With all my experiences (in business and personal) with Haitians I do learn that for any transaction or activity we cannot afford to leave any room for too many loopholes. All aspects need to be well defined and agreed upon. The main reason is the Human mind (or more so for the Haitian mind sometimes) is often deceptive. People rarely care about the contracts or agreements they sign. Less binding is the agreement, more difficulties to be expected…Having said that, our Constitutionalists did us a huge injustice when they wrote so many laws without thinking about all the possibilities. And the most important one is the fact that most Haitian politics always plan to BREAK THE RULES. In such scenarios, the laws must be very concise and very open about all the possible exceptions. Now I must disagree with people who want to change our constitution way too fast, as this was my main disagreement with Feu Jovenel Moise. We cannot say that the constitution is no good or too limited when we know that since March 29, 1987 no Haitian politics or even president have even tried to respect the instructions of the constitution. For instance, none has created a PERMANENT ELECTORAL COUNCIL(Art. 191-199) None has tried to organize elections ON TIME, which have been at the roots of all political crisis since 1994.
For the amended Constitution (whether the process is incomplete or not) 2 presidents (Martelly and Jovenel) have failed to put in place the most important institution that our Country does need : THE CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL (Art.190 of the amended Constitution). This body of the judicial branch would be the highest one to review and study the laws and settle disputes. Imagine we had that institution back in 2020? May be Jovenel would be still alive assuming the Council had ruled that his Term would end in February 7, 2021 instead of February 2022 as he wished!
Democracy and the rules of law are all about freedom and the limit of freedom. The rules of law cannot be fully understood by illiterate or uneducated people. They need guidance. In our specific case in Haiti, even the so called educated people from the upper classes have a hard time following the rules because they often tend to feel that they are entitled and above certain rules. Our individualized system has too often put people or emotions above so many important things that should be bigger than everyone. Enforcing the laws will always be a challenge especially in such environment. Nevertheless, all lawmakers and scholars must bear such facts and realities in mind anytime we need to bring forth regulations and laws to govern or guide our existence and the administration of our common affairs.
Baton Moyiz
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