We do not teach anyone anything by saying that the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, on July 7, 2021, was the epilogue of a long prosecution against him by well-known personalities, media, groups, and groupings that, from the beginning, knew the consequences of their relentlessness, first for the country.
By reading this article, you can easily identify them in your head; their violent rhetoric against the President will have marked the spirits and the time. Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been the subject of the same hatred, from the same people, or almost, but in 2003 there were not yet social networks and the large scope they can give to hatred and stupidity.
Jovenel Moïse, just like Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was rejected from the outset by a certain political and social class that perceives itself as absolute rightful owners, that claims to be of a certain left-wing _ even if it does not know what it is _ which carries as a banner more populist than popular biases and dedicates a merciless hatred to the peasants, children of the people who would get too close to the spheres of power, with their bad manners, their lack of knowledge and rudiments of the old French culture.
Michel Martelly, Jovenel Moïse’s predecessor, was certainly hated by this same class of people, but it never went so far in rejecting him because they could easily identify which families he came from, which schools he had attended, who his friends were and because they were part of the people who went to his concerts and dances.
Let it be clear, we do not judge in this article the administration of Jovenel Moïse, the good or bad decisions it may have taken, we try to figure out what caused such a fierce hatred towards him and his death sentence, without appeal.
We read here and there on social networks _ Ah the famous social networks! _ after the death of President Moïse, small attempts at reconciliation of the people who realized, after the fact, that they had been manipulated, that they had been part of the crowd, which without knowing it, without wanting it, as Victor Hugo says, « the crowd that betrays the people ». One testimony had particularly attracted our attention, that of a gentleman who recalled the famous call to « Unfollow Jovenel Moïse » launched by the muses of Petrocaribe, prosecutors of their status, to which he had responded without questioning its necessity and its merits.
There are many who have also realized afterwards that the famous « peyi lok », “locked down country”, had strangled our economy, harmed the poorest.
The most virulent against Jovenel Moïse, with a simple click, could block the country, threaten the lives and property with all fury, supported by powerful media, they had open mikes at 4 o’clock, in a long, mediocre and oriented show, in the morning programs where the hosts are more activists than journalists, on Saturdays, to pick up everything that could be » ramassé » “picked up”, and put it on the back of Jovenel Moïse. An author, with a narcissistic wound in putrefaction, as for him, every week, in the columns of an old daily newspaper, mixed self-promotion, display of knowledge, hatred, well-distilled calls for murder; prosecutors were systematically invited to the table of the France ambassador in Haiti and they did not hesitate to post photos. The ambassador dreamed, no doubt, as in 2004, of unloading Jovenel Moïse, and including this fact in his record as a jaded and unremarkable ambassador.
Some of the prosecutors became influencers by posting, on Twitter in particular, messages in which indecency and nonsense challenged him to clumsiness, syntax errors, even in Creole. Although journalists in some cases, they flattered in an unveiled way, those who planned the assassination, frolicking with them, directly questioning the President in their messages on the networks, bringing grist to the mill of those who let go by destroying the character of the President and his wife, vilifying the representatives of the government or anyone who called for moderation. Without any ethics they would have killed and had killed for 2 more subscribers to their account, they were trying to be ironic « ou pap dirije anyen… » “you don’t control anything”, as if the power consisted in controlling the agitators of the web, as if it was not the primary concern of every citizen that the President of a country, of his own country, was so put in difficulty by people who had nothing to do with the country, who made indecent appeals to the international to give them power. A journalist of Haitian origin, working for a major daily newspaper in Miami, let herself go by displaying her preference for those who called for a clean slate in her own country, without any concern for ethics.
It seems that many couples have formed thanks to this movement of « grand faire voir » “great to see”, which has opened a lot of doors to aspiring artists, actors, comedians. It is « en riant » “by laughing” that glory comes, but deception will never be more than deception! It is on what remained of jovenel Moïse’s bones, after being tortured, that children were born and are born who may never know what they owe to his killing.
One year after the assassination of Jovenel Moïse, the amazement remains. Many of the prosecutors have left the country. The TPS was there to rescue them and the apps that allow remote meetings give them the opportunity to continue to live off the country’s woes. The cause of women, the very ones who were victims of the « peyi lok », the economy, the very one they tore apart with their bare hands and in all conscience. Imitating Alexandria Occasion Cortez’s dress will never mean looking like her, let alone carrying a cause with as much nobility and sincerity as she does.
Many stayed. They make themselves small. Others weren’t very bad, they just wanted to take advantage of the big din to earn something, « followers » on social media, that can be useful, a position they ended up getting. Some had dared only a good word, for example calling the president « Jovenul » or commenting abusively on the clothes of the First Lady, identified from the outset as a left-wing peasant, without style, who had no place in the National Palace.
