ARTICLE - PREVAL PICKS UP HIS GAME

FOR TOMAS, PREVAL PICKED UP HIS GAME
(Miami Herald) - By Jacqueline Charles
j
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Fifteen hours after his arrival at an emergency operations center and just as a menacing Hurricane Tomas took aim at the capital and the flood-prone northwest coast, a sleep-deprived President René Préval peered into the TV cameras and in a stern voice pleaded with the Haitian people.

``Everyone living near the ocean. Cité Eternal. Cité Soleil. Evacuate,'' he said live from the emergency command post next to the presidential palace, which had collapsed in the January earthquake. ``In order for us to no longer count dead bodies, please, evacuate.''

A media-dodging president who has been criticized for poor communication, Préval -- and his disaster-weary, often overwhelmed government -- had undergone a transformation.

``In the history of hurricanes in this country, this is the first time that a president took it upon himself to go around and motivate the population in advance of the hurricane's arrival,'' said Ronald Semelfort, Haiti's chief meteorologist. ``This is [how] we were able to limit the number of deaths.''

Officials say 21 died in the storm, which struck Friday, and its aftermath. Tomas dumped 15 inches of rain as it passed over Haiti.

In the past, many more have died in storms with far less rain.

The low death toll has been credited not only to Préval's personal pleas but also to government action. For months the government has been warning Haitians to seek friends and family they could stay with in the event of a weather crisis. Haiti was put on red alert five days before Tomas' arrival.

Throughout the storm, disaster experts gave regular updates and warned Haitians not to cross rivers or stand on bridges. In one community, the police even set up barricades to keep people off a bridge.

Faced with a cholera epidemic that has already left hundreds dead and thousands hospitalized, as well as this late-season hurricane, Préval took to the road and the airwaves to warn Haitians last week.

He ended up visiting more Haitian cities in a 72-hour period than he had during his entire five years as president -- making him omnipresent in Haitians' daily lives for the first time.

Still, Préval insists that he is not a changed president. He told The Miami Herald that his attitude is the same today as it was following the cataclysmic Jan. 12 earthquake, when he was heavily criticized for a lack of visible leadership.

``The attitude is one of effectiveness; there are people who act and others who agitate,'' he said, reiterating that he's more of a behind-the-scenes personality than a showboat. ``My objective is to bring help to the population.''

But critics and supporters alike agree there has been a visible change as Préval acts more like a commander-in-chief.

Some attribute the transformation to the upcoming elections. Others say Préval has learned lessons from the quake that left a government-estimated 300,000 dead as well as from four hurricanes that pummeled Haiti in 2008.

Préval, who has served two nonconsecutive five-year terms, is constitutionally barred from seeking a third presidential term and has tapped a low-key, relatively unknown technocrat to replace him. With 103 legislative candidates, he is seeking to control not just the presidency but also the parliament.

Recent polls suggest that while Préval's personal pick, Jude Célestin, is among the front-runners, his victory isn't guaranteed and a runoff election could create an opening for Haiti's fragmented opposition to finally seize power.

Célestin, 48, is the former head of Centre National des Equipments, the government's road building agency.

Paul Denis, Haiti's minister of justice and one of the founders of Préval's INITE (UNITY) platform, said Préval's higher visibility has nothing to do with elections but rather with the impending calamity facing Haiti.

``If they say our presence was missing following the quake, then now we are being felt,'' Denis said as he met up with the president in Les Cayes following Tomas' passing. ``We learned.''

The government's presence also is being felt when it comes to the cholera outbreak.

The health ministry was the first to diagnose the outbreak and has taken the lead, telling nongovernmental organizations that the Haitian government -- not the international community -- will confirm casualty numbers and dictate where treatment centers are set up. And NGOs have been warned that should they go where they are not authorized, they will be shut down.

The health ministry also has been much more proactive about getting information out, updating its websites every six hours and holding almost-daily 10 a.m. press conferences to inform the public on the disease.

``We realized that [the lack of communication] was at the base of all our problems and we have to communicate directly with the population,'' Health Minister Alex Larsen said.

Larsen downplays his ministry's battle with the international community but did acknowledge that it has begun to flex its muscle.

``They always have the pretext that the government is weak,'' he said of the international community.

Meanwhile, as the ministry continues to run public service announcements on preventing cholera -- a waterborne disease that is easily treated but can kill within hours -- Préval has emerged as the chief spokesman.

At every turn he reminds Haitians about cholera prevention and has even provided the recipe for a homemade serum.

In an editorial, Max Chauvet, publisher of Le Nouvelliste, a daily newspaper, praised Préval's shift toward better communications and more transparency.

Chauvet said he believes Préval has realized that his image took a beating following the earthquake.

``I think the president collapsed, not just the palace,'' he said. ``He had a mandate that was going well. He had everything planned for the next election. He was going to be in control of parliament and then came the earthquake. I think he wants to finish on a higher note, a better note than with the quake.''