ARTICLE - REBU CRITICIZES MARTELLY SPEECH

FORMER COLONEL REBU CRITICIZES THE SPEECH OF PRESIDENT MARTELLY
(Haiti Libre) -

The former colonel Himmler Rébu, leader of the Grand Rally for the Evolution of Haiti (GREH), has criticized the speech of President Michel Martelly that was delivered at the commemoration of the 208th anniversary of Haiti's independence.

"...It is a speech that does not provide any new ideas [...] they are the same ideas that the President of the Republic has always defended, and that he took again; stressing the work that he does at the education level, environmental issues and the rule of law. He also spoke [...] that he had already received the report of the Presidential Commission on the issue of the army, which I find extremely fast. We must not forget that on November 18, the President had said that he would set up a Commission, and that would give the commission 40 days for the Commission to give him a first draft of its work. He made the decree that appointed the Commission almost one month after; so that leaves about 2 or 3 weeks, [...] a Commission which is supposed to have a working period of six months [...] I fear that this is the report that the President had already in hand, that he tells us that the Commission gave him. This would be very serious because this involves the personalities which compose the Commission, .... for a work that is already done, ... that they have not yet done [...] I do not know if the Commission took its inauguration officially and if it started working."

Former Col. Rébu has accustomed us to more thoughtful comments. It seems that this time, the former Colonel criticizes rather quickly, by proposing a hypothesis based on his own speculations, without knowing the contents of the document of the Commission.

It should be noted with respect, to the Colonel, that the historian Georges Michel, a member of the Commission, had made it clear that this first preliminary report only describes the various steps for the establishment of the new Haitian military force. There will be a second preliminary report before the final report expected in May 2012. In addition, the Colonel argues that the decree was issued almost one month after November 18, while the decree, dated December 2 was published Tuesday, December 6 and was published exactly 18 days after November 18.

Taking advantage of a radio talk, the Colonel seems confounded to what is mentioned in section 2 of this decree, which states that "the time allotted to the State Commission for the organization of the military component of the public force is 40 days. After this delay it will have to submit to the president the plan establishing the organization of the military component of the Public Force.

It does not make effectively 40 days since the beginning of the work of the Commission, but the first draft document. It does not claim anything other than to set a timetable of steps. As we can be seen from the facts, there is no reason to give rise to controversy or generate in the minds of the population doubts that may cause unnecessary tensions. Would it not be better to wait until the information is available before criticizing everything that the presidency has done, as soon as it addresses the subject of a national armed force in Haiti ?