, but he was disqualified when the electoral commission ruled that he didn’t meet residency requirements.

Mr. Martelly is a virgin when it comes to government. Acknowledging his lack of experience, he has vowed to bring experienced hands on board to run the Haitian ship of state. The preliminary president elect moved to Miami soon after graduating from high school in Port au Prince to pursue his singing career, but returned to Haiti after some false starts.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, a time when Haiti was marked by military coups, Mr. Martelly ran a nightclub known as The Garage, and palled around with soldiers and police, some of whom have been accused of human rights violations. But Mr. Martelly, who has been criticized for his friendships with members of the military regime, has not been accused of human rights violations.

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http://bit.ly/guNLEN

The Miami Herald
Posted on Mon, Apr. 04, 2011
Former musician Michel ‘Sweet Micky’ wins Haiti presidential runoff

By Jacqueline Charles

A controversial carnival singer who reinvented himself into a polished political outsider is poised to become Haiti’s next president, according to preliminary election results announced Monday.

Michel “Sweet Micky’’ Martelly garnered 67 percent of the vote to 31 percent for longtime opposition leader and former first lady Mirlande Manigat, the Provisional Electoral Council said.

The announcement was greeted with fireworks as fans spontaneously paraded in the streets carrying Martelly’s pink posters and beeping car horns.

Supporters ran in front of elections headquarters singing, “Martelly, the country is for you. Do what you like with it.’’

Others sang “Tet Kale,” the bald-headed one, Martelly’s moniker during the campaign.

“The country is sweet, now. Change is coming,’’ said Louis Viccues, 42, who works at a dry cleaner. “Nothing is worse than to be living in a country and working, and you cannot eat.’’

But while Martelly, 50, won with a 2-1 margin, the results will likely be challenged by Manigat, 70, before they are certified.

After The Miami Herald first reported the results Monday, Manigat’s campaign sent a letter to the justice minister accusing Electoral Council President Gaillot Dorsinvil of influencing the results during a late Sunday night visit to the vote tabulation center.

Even with the challenge, Haiti’s streets remained free of violence that the international community had feared if Martelly had lost. Although there had been a perception for weeks that Martelly had won, his campaign was unsure of the outcome even as advisors put him through governance tutorial courses and met to map out the transition.

The news of Martelly’s win was met with cheers and disbelief by Haitians here and abroad who both embraced and rejected his presidential bid, a well-financed modern campaign complete with foreign consultants and live Twitter and Internet feeds.

For some, the victory is a “rupture’’ with the last 25 years that have governed Haiti after the fall of the 29-year Duvalier family dictatorship. Others see more of the same as a political novice leads a nation struggling to dig out from the devastation of the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake, deal with a deadly cholera epidemic and drastically improve conditions for the country’s 10 million citizens.

“While Martelly is indeed a new leader, the structure of economic power remains the same and the old problems have not disappeared. In fact, the key players of yesterday have not vanished’’ said Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia who has been following the elections since last year. “Despite his dramatic eruption, Martelly may well be a case of ‘old wine in a new bottle,’ but time will tell.’’

Still, Martelly’s ride from dark horse to the broken national palace is viewed as a vote against outgoing President René Préval, and the country’s traditional political class that have failed to provide economic and social progress over the past 25 years. The lack of progress in improving the population’s condition after the earthquake only intensified the anti-Préval and anti-status quo feeling among voters.

“Voters simply wanted someone who captured the idea of ‘change’ and Martelly, the persona and the candidate, embodied that mood,’’ Fatton said.

But Haiti observers say the fact that most of the country’s 4.3 million voters sat out the elections cannot be discounted. Nor can the fraud that lawyers inside the vote tabulation center found over the past 14 days as they scrutinized more than 25,000 presidential tally sheets.

The preliminary results were transmitted at 8 a.m. Monday to the executive director of the Provisional Electoral Council, whose members triggered momentary panic Sunday evening when they unexpectedly showed up at the vote tabulation center where tally sheets were undergoing a final scrutiny for fraud.

The second round of elections for the presidential and legislative races was better organized than the first round. But like the chaotic Nov. 28 first round, the runoffs were also marred by fraud and irregular voting.

During the March 20 runoff, voters not only stuffed ballots but they included fraudulent voter identification numbers, which were detected by elections workers who included 16 attorneys trained in new criteria set up by the Organization of American States, according to sources.

“He was the beneficiary of the turmoil and all of the attention that the flaw of the first round generated,’’ said Eduardo Gamarra, a political analyst on Latin American politics and adviser to Dominican President Leonel Fernandez.. “The irony is all of these reports of fraud are what pushed him into the second round.’’

With the lack of control in parliament, a boycott of the elections by several parties and the presence of former presidents including Préval, former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc’’ Duvalier and now Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Martelly could find “ruling Haiti even more complicated,’’ Gamarra said.

“You have a government with probably not a very long honeymoon that is going to have credibility with other political groups there and the international community may begin to look at with some suspicions because of the origins of its mandate,’’ Gamarra said

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