{"id":2522,"date":"2018-08-01T07:46:26","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T11:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/?p=2522"},"modified":"2018-08-01T07:46:26","modified_gmt":"2018-08-01T11:46:26","slug":"when-people-lose-confidence-in-their-leaders-these-also-lose-their-legitimacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/?p=2522","title":{"rendered":"When People Lose Confidence in their Leaders, these Also Lose their Legitimacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/strong>he looting, fire and destruction of shops, commercial installations and\u00a0other businesses during\u00a0the riots last July 6-8 have\u00a0sorely tested the country\u2019s leaders. President Jovenel Mo\u00efse and leaders\u00a0of both Houses were absent for more\u00a0than 24 hours, thus considered\u00a0AWOL. This has led to a loss of authority at all levels of public administration. But the verbal duel triggered by mutual denunciations\u00a0between Senate President Joseph\u00a0Lambert and his colleague of the\u00a0Southeastern department, Ricard\u00a0Pierre, has led to a situation whereby\u00a0the people lose confidence in their\u00a0leaders.<\/p>\n

Accused by M. Lambert for having diverted a generator that the Senate had bought for their department, Mr. Pierre lost no time to react. In\u00a0turn, he revealed that his accuser\u00a0enjoyed a house rented at State\u2019s
\nexpense for $119,000 annually. This\u00a0led to new revelations exposing the\u00a0lavish lifestyle of members of the\u00a0Executive and of parliamentarians, the latter costing millions of dollars\u00a0to the Treasury. Even before adding\u00a0the regular salary of the senators and\u00a0various other perks, those legislators\u00a0have allocated to themselves four\u00a0million gourdes each just for fiestas\u00a0during the year. With 29 senators in\u00a0service, that amounts to 116 million\u00a0gourdes, or $17 million. In a country\u00a0where the average Haitian lives on\u00a0less than $2.00 a day !<\/p>\n

As expected, the ruckus provoked\u00a0by Senators Lambert and Pierre has\u00a0had the effect of sealing the mouths\u00a0of the authorities at all levels of government. No one is about to confess\u00a0that indeed they\u2019ve been living high\u00a0off the hog. There\u2019s no mention of\u00a0the benefits and preferential treatments that the Senators have given\u00a0themselves and to members of the\u00a0Executive. There\u2019s no rush to make\u00a0amend, just as Senate President\u00a0Lambert has done in obtaining approval from the administration to\u00a0cancel the contract for his second residence. Certainly, they\u2019re not about\u00a0to give up their perks so easily.<\/p>\n

While mentioning the plunder of\u00a0public coffers by the Executive and\u00a0the Senate, we shouldn\u2019t forget the
\ndepredations at the Lower House. In\u00a0the 2017-2018 budget, dubbed \u201ccriminal,\u201d the 117 members of that body cost the State 3.63 billion gourdes, or $54 million.<\/p>\n

Opacity being the rule, added to\u00a0the secretive nature of the Haitian\u00a0administration, only an accident of
\nthe Lambert-Pierre kind would have\u00a0shed light on the mystery surrounding the salaries and the fabulous privileges enjoyed by the Senators and\u00a0other members of Parliament. Certainly, we can\u2019t expect those in power, all categories combined, to willingly accept their voracity. They\u00a0must be cornered and dealt with accordingly.<\/p>\n

With such people in power, their\u00a0primary objective is to enrich themselves\u00a0on the backs of the Haitian
\npeople. Thus, the nation won\u2019t easily know who really earns how much\u00a0among members of the Executive, from the Head of State, the Ministers\u00a0and Secretaries of State to the Gene- ral Directors. In the course of the latest brouhaha among the Senators, the\u00a0information came out and we found\u00a0that some Ministers enjoy privileges\u00a0almost similar to those of the parliamentarians. It\u2018s definitely legitimate
\nthat we demand complete disclosure\u00a0regarding the salaries, direct and\u00a0indirect, granted to the men and
\nwomen who are supposed to serve\u00a0the country.<\/p>\n

From what has been learned from\u00a0the latest revelations, it seems that\u00a0the practice of \u201cadvantages\u201d and \u201cpreferred treatments\u201c extends to\u00a0others. To a greater or lesser degree, all the personnel in the public administration also get some benefits. In\u00a0addition to their salaries, some senior\u00a0government officials covertly get\u00a0some extras, all absorbed in the national budget. No wonder that Parliament and the Presidency fought\u00a0tooth and nail not to fully divulge all\u00a0the components of the \u201ccriminal\u00a0budget\u201d of the past two fiscal years. Now we know what those \u201cother\u00a0headings\u201d in the budget mean. Meanwhile, a pittance was allotted\u00a0for the health of 11 million citizens\u00a0while the lion\u2019s share of the budget\u00a0was reserved for the Presidency and\u00a0Parliament.<\/p>\n

Relentlessly those in power have\u00a0undertaken to strip the country of its\u00a0resources for the benefit of a few. The list of privileges granted to the \u201cfavorites\u201d in public administration\u00a0covers even strictly private matters. If the clothing and toiletries of those\u00a0persons are not mentioned among\u00a0the privileges, it doesn\u2018t necessarily\u00a0mean they are not charged to the\u00a0State. By the way, at the National\u00a0Palace and at other government institutions, particularly in the capital, lunch is paid for some from State\u00a0coffers, to the benefit of restaurant\u00a0owners close to the authorities.<\/p>\n

The worst is that all actors insist\u00a0on keeping such excesses secret. Without a doubt, they know that they
\ndon\u2019t deserve those privileges. After\u00a0all, it\u2019s a form of embezzlement of\u00a0public funds within the culture of
\ncorruption. They do their best to\u00a0keep the people in the dark about\u00a0their shenanigans. For if their sordid
\nactions were to be known that would\u00a0spark a public outcry, even revolt.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the Haitian public administration, in general, and the \u201cBald-Headed\u201d government, in particular, has given itself all the means necessary to steal public funds. They circumvent the laws and the Constitution of the land, while working to\u00a0keep their activities secret. In finding\u00a0how they\u2019ve been victimized, the citizens are taking precautionary measures to stop the scalding. In the process, the Haitian people literally have\u00a0lost confidence in their leaders. They distrust their decisions, statements
\nand assertions. Caught redhanded in fraud and robbery, those\u00a0leaders have forfeited their legitimacy.
\nTherefore, it\u2019s up to the Haitian\u00a0people to determine their fate.<\/p>\n

\n

you can found this article from the august 01 2018 edition weekly Haiti-Observateur, P. 11<\/strong> at :\u00a0http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/H-O-01-Aout-2018.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The looting, fire and destruction of shops, commercial installations and\u00a0other businesses during\u00a0the riots last July 6-8 have\u00a0sorely tested the country\u2019s leaders. President Jovenel Mo\u00efse and leaders\u00a0of both Houses were absent for more\u00a0than 24 hours, thus considered\u00a0AWOL. This has led to a loss of authority at all levels of public administration. But the verbal duel triggered by mutual denunciations\u00a0between Senate President Joseph\u00a0Lambert and his colleague of the\u00a0Southeastern department, Ricard\u00a0Pierre, has led to a situation whereby\u00a0the people lose confidence in their\u00a0leaders. Accused by M. Lambert for having diverted a generator that the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,20,41],"tags":[279,448,457,491,604,675,713,777,794,883,936,1031,1074,1168,1324,1350],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}