By: Staff Writer
June 13, 2023
The Haiti Stakeholders’ Meeting held in Jamaica brought leaders from around the Caribbean to discuss “solutions” for Haiti, delivering on this is the key matter for consideration.
Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica and host of the meeting, reiterated his earlier call for boosting the security in Haiti. Something the US Vice President, Kamala Harris, said she will assist with funding and training for during her recent visit to The Bahamas last week.
Mr Holness said: “There are serious and deteriorating political security and humanitarian challenges facing Haiti are well known, particularly by those in attendance today, for whom it is your everyday lived experience. Jamaica therefore, supports the process of inclusive and open dialogue and efforts to find solutions to hear his ongoing challenges.”
He added: “Jamaica is honoured to have been entrusted by CARICOM and you to host these talks at a time when dialogue at the highest possible level is essential, necessary and critical to achieving consensus. During our sessions in Haiti, there was clear consensus that security was an immediate and critical concern. Some had also expressed that wild security is of paramount concern, more inclusive, and broader dialogue was necessary.”
Ariel Henry, Prime Minister of the Republic of Haiti, also in attendance, said that many in Haiti have been “adversely affected” by the amount of attacks and murders in the country that “there is no more time to waste” and help is needed on the ground in Haiti now.
Philip Davis, Prime Minister of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, also said that the solutions for Haiti must come from the Haitians themselves, but for Caribbean leaders to sit around and do nothing “violates every notion of decency, every idea of what it means to be a good neighbour, and a fellow human being.” He also said that he is certain a solution can be found for the crisis in Haiti and that CARICOM is determined to help that beleaguered country find the solutions it needs.
While much of the speeches thus far have been filled with bluster on one side, simpering on the other and empty slogans on yet another, three former Caribbean Prime Ministers, comprising the Eminent Persons Group, have been charged with overseeing the talks about bringing about solutions for Haiti.
The three members of the CARICOM-appointed Eminent Persons Group are all former prime ministers – Perry Christie of The Bahamas, Bruce Golding of Jamaica, and St. Lucia’s Dr Kenny Anthony.
These eminently qualified individuals should have the wherewithal to at least bring structure for Haiti leading up to the proposed elections that is supposed to be this coming November.
As Mr Henry said there is no more time to waste, they need security on the ground now and leading up to the elections, it will be ever more important to provide that security.
Whether this CARICOM ground would make matters worse by not following through with key structural change in Haiti, leaving a confused and despondent people even worse off than they are now, remains to be seen.
A generation of Haitians yet to be born are depending on CARICOM to set a few political and social institutions in place for the fostering of a better society. Institutions that were destroyed under the regime Jean Claude-Duvalier and subsequent other leaders in Haiti.
However the pendulum swings, it is evident that Haiti cannot solve its own problems. If they could have they would have. But they can’t. So to sit around rehashing last week’s talking points and empty slogans will not cut the mustard.