President Preval’s address to the population last Friday in the wake of the recent violent demonstrations in Haiti has been labelled by a number of critics as being really weak and lacking concrete solutions for the real and hard realities of hunger and outrageously unaffordable cost of living faced by the majority of the population. Whilst most expected him to have announced the resignation of the Prime Minister, Preval simply reprimanded those who were involved in pillaging commercial interests including twenty-two petrol stations, the main office of Voila (one of the three major telecoms service provider) and a number of banks. His declarations on subsidising national agricultural production, establishing community restaurants, providing credit to small enterprises, implementing more labour-intensive projects, subsidising education and easing of taxes on some grain imports have, however, given some hope to the common mass.
These have, however, not been sufficient to appease the enraged population especially in Port-au-Prince. Then, yesterday, 12 April, sixteen out of 17 senators voted to oust and replace the Prime Minister Alexis (read more). This appears to have resulted in a quiet but uncanny calm today. This may, however, just be a lull in events as demonstrations have already been announced to take to place in Hinche, one of the regions considered as a possible flash point owing to its high concentration of ex-FAdH or the former military personnel disbanded by ex-President Aristide. Anything can happen including a likely spill over of violence again into Port-au-Prince.
The airwaves have since been saturated with interesting analysis and commentaries on the events of the past days. One ex-senator noted, for instance, that the government needs look really closely into the actual need of the people when drafting and approving the national budget – stop governmental vehicle purchases for the next two years, cut down on scandalously high spending on overseas trips, prioritise national agriculture. He added that the population has consistently asked for drastic improvements on the capability of the Police National d’Haiti (PNH) to maintain peace and order. The recent events brought to the fore the lack of equipment and training of the PNH. In reality, popular sentiments have actually been split between those who want believe that having MINUSTAH military and police in the country is an infringement on national sovereignty and those who for instance have most recently voiced out that without MINUSTAH military and police assistance, the civil unrest would have escalated to even greater chaos and damage. The former camp, however, seems to have a stronger voice as is shown in the shooting today of a Nigerian UN police in Port-au-Prince by a yet unknown gun man.
In the long term, though, this question should be seriously considered and acted upon by the Government of Haiti especially since MINUSTAH will have to certainly end its mission one day.
An eerily calm Sunday is almost over and it is relatively difficult to predict what would happen inthe coming week. Hope for the best. Expect the worst.
These have, however, not been sufficient to appease the enraged population especially in Port-au-Prince. Then, yesterday, 12 April, sixteen out of 17 senators voted to oust and replace the Prime Minister Alexis (read more). This appears to have resulted in a quiet but uncanny calm today. This may, however, just be a lull in events as demonstrations have already been announced to take to place in Hinche, one of the regions considered as a possible flash point owing to its high concentration of ex-FAdH or the former military personnel disbanded by ex-President Aristide. Anything can happen including a likely spill over of violence again into Port-au-Prince.
The airwaves have since been saturated with interesting analysis and commentaries on the events of the past days. One ex-senator noted, for instance, that the government needs look really closely into the actual need of the people when drafting and approving the national budget – stop governmental vehicle purchases for the next two years, cut down on scandalously high spending on overseas trips, prioritise national agriculture. He added that the population has consistently asked for drastic improvements on the capability of the Police National d’Haiti (PNH) to maintain peace and order. The recent events brought to the fore the lack of equipment and training of the PNH. In reality, popular sentiments have actually been split between those who want believe that having MINUSTAH military and police in the country is an infringement on national sovereignty and those who for instance have most recently voiced out that without MINUSTAH military and police assistance, the civil unrest would have escalated to even greater chaos and damage. The former camp, however, seems to have a stronger voice as is shown in the shooting today of a Nigerian UN police in Port-au-Prince by a yet unknown gun man.
In the long term, though, this question should be seriously considered and acted upon by the Government of Haiti especially since MINUSTAH will have to certainly end its mission one day.
An eerily calm Sunday is almost over and it is relatively difficult to predict what would happen inthe coming week. Hope for the best. Expect the worst.
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