18025: Leiderman: example of U.S. policy recommendations, 2001 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stuart M Leiderman <leidermn@cisunix.unh.edu>

http://www.haiti-info.com/article.php3?id_article=10

[excerpts]

19 June 2001

Georges A. Fauriol

The United States relationship with Haiti needs to break out from the
costly and unproductive policy thrust of the past... <snip>

--Foster modern governance through a democratically competitive political
environment and a diverse civil society, accompanied
by an active private enterprise, and a liberalized and transparent trade
and investment flow regime ;

--Eliminate regional contraband and illicit business flows, and reduce
Haiti's attraction as a platform for money laundering and narcotics
trans-shipment ;

--Acknowledge Haiti's actors who appear to undermine the above interests,
and isolate them from U.S. moral, diplomatic, and economic support ; and

--Diversify more deeply formal and informal interaction by the U.S.
Government and the international community across the Haitian political
and economic spectrum, including those constituencies outside the capital
city. <snip>

--The international community resource support and diplomatic commitment
cannot be considered until the Haitian regime works out a real political
arrangement with the various elements of the democratic alternative and
key groups representing civil society... <snip>

--Reconstitution of a credible CEP [election process]: The political
constituency formula to create a CEP over which Haitians are arguing may
be eased if, as in many other countries, the election council was headed
by someone of genuine distinction-an individual with unblemished
technical credentials, political standing above the fray, credibility
with the international community ; and management and organizational
skills to run the show. <snip>

--No [U.S.] political support or economic and diplomatic resources
unless there is a wider and transparent compromise among the key actors in
the political stalemate. Replace the continuing U.S. reluctance to reach
out to Haiti's political alternatives and civil society with a U.S. policy
that engages and strengthens Haitis true supporters of democracy and
freedom. <snip>

--Haiti policy should not be driven and defined by one Haitian
personality, a characteristic of U.S. engagement for the past decade.
<snip>

--The United States should be viewed as working with the underdog, the
weak, the entrepreneurial, and Haitis regional and local leadership, not
the representatives of a corrupt new elite (the "CNEs") occupying
positions of power in government and the influence peddlers that flow from
it. <snip>

--A small Haiti International Development Commission (HIDC), sanctioned
by Haiti's five largest aid donors, led by nongovernmental free-market
development and democratic governance expertise, and funded with
foundation support, could work through the underbrush of a few key
development initiatives and begin to coordinate their implementation. The
HIDC could also be a point of contact for the multitude of individual
private voluntary organizations (PVOs) operating in Haiti, and as
well as a possible avenue for Haitis growing diaspora. <snip>

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