ARTICLE - CONSTITUTION - STATEMENTS

CONSTITUTION - STATEMENTS OF PRESIDENTS OF BOTH HOUSES
(Haiti Libre) -

Speaking at the Decree signing ceremony, of President Martelly, authorizing the publication of the amended text of the Constitution of 1987, the President and the Vice-President of the National Assembly, respectively Senator Dieuseul Simon Desras, and MP Levaillant Louis Jeune have spoken (excerpts).

Senator Dieuseul Simon Desras, President of the National Assembly:

"[...] A long year has passed since May 9 2011, when the Honourable Deputies and Senators, gathered in National Assembly, and adopted the amendments [...] as I am devoted to the cause of my country, if I knew that something was useful to my nation, but would be ruinous on the other hand, I would not have suggested it to the President of the Republic.

However, the path is sometimes complicated,.... we arrive to create and preserve the balance of a constructive space where the executive, legislature and judiciary can finally be in harmony to change the Constitution, so that it is adapted to the time, to promote progress,.... this is what explains the meeting of the three powers, and what we are doing here today.

I express my satisfaction to see today the President of the Republic, His Excellency Joseph Michel Martelly, take this decision [...], the President of the Republic allows us to go in the direction of modernity, with a more functional Constitution. By this action, he established the logical principle, that our Charter should above all, serve the interests of the Nation, and not turn into a brake that is outdated and inadequate to development [...] Finally, this amendment will help us to repair much injustice that was made and repeated against the 4 million Haitians living abroad, who are already involved in the local economy, with nearly 2 billion U.S. dollars in annual transfers to Haiti [...] despite the mechanisms that operate for their exclusion, they remaine profoundly Haitian, both by identity through culture, and sometimes even by birth [...]"

Deputy Levaillant Louis Jeune, Vice-President of the National Assembly:

 "[...] the Constitution of 1987 represents the result of a quest for political,... for the reflective will of the Haitian citizens to reject the blind power, nepotism and authoritarian of Duvalier, and to participate in the redefinition and the establishment of new relationship between the public authorities. It also reflects a reasonable request for a change of the State; however, like all human work, this Constitution is not perfect. Given the socio-political context in which it was developed, it has a number of important shortcomings. It is by considering the latter, that President Préval has decided to review it by naming a Presidential Commission, composed of honest and respectable Haitian citizens, to bring this project to the Haitian people [...]"

After giving explanations, and the history of the process of reviewing the Constitution of 1987, Deputy Levaillant Louis Jeune continued "[...] Certainly, this process was affected by errors, but we want to mention, that these errors, only of a material nature, does not constitute a cause of a nullity of the noble and necessary final act. They motivate us to give us in the future, more time to consult in order to produce, among others, a work that is a politico-legal consensual, almost perfect, and carrying substantial improvements for the Haitian people. Today's ceremony marks this will, not of a resumption or regression, but of a democratic continuity [...]"