Table of Contents

Claude Moise

Originally: Many Crosses to Bear

FOREWORD 7

1 Coming out of the coup d’etat: a taxing operation 13

The restoration 14

The end of the army 17

The great electoral upheaval (1995) 20

The fragmentation of the democratic movement 24

2 The trials and tribulations of Lavalassian normalization 30

The poles of the new power (1995-1997) 30

The political poles: Préval, Aristide and the OPL 31

Préval 31

Aristide 34

OPL 37

The institutional poles: The Presidency, the Prime Minister? s

Office and Parliament . 39

The weakness of the opposition 41

The limitations of charismatic leadership 43

3 The political and institutional crisis 48

The electoral fiasco of April 6, 1997  48

Governmental paralysis 49

The March 6,1999. Agreement 51

What was the OPLs strategy? 55

4 Aristide II or the derailment of the democratic process 60

The pre-electoral climate 60

The May 21 Coup and Lavalas total seizure of power 62

In search of legitimacy 65

The Lavalas Convergence clash (March 2001) 68

The Lavalas methods 72

The international community takes charge 75

The disastrous balance sheet 83

5 Thinking Haitian democracy 86

Thinking of the new State 87

Structuring civil society, promoting citizenship 91

Consolidating political society 95

Rehabilitating politics 95

Understanding the new political orientation 97

Rebuilding the political landscape 98

Presenting a project acceptable for the whole society 100

Stimulating debate 101

The democratic project and its requirements 103

The dilemma 104

The irreducible democratic minimum 106

The international context 109

6 Emergencies: redefining the rules of the game 114

The constitutional question 114

The electoral question 119

Conclusion: the national alliance 123