The
victory by Rene Préval in Haiti’s presidential
elections poses challenges for the member countries
of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM).
After
the former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide accused
the United States of orchestrating his removal and
forcing him into exile in February 2004, CARICOM,
as a group, declined to recognise the interim government
of Mr. Gerard Latortue.
It
was well known that the regional grouping was divided
on how to treat with Haiti. In the end, the view prevailed
that the Latortue regime would not be recognised and
Haiti would not be allowed access to the councils
of CARICOM.
Preval’s
election victory changes all that and CARICOM Secretary-General
Edwin Carrington is reported to have said: “We
are ready to receive Haiti back into the institutions
of the Caribbean Community." But, he added, “We
will now sit with Haiti to discuss the conditions
of its re-entry into CARICOM."
Importantly,
Mr Carrington drew attention to the Revised Treaty
of Chaguaramas which includes provisions for the Caribbean
Single Market (CSM) to which Haiti is not a signatory.
He
said: “"We now have to sit with Haiti on
this and other issues, including how are they prepared
to come on board with the Revised Treaty and what
is the process of acceding to the various elements
of the Single Market."
It
is Haiti’s accession to the CSM that poses the
greatest challenge to CARICOM. Haiti with a population
of 8.3 million is the poorest country in the Hemisphere.
Its people are 3 million more than the rest of CARICOM
combined.
Both
its economic and political conditions have caused
many of its people to flee from its shores in search
of a better life.
While
the United States has been the main target of their
refuge, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas have
also experienced the illegal entry of Haitians into
their countries. Recently, groups of Haitian refugees
have turned up in Jamaica, Antigua and Dominica.
The
election of Mr Préval, by just over 51% of
the population, does not speak to a united country.
Haiti continues to live on a political powder keg.
And, the political manipulation of its desperate economic
circumstances is the match that could ignite it any
time.
In
any event, Haiti is a far way from the establishment
of democratic institutions, and even farther away
from the kind of widespread respect for them that
would underpin their maintenance.
Consequently,
CARICOM’s first duty of care to a member of
its community is to welcome back into its fold the
constitutionally elected government of Rene Préval
in elections which have been endorsed by the Organisation
of American States.
Having
done so, CARICOM should take the lead in the international
community in raising the financial and other help
that Haiti urgently needs if the unwelcome flight
of its people to other countries is to stop.
This
will call for a serious diplomatic effort, and may
well require the creation of a special CARICOM Task
Force devoted to working with the Haitian government
and international donor and financial community for
at least two years to create the machinery for financing
and managing projects in Haiti.
Among
these should be health care, particularly HIV/AIDS,
education and human resource development, infrastructural
projects that would encourage foreign and local private
sector investment, and, very importantly, the building
of democratic institutions supported by legislation
and enforcement machinery.
In
this regard, CARICOM might enlist the help of Canada
in a joint effort to engage the US government at the
earliest opportunity in the peaceful and progressive
development of Haiti.
Reports
from the Dominican Republic, Haiti’s neighbour,
reveal that some 800 US troops landed at a port city
in the Dominican Republic, barely 80 miles from the
Haitian border, last Thursday. Ostensibly, they are
there for “New Horizons”, a military exercise
that is to extend for several months.
Nonetheless,
the US government has congratulated Mr Préval
on his election and State Department spokesman, Tom
Casey, said “We look forward to working with
the new government to help the Haitian people build
a better future for themselves."
CARICOM
should take the US government at its word, and act
as an honest broker to unlock aid for Haiti that has
already been approved from the US and other countries
and agencies, and to develop a programme for additional
aid.
Neither
democracy nor development, including the flight of
Haitians seeking refuge, will come unless generous
assistance is forthcoming.
And,
CARICOM countries, however, determined they may be,
as they have said, “to end years of isolation
and bring Haiti into the Caribbean family to which
it belongs by geography, history and common ancestry”,
should require considerable advancement by Haiti in
its economic and political conditions before it is
encouraged to join the Caribbean Single Market.
After
all the Single Market goes well beyond a free trade
arrangement between groups of countries; it is a deep
form of integration that makes a single space of all
the countries’ markets and allows for the free
movement of goods and services, the right of establishment
by nationals of the participating countries and free
movement of certain categories of workers.
The
countries that enter such a Single Market, while conscious
of the importance of “geography, history and
ancestry”, must also be alert to the need to
fulfill other obligations such as the provision of
funding under the Regional Development Fund (RDF)
for disadvantaged countries and sectors where Haiti
would be amongst the neediest.
Also,
it may be an opportune time for CARICOM countries
to revisit the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to create
principles of democracy, rights, and obligations to
which every member state must adhere as a basis for
entry, and for continued membership. All CARICOM members,
including Haiti, should sign it as a precondition
for entering the CSM or remaining a member.
CARICOM
countries must do all they can to improve conditions
for Haiti as a member of the Caribbean community.
And, Haiti must also play its part.
Sir
Ronald Sanders
is a business executive and former Caribbean
diplomat who publishes widely on Small States in the
global community. (ronaldsanders29@hotmail.com) Petroleumworld
not necessarily share these views.
