Haiti-corruption: everyone withdraws

27 janvier Justice

The impacts of corruption on the life of the community are plausible. Everyone agrees that they act according to the laws and principles. Everyone agrees that corruption is destroying our institutions but takes advantage of it in secret, at one level or another, without wanting to be pointed out.Le Conseil Supérieur du Pouvoir Judiciaire (CSPJ) de son côté a décidé de ne pas certifier une trentaine de juges, des Magistrats qui montent au créneau et provoquent un tollé en dénonçant, ce qu’ils appellent, une injustice.

The decision taken by the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSPJ) last week to certify or not to certify judges working in the Haitian judicial system, is debated. This regulatory institution of the Haitian judicial system, decided not to certify about thirty judges after the work carried out by the Technical Certification Commission (CTC). These uncertified magistrates are stepping up to denounce while triggering an outcry.

For its part, the CSPJ made the necessary clarifications by rejecting the charges brought against the advisers. The procedures, the methodology and the law were scrupulously respected during the process, affirmed the adviser, Me Evens Fils, representative of the Federation of Bars on the Council. He also underlined that the most frequent reason encountered in the processing of files is corruption.

According to the uncertified magistrates, they were targeted. They have integrity but for political reasons, they are thrown out of the system. It is the same discourse conveyed by those who have been sanctioned by Canada and the United States. All claim their innocence. Everyone is looking for scapegoats. They are all victims of manipulation, defamation, conspiracy. They are all taken for black sheep when they are children at heart, they let believe. The facts are obvious. The impacts of corruption on community life are plausible. But no one is guilty. Everyone acts according to the laws and principles. Paradoxical! Everyone agrees that corruption is destroying our institutions but profiting from it in secret, at one level or another, without wanting to be pointed out.

Corruption is the unloved. Enjoying it is the most pleasant thing. But being fooled is the biggest accusation anyone can make against you. If it is true that bringing unfounded accusations against people in Haiti is commonplace, it is also true that corruption is corrupting our institutions and has long since become commonplace, due to the impunity erected into a system.

In Haiti, we play the double game: denounce and profit. Jovenel Moïse was a perfect example. Being in power, he kept saying that the main problem of the country was corruption. Yet, long before his assassination, he confessed to having agreed to appoint more than fifty corrupt judges in the system. Long before he ran for the 2015 elections, the Central Financial Intelligence Unit (UCREF) released a report linking the late President to money laundering. This did not prevent him from becoming Head of State and triggering the process of weakening state institutions, starting in particular with the UCREF.

There are many who overstep their rights to take advantage of their positions in public administration. The Anti-Corruption Unit (ULCC) recently informed that nearly forty parliamentarians, and not the least, had not made their declaration of assets. The Public Prosecutor’s Offices of the various jurisdictions were seized of these files including those of several magistrates. Corruption is everywhere. It is protected among others by those who make the laws and those who should enforce them.

How to get out of this maze? Will these series of unprecedented sanctions not be able to serve as a trigger or a warning to return to normality? Obviously we know, unless they prove otherwise, that we had long since brought wolves into the fold. “Plimen poul la men pa kite l rele”. Corruption is a sweet udder. Our leaders, our businessmen, families, almost no one wants to do without it even if it impoverishes the majority. Even when she signs the killing of the community. Many are those who denounce it. who benefit from it. Who drink this poison with a happy heart.

If corruption is everywhere and everyone knows it, it is clear to say that there is an urgent need for the Haitian population to wake up by detaching themselves from this international community which plays against our society, in order to set up a strong justice which has « Themis » god of justice as its guide. But for this to happen, the right leaders must be chosen in elections.