St. Maart: Elegy for Haiti

Surprisingly, there is not much mention of Haiti in many online newspapers in the Caribbean. With the exception of a few countries, Haiti's crisis just doesn't exist. St. Maarten is one of the few which has taken note.

When a military coup ended the reign of democratically elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide a decade ago, a UN force led by the Americans went in to restore democracy and bring him back to power. They did and it seemed the Caribbean nation would be headed for better times.

That did not turn out to be the case, however. First of all, there were widespread accusations of vote-rigging in favour of Aristide during elections. He also did not sit well with the business establishment in the country, which believed he was concentrating too much on increasing taxes to help combat poverty and not enough on facilitating economic growth. As the opposition against Aristide grew, it became clear he would not survive without outside help. That help did not come, at least not quickly enough for him, because it was generally believed that by now he lacked enough popular support to stay in power and needed to step down, which he did.

His departure has not solved the problem, however. The rebel forces that drove him out hardly present a viable alternative. Handing power to them would be going from bad to worse. What needs to be done is to stabilize the situation, disarm the country and start a political process that should ultimately lead to the reinstatement of democratic rule. Some say the foreign forces departed too soon the last time, leaving a government without an army and lacking the necessary backing to survive. Hopefully that mistake will not be made again. Haiti deserves better.