184 Groups Declare They Will Cooperate

New Plan Aims at Haiti?s Bottom Line

‘The Declaration Conjointe of Dec. 26 highlights the unsettling symptoms of Haiti’s current crisis and represents a good start.
184 groups, institutions and organizations from 12 sectors declared in a communique of seven points, that they will cooperate in order to help Haiti for the better.
Lawlessness, economic collapse, impunity, and unscrupulous and inept regime: It’s all there and has been said before. Now a leadership cadre must break out, gaze at the horizon, select a course and describe in detail how to get there.
The process should steer clear of the old formula whereby a “new” government would make everything right. A new administration might make things better, but far more effective would be a well-thought out operational strategy. Such must be consonant with the reality of Haitian life, engaging with efficiency, available human and material resources in a determined effort to extricate the population from poverty.
Since the core of Haiti’s predicament is economic, the program must be more akin to a business plan than a political manifesto. A political package with any purpose other than to delimit the role of government would be inadequate.
It is admirable that the business community stands in solidarity with other sectors of civil society. But its legitimate role is engaging tens of thousands of Haitians in activities that produce quality consumer and agricultural goods, for which people will gladly pay.
In this design, the government sustains and facilitates the common endeavor. This government, any government, must therefore be the servant of the people, not its tormentor. And the business of business must be prosperity and its competence expressed in a reasonable growth rate of the nation’s gross domestic product..

Read more in the newsstand edition of The Haitian Times, or subscribe and get the Haitian Times at your door every week!