EDITORIAL - What CARICOM must do in Haiti

The international community must be prodded and cajoled into delivering the more than US$10 billion it pledged in long-term aid for the rebuilding of Haiti, which was devastated by earthquake and is now undergoing the stress of a cholera epidemic.

Indeed, it would be a shame, a smear on those who invoke ideals such as our shared humanity, as well as of dire consequences to Haiti's neighbours, if the Haitian people were allowed to lose confidence in the face of more broken promises by the international community as the Haitian state continues merely to limp along, if not totally collapse, lurching from crisis to crisis. That has been the case for too long.

In this regard, this newspaper continues to believe that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), of which Haiti is a member, led by the community's chairman, Jamaica's prime minister, Bruce Golding, must become the prodder-in-chief. For outside of Mr Golding's current chairmanship of CARICOM, Jamaica has responsibility in the community for international relations. Moreover, after the earthquake in January destroyed large swathes of Haiti, killing more than 200,000 people, Mr Golding volunteered Jamaica's leadership in coordinating CARICOM's relief and reconstruction effort.

Caricom must do more

Mr Golding's prodding should perhaps begin with a hefty push to Bill Clinton, the former president of the United States, who Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, appointed as his special envoy on Haiti. It would be useful to remind Mr Clinton of the depth of the Haitian crisis and the urgency of getting things done. Nearly a year after the earthquake, more than a million Haitians continue to live in squalid tent camps, with few services, provided largely by relief agencies.

But CARICOM must do more. The community must play a central role in helping to build a viable, functioning state. Indeed, the absence of a properly functioning state with credible institutions is a contributor to the shambolic post-earthquake relief and rehabilitation effort.

Last week, Colin Granderson, a deputy secretary general of CARICOM who led an observer mission to Haiti's presidential and legislative elections, conceded that there were flaws in the poll, but nonetheless endorsed the vote as sufficiently credible to broadly represent the will of the people. A second round of the vote for a president is likely. No candidate is likely to have won a majority in the first round.

Better position

CARICOM must now help Haiti rebuild its institutions and a functioning state. History, culture and, we believe, trust place the community in better stead to lead this process than the United Nations, or some of the leading nations. And CARICOM has had more than a decent go at democracy.

That community had a ready-made process and person in place to lead this effort. The mandate of its special representative for Haiti, former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, should be broadened to include working with the new government in this effort. Member states could second civil servants and other technocrats to work alongside Haitians in rebuilding their government and institutions. This would merely be another step in the evolution CARICOM.

And at the bottom line, a failed Haiti would be a security nightmare for this region.

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