Violence and Chaos in Haiti and South Africa
|Editorial
Haiti had still not recovered from the devastating cyclone that had struck it nearly a decade ago. South Africa after the legacy of Mandela had engaged in the process of building a viable democracy.
Suddenly, mayhem has engulfed both countries. Haitians suffered a lot during the ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier years with their ‘tontons macoutes,’ but once the dictator was gone they had hoped for better days to come. There was a semblance of a return to a more orderly form of governance, one more stable and lending its ears to the people who had faced hardships for so long. Governments changed but the lives of the people did not undergo as fast an improvement as they would have wished. Given their dire initial starting point, even small incremental changes in their conditions as regards food, housing, employment, education and health would have meant a lot to them.
Willy-nilly, despite the persisting political instability, positive changes were taking place, albeit slowly. Unfortunately came that devastating cyclone, with thousands of deaths and damage to human habitations and infrastructure. The UN along with many organizations in the US stepped in to provide emergency and then medium- to long-term support in reconstruction and re-instituting the essential services as a basis to scaling up all amenities that a functioning country requires. Alas, there was mishandling and diverting of food aid and millions that were being poured in. Poverty, unemployment, poor health and educational services have continued to plague the country.
Against this backdrop there was bitter political rivalry brewing, and then the brutal killing of President Jovenel Moïse in his residence. There had been calls for him to step down, but they went unheeded. No less than 39 persons have been identified and arrested as having forged the conspiracy to assassinate the President. The protests and violence that have followed his death mean that the country is likely to slide backward again, both socio-economically and politically.
On the other hand, South Africa is a much richer and much more developed country with enormous resources of gold and diamonds, along with well-established health, educational, financial services that can rival the best anywhere, as well as a functioning legal system with a strong judiciary, including a Constitutional court. The outgoing President Jacob Zuma, after resisting initially, had had to bend to the rule of law, and having been found guilty, and realising that the system was stronger than him, voluntarily gave himself up to the police. He was sent to jail to spend the 18 months of imprisonment that he had been imposed.
His supporters took a different line. In the looting, vandalism and hooliganism that they have unleashed, they have cut the ground from under their own feet. They have destroyed beyond belief those businesses that gave them employment and their essential provisions, and instilled fear and loss of confidence not only among the business class, but in society at large. For not even small and medium entrepreneurs in the townships have been spared, their means of livelihood gone for ever, a future of poverty staring at them. Worse still is that among them are many single mothers with many mouths to feed.
On the other hand, there have been no less than 70 deaths at least. Was this a simple protest or was it an insurrection, an attempt at subverting the state? To what extent is tribalism involved? Whatever be, the grim reality is that in both Haiti and South Africa, rebuilding is going to be a long-drawn affair – if at all it can begin under conducive conditions that their respective citizens only can bring about. Tall order indeed.
one nagging thought that keeps coming back when we take cognizance of these disturbing events: Mauritius has been lucky in having SSR and his Labour Party preside over the destiny of the country and for having instilled a culture of tolerance and power sharing since the early days of independent Mauritius. Neither Haiti nor South Africa has been as lucky, except for the brief five-year period when Nelson Mandela was at the helm of the latter country. One wonders whether things might have been different here if the Independence Party had lost the 1968 elections…
* Published in print edition on 16 July 2021
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Dear Editor ,
Please do not doubt that had the PMSD won the general elections the fate of our country would have been different . Allow me some level of paranoia . Remember Duval inciting his followers to disinfect La Place D”Armes after Labour Partys 1 st of May speech .And how they cheered . Then the PMSD egged their partisans to remove their savings from the Post-office and there were queues outside the Post Offices around the country . Mahatma Gandhi would have replaced Marie Reine de La Paix !! We would all be wearing langoutis . Tamils were told they were not hindus and needless to say many sided with Duval .
But then the “malbars not pas oulés ,envelopés not pas oulés “happened . And as a young 15 year old I witnessed a few travelling in UBS buses shouting this slogan of hatred .This left an imprint on me somewhere . A few of his partisans tamil ,muslim mothers were by definition envelopés themselves .
Whatever the Rozemonts ,Duprés,Forgets ,Anquetils had built was razed within a year of Duval . The Tamils such as Moorghen ,Patten embraced their Creole king .
I still remember Moorghen being humiliated by Duval into being denied the Lord Mayorship of Port Louis ( Princess Alexandra was coming and Duval wanted to be there ). As for Moorghen he suddenly remembered he was a hindu ! and I personally eavesdropped on him and the former Editor B.Ramlallah at a meeting of the Hindu Maha Sabha ,the seat of our Scout group meetings . He was whining about
the injustice committed to him !! Hahaha ! Lesson learnt . There were many like him .
Independence was a fact . But the country was divided .
Luckily for us the haters left for Australia or they would have disrupted progress.
Did it get better ? You tell me :during Kayas Creole stone throwing demonstrations
a Catholic priest wrote :Il fat comprendre les hindous …avec ” leurs “sacrifice ,”leurs”gouvernements !!!??? ,pas “notre ” gouvernement !!! It meant everything could be excused ,even violence !
Today some journos imply that Duval could have created chaos instead of working for the benefit of the country ,and he sacrificed his carrier for the country !!! I suggest that this is utter nonsense . Duval and the likes of Rima ,the forgeron de la mort ,knew that they were done . Finished ,as SSR and his team were ready for him .
The lackey of the sugar barons had to survive too ,something his supporters could not grasp . The “man of the manor ” would now become SGD .
Do I doubt that the justice system would not prevail or that we would have apartheid as in South Africa ? Or that the Police Force would be full of ” tontons macoutes ” enlisted from some of the most violent PMSD tapeurs ?
We. got Independence thanks too SSR but also due to the support of Sir Razack Mohamed ,something we should never forget .
Greetings from Stockholm,Sweden
Dr Shyan Sujeebun
PS :I assure you that I am not a bigot coming from a group that never promoted violence against other communities during or after Indepence . I am a hindu ,
Did it get better ? With accusations of malbarisations coming from a young tamil woman ,with Dev Virahsawmy ,who was propulsed into politics chanting anti-India,anti-Modi whenever he is given an opportunity to do so . This same guy who would have been a nobody had he not been supported by hindus in Triolet .
Sall I continue ? the Boure Li dehors plus anti-Modi ,anti-Hindutva (as if its wrong for Indians with a majority of 80 % hindus to promote hinduism ,the tolerant version ).
Just read at the venom Le Mauricien allows its netizens to post ,the vulgarism ,communalism ,disrespect of Indo :Mauritians is so obvious .
There are laws against this .
Mauritians have learnt to live in harmony but politics has shown how the divisive forces at play can disrupt this harmony