ARTICLE - DUVALIER COMMENCEMENT SPEECH

JEAN CLAUDE DUVALIER COMMENCEMENT SPEECH IN GONAIVES
(Defend Haiti) -

GONAIVES - Former President Jean Claude Duvalier delivered the commencement address at the Robert White School of Law and Economic Sciences in Gonaïves. This is a translated version of the address:


Mr. Officer;
Mr. Mayor and members of the Council of the City of Gonaives
Mr. Dean of the Trial Court of First Instance in Gonaives
Mr. Dean of the School of Law and Economics of Gonaives
Ladies and gentlemen of the faculty,
Ladies and gentlemen of the Dean of the Faculty,
Civil and judicial authorities,
Ladies and gentlemen guests;

Dear Parents,
My dear comrades,
Dear sons, dear daughters,

I am honored to be here in the glorious city of Gonaives, the city of Independence where our valiant ancestors signed the deed of our independence for us to live in a free and sovereign Haiti that history has chosen as the first black republic in the world.

I am particularly grateful to you, students, graduating from law school and economics of Gonaives for choosing me as a sponsor of the graduating class of Robert White College, who was an early director of your school founded in 1912 by Raymond Cabeche, a former member of Gonaives. I am deeply touched by this courageous and thoughtful gesture. Thank you and thank you again!

I present to you dear godsons, dear godchildren, my warm congratulations on being able to complete your undergraduate university studies in spite of the vicissitudes, the constraints, the ups and downs, the hardships and difficulties of all kinds that you have overcome the past four years.

I also present my sincere congratulations to Dean Joseph Mecene Jean-Louis and faculty who have put their knowledge at your disposal, to make you men and women of law.

To your parents here who have made huge sacrifices, I share with them this morning happiness, joy and pride that reflects their faces, that their children are being crowned with success as their efforts deserve. I congratulate you.

Here I am this morning in Gonaives after twenty-six years, responding to your invitation. I return to memories that are not necessarily pleasant. In fact, I think of Jean-Robert Cius, Daniel Michelson Michel and Israel, who fell at the threshold of adolescence. Suffer a moment that I ask you to join with me in a minute's silence in their memory.

Thank you.

May the sacrifice of their lives continue to remind us of the price we have committed for justice and peace.

My dear godsons, dear godchildren, by the fact that you have made the choice of me as your sponsor of the promotion, eloquently illustrates this part of the warm and significant esteem that you bring. So, thank you for this comfort. I draw additional reason to believe in your intelligence and youth, in addition to your quality of questioning and discernment.

This unique opportunity brings me back to almost forty years ago, and like you I had chosen to study law. This was abruptly interrupted when fate took me to the helm of the state. I took the opportunity to pay tribute to my teachers at that time: the late Hubert de Ronceray, the late Gregory Eugene and our professor emeritus, the distinguished Gerard Gourgue for whom I have a special affection.

My dear godsons, dear godchildren,

You have chosen a noble discipline, the base foundation of the state. The law, the mandatory rule of the social game, restrains and channels the selfish instincts and eternal brutality of men. In specific situations, it imposes mandatory solutions.

In your alma mater, you have been introduced to the mastery of arcane law to defend widows and orphans, as they say so beautifully in the profession for which you have been trained. So many illustrious and competent predecessors, who have thrilled to the sound of their bright words and striking the walls of the courts of our country, show you the way.

Let me recall to your memory the names of: Hugues St-Pierre, Paracas Pelissier, Dr. Clovis Kernizan to name a few. By giving your promotion named after the late Mr. Robert Blanc, lawyers, judges, famous and respected; you show that you care to draw on these predecessors. I hope that your commitment is sincere...

Finally, it is important to emphasize to you that the country has great need of you. It needs men and women capable of self-transcendence to enforce the law and not arbitrarily. Your mission from this day and throughout your career, is to implement these universal concepts acquired during your studies: Equality and Justice.

Fortunately for you, Haiti is committed to finding its soul, sine qua non, for its rebirth. Its story would be meaningless, if this quest was done only in the name of a new humanism, which sucks at your generation.

I leave to your meditation the thoughts of my late father, Dr. Francois Duvalier:
"There are moments in history where most people slept, the more subdued and what we believe has never been helpless, stand up, seize their destiny and conquer what is inalienable for more rights: freedom. "

Be strong, be firm, but be above all, fair. I am proud of you. Let us all be proud to be Haitian. Good luck and God bless you.

Gonaives, December 16, 2011.