During my short lifetime, I have lived under a dictatorship, and witnessed it demise. I have seen six coup d’état, numerous provisional governments, two foreign occupations under the direction of United Nations, an invasion of US forces on our soil, the kidnapping of a democratically elected president, and a few rigged elections.
Chaos and instability are all too common, and regrettably the only inheritance that my generation has received from the previous ones. At one point during our strive for democracy, it was fashionable to burn alive those who had done wrong to the society or abused their power. It was also common practices for the military to terrorize its own people. Scores of innocent Haitians have lost their lives because they did not want to live an eternal hopelessness, and have questioned the failure of their government.
Haiti has had worst days, and certainly what we have witnessed more recently is nothing new and sadly will not end anytime soon. It seems like Haiti was made for chaos. Every fiber of the society is aligned for disagreement, division, hatred, and pure egoism. The only time the country ever had a semblance of a working society, the people were deeply oppressed and would disappear in an instant if there was any suspicion that they were bad-mouthing the government. That was during the Duvalier regimes, which did more ill to our psyche and development than any expert could have ever recognized.
It is clear what we are witnessing is a well-coordinated game plan from all involved, the Haitian government, the leading candidates and the international community. The end result will be nothing short than a continuation of the status quo.
Some people are talking about a civil war or even a revolution, and I am here telling you those are the farthest things that will happen in Haiti, as presently constituted. It is true that conditions on the ground would support a revolution by the mass or a civil war between the different opposing fractions, but again the reality is telling us something different. Everything is being orchestrated and all players are in tune with the movement of the conductor.
Elections were fraudulent because this is what the power brokers wanted. The mixed messages that have been published since the electoral council published their results are nothing more than part of the musical notes. It is evident that the haves-not will continue to suffer and be marginalized all in the name of a pseudo-democracy.
I was not surprised to see a few people took the streets of the capital, and other major cities after the results were announced. Regardless of whom were in the top two, the country would have been lit up by burning tires the day after. Partisanship runs deep in Haiti, and the concept of losing with grace is alien to most. We have a society that lives for disorder.
There was nothing spontaneous about the chaos that we saw took place in Haiti, many of the leaders of the demonstrations are paid agents. Granted, some of the people who were on the streets were probably deeply frustrated and furious at the system in place, but for the most part the leaders of those demonstrations are simply doing a job. We all should know what a mass uprising would look like, especially if a deprived people were to really rise up and demand change. So far, the majority of Haitians have opted to stay home rather than risking their lives for selfish and visionless leaders. The possibility of a revolt or mass uprising is still great, but the power brokers have become experts in the population’s tendency that they know exactly how to tame us.
The people who like to cause problem or chaos are too predictable, and one can tell that they are not really after permanent fix for the benefit of the country. How is possible that people were able to express their anger for a couple of days and without any solution just stop their demonstrations? Who really has the power to calm down a population that is seeking amelioration to their living conditions and respect of their constitutional rights?
It was never about getting the elections right, it was never that the majority of people believed in Michel Martelly, and it was never about taking a stand against an incompetent government. For the most part, what we saw on the streets of major cities in Haiti last week was all too familiar to what Haiti has been going through in the past two decades: A group of people who know exactly how to manipulate a few in the population that would do anything just to get paid.
The orchestra is playing a nice symphony and for a moment almost got everyone to believe this is a new composition, in reality they are playing a symphony that was written a long time ago and all they’re doing is simply interpreting it. The Haitian people alone can start a revolution, and when that day comes it will not be to ask for spineless leaders, but to change the course of Haitian history. We are on the roads for change, but playing us for fool with fake elections and fake candidates is no way to make us believe that we are closer to our goal.
The Haitian people will one day rise up and flood the country with their will for change and when that day comes, there will be no pretext or misconception that the day of the deliverance has come. Until then, let the orchestra plays its last symphony.