What we are going to pay for a long time in Haiti and which poses a big threat of disappearance on our country, is this practice of putting individuals before the country, personal or group interests before the Republic. It did not matter if the President did something good for the community, made a good decision for the country; if it was « him » the decision had to be spat upon, the initiative vilified, and the one who recognized its merits lynched.
Democracy? Don’t know? No political structure has emerged. We are only talking about transition, the only way to get our hands on power.
Ariel Henry was appointed by Jovenel Moïse. He has been Prime Minister for almost one year, much to the chagrin of some people, including some of those who actively participated in and benefited from the coup against Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004 and is one of Jovenel Moise’s most virulent prosecutors. Dr. Henry was, at the beginning of his administration, as Prime Minister, outrageously targeted by these people, his former friends, who may still be. They tried to blame him for the assassination of President Moïse. As what, them, they had condemned President Moïse during an unending trial between 2017 and 2021 and he, Ariel Henry, would have finished it. How accommodating! Powerful lobbies were set in motion from Washington to New York; the right-thinking people had done well, except that there was no way to prove it and that this time the work of character assassination could not succeed. We remember, not without a smile, that one of the demands of the Montana agreement, when he could still afford some demands, was that Ariel Henry put himself at the disposal of justice. This request had finally taken away what little credibility he had.
But what spares Dr. Ariel Henry from an assassination of character in good standing that could end in an assassination altogether, beyond the weakness of those who would see themselves in his place, are his social origins, his anchoring in this Haitian « good society », devoured, and paralyzed by prejudices. The eminent doctor, university professor, twice minister, comes neither from Port-Salut nor from Port-de-Paix, has he not escaped in extremis from a life of itinerant merchant, mason or immigrant accumulating « 2 figures ».
The other element to consider is the fatigue of the international community. Both sides have force-fed foreigners by constantly inviting them to take sides in an incessant confrontation. They did not see the difference between 2004 and 2021, they understood that in the end it was a permanent fratricidal battle and that even the death, in this case that of Jovenel Moïse, did not appease resentments, the needs for power, that it was never a question of country, but of people, or clans.
It’s an allegory, but it’s so timely to recognize that times are hard! There is no prospect. If it were about money, one could hope, make plans, but it is question of human resources. Everyone is talking, no one is listening and what comes out of the different mouths is useless, poor, and cannot be echoed. It was in quasi-indifference that Michel Martelly and Jovenel Moïse became presidents. The last election to have moved the population was that of 2006 which saw the arrival of René Préval for the second time to power. The population that had experienced very badly the departure of President Aristide in 2004 wanted to give a lesson to the « grenn nan bouda » “until the end”, a lesson they seem to have forgotten.
Surprisingly, in the hustle and bustle of the past four years, no voice, not even once, has brought out the sensible, unifying word that could have made a difference. No leader has emerged. Most people in this country do not want another transition that would replace the one assumed by Ariel Henry and his government – what’s the point! – they want security, peace and finally elections that would bring a form of normality and correct these unending democratic stalls. We are saturated with the situation and know that as long as solutions are not found to the situation of unbearable misery that has always prevailed and is worsening every day, if the institutions are not strengthened, it will be impossible to mitigate crime.
If the leaders of the people provoke so much rejection, so many manifestations of violence, how are we going to do, in the coming months, the next few years to elect a government that will have the calm necessary to work, knowing that the prosecutors, the « rejecters », the self-righteous, will never succeed, on the one hand, in convincing the majority electorate, on the other hand, in many cases, they have a foreign passport or choose to live abroad? There are perhaps no other examples in the history of the modern world of a country where no one wants to compromise, or even discuss, where the fate of the country is secondary to that of certain people, of certain clans, where some individuals would prefer to poison a source that the population would greatly need if it was necessary to leave the credit for having discovered it to such a person.
Some prosecutors washed their hands. Others don’t. They rely on the flaws of memory or the outright refusal of some to remember to pretend that they had not conducted the prosecution trial against Jovenel Moïse, as if every day they were not calling for the disappearance of some of their compatriots. Their misperceptions of politics are murdering the Republic. There will be no peace as long as the principle of alternation is not accepted by all, respect for the verdict of the ballot box, regardless of who becomes president, respect for elected officials and institutions and also the integration of the principle that serving one’s country does not necessarily mean having to hold political power.
There are things that cannot be fixed. We must take our side. It is the history that will be responsible for judging the prosecutors of Jovenel Moïse that is why it is important to write what happened between 2016 and 2021, to report the slightest nuances and when the time comes to mention the names of the prosecutors.
The Editorial Board
