ARTICLE - MARTELLY ON THE POLITICAL CRISIS

REMARKS OF PRESIDENT MARTELLY ON THE POLITICAL CRISIS
(Haiti Libre) -

In an interview broadcasted last Monday on Radio Canada, President Martelly gave an update on the current political crisis, among others: the absence of a Prime Minister, of a government, free education, the state of relations between the Executive and Legislative, the Constitution... We reproduce the more important extracts of this interview.

"Being qualified as a statesman or a serious man, this is not my concern. My concern is simple: relaunch the Haitian economy, enable access to education for the children of Haiti who are still in the streets in 2011, addressing the issue of reconstruction so that the reconstruction can be real, and finally and especially, the issue of agricultural recovery. [...] The challenges are numerous and great, but Grasp all, lose all, that's why I campaigned for and I set a certain number of goals. I think that for Haiti to get out of this misery, it is imperative that we move through education [...]"

Regarding the absence of the Prime Minister and of a Government:
"...The fact of not having a government is killing us, because it's like having a head, but with the hands cut off. However, even with the hands cut off we can still build things, and that's what we will do..... While we work to have a government, we work in parallel to make our education policy a success [...] We have identified nearly 146,000 new students who will go for the first time in their lives to school this year. It was not easy [...] We have the money. That means that anything is possible and today we are at the stage of the inscriptions [...] Therefore, we have no Government, but this does not really prevent us to act at the level of education."

Regarding the possibility to work with the Parliament:
"I already work with them... as I sat over a month to work with them for the ratification of a Prime Minister-designate. The first Prime Minister was rejected. I sat down again with the Deputies and Senators to work for the ratification of the Second Prime Minister-designate. It may be that this has not been successful, because at a certain moment, the interests diverge... For me, it's just Haiti, but perhaps for others, there was, in the case of Mr. Gousse, a small problem since there was a conflict between some parliamentarians and the Prime Minister designate in the years past. Perhaps this is the reason why Mr. Gousse was not ratified."

Regarding the willingness of parliamentarians to work with the President:
"...There, I wonder ? [...] what they say now, is not necessarily what they will say tomorrow... It is there, that there is a slight problem, but I am ready to work with them [...] the Constitution provides that the President will choose his Prime Minister in consultation with the presidents of both chambers, so it's imperative that I work with them. I am decided. But the Constitution also says that the President will choose and as long as he is not free to choose, this means that the Constitution is not respected. The Constitution does not say that the President is forced to choose a Prime Minister adored by the parliament or proposed by the parliamentarians. It says that the President will choose his Prime Minister; so I will continue to choose. I sincerely hope that everyone understands that the time is urgent... we must think of the people, because ultimately, it is the latter who suffers [...] Once that the parties [...] the Executive that I represent and the legislative branches understands the necessity to think of these people, I think that things will go faster."

Regarding the possibility of governing Haiti:
"Yes, Haiti is a governable country, except that there is work to do. Before the earthquake, there was no development plan for 25, 30 years. Initially, Port-au-Prince was built for 200,000 inhabitants. Today it houses 3 million... who knows ? The interests of the population have never been a priority, clean water remains a luxury..."

Concerning the option to govern by decree and the Constitution:
"All the options are there. I must say that I don't think of them today, because I continue to work. In my case I advance well [...] One of the documents that prevents us to progress is the Constitution, a Constitution that was voted for in 1987, when we finally came out of the dictatorship of the Executive. By wanting to avoid the possibility that this situation happens again, we're going a little too far on the other side... and today, we see that we are experiencing simply a dictatorship of the legislative powers."