Pierre-Louis, a long time personal friend to the president, has for the past 13 years been the director of the Fondation Connaissance et Liberte FOKAL, an Open Society Institute project founded in 1995 to support educational, cultural and environmental initiatives throughout Haiti.

(www.heritagekonpa.com) 

FOKAL has made incredible contributions to the country and Pierre-Louis should be commended for FOKAL's unparalleled achievements in literacy promotion through the various programs and libraries supported by FOKAL.  

Pierre-Louis may just be President Preval's long awaited saving grace to restoring order in the country. In the two months since the world watched in apprehension as food riots broke out in cities throughout Haiti, the country has found itself in the midst of a scandalizing political tug-of-war between its senators, deputies and even the president of the Republic, René Préval.

One of the political consequences of the food riots was that in the days that followed Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis was given a vote of no-confidence by the Senate and dismissed from his post. And in the two months that followed Prime Minister Alexis' removal from office, President Préval had to scramble to choose a Prime Minister whom the Senate will support.

President Préval seems to be picking from a short list of personal political cronies, perhaps in an attempt to reduce the probability of there being friction between himself and the prime minister, as seemed the case between himself and Prime Minister Alexis.

But, despite President Préval's efforts, his first two attempts have proven unsuccessful. His first choice was Ericq Pierre, an economist currently working for the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington D.C. President Préval previously nominated Pierre for the post back in 1997. In both instances, Pierre's nomination was rejected as a result of seeming bias and trivial efforts on the part of the deputies. One of the principle arguments against Ericq Pierre's nomination was that he could not provide documentation proving his grandparents' Haitian citizenship.

On his part, Pierre publicly denounced the deputies for rejecting his nomination.  He claimed it was because he has an economic plan to cut back on state spending by eliminating certain dead-weight ministries and government positions.  

The controversy forced President Préval to select another candidate for nomination as prime minister. Préval's second choice was Robert Manuel a long-time personal friend and advisor, but a man who is notorious from his former post as under-secretary of state for public safety in the Aristide-Lavalas administration.

(www.interet-general.info) 

Some argue that because of Manuel's lasting tensions with the Aristide-Lavalas supporters -- a result of his past clash with the political party in 2003 - as well as his lack of qualifications for the post and notorious personality, he was in fact rejected by the chamber of deputies. Thus, as the country stands still for a Prime Minister and legitimate government, the political charade continues.

One rumoring speculation is that supporters of former Prime Minister Alexis have had their hand in the affair. In a recent interview, one official in the National Palace stated that, "Prime Minister Alexis was pretty upset over his demise, he has been working to regroup his political forces in the Parliament, and many think that he was behind Ericq Pierre's failure to be ratified in the lower Chamber. ... The congressmen are sharply divided over Robert Manuel's choice. They have been holding meetings to decide on a course of action. But the group that supported Alexis is against the choice of Manuel, [and] it represents 52 votes."    

One probable reason for Alexis' bitterness is that he may be feeling as though he was forced to bear responsibility for the food riots and thus calculatedly pushed out of his post by political opposition forces with a personal agenda.

One official, who prefers to remain anonymous, stated that "the motives were primarily political. His opponents had previously tried to get rid of him through a vote in the Congress, but he was able to beat them. So they took the opportunity of the riots to go after him in the Senate, and it worked." The same official claimed that in fact, "The riots were provoked by politically-motivated agitators who led the demonstrators on a rampage whose aim was to terrorize the rest of the population and eventually topple even René Préval."

In this way, we must begin to deconstruct what really happened in Haiti back in April. The idea that political gangs might attempt to manipulate a desperate food crisis severely impacting millions across the globe, including nearly 80 percent of the Haitian population, most of whom are living in overpopulated slums in Port-au-Prince, for their own agenda's forces us to ask the question. What is to be gained by creating a situation of chaos? Moreover, the images plastered on televisions around the world showing a sporadic mob scene taking to the streets, barricading roads, breaking windows throughout downtown, and crashing down the palace gates, must be re-examined.

As the same official commented, "One must recognize that it was a very smart plan as the general economic situation and political circumstances could have called for such upheavals. The rising cost of living, lack of jobs and political stalemate had exacerbated many."

Despite the riots, the situation did not result in a complete turn over of the government. And as Raymond Joseph, Haiti's Ambassador to the United States, remarked in a recent interview: "Haiti has matured. If this had taken place in the past, the entire government would be crossing the border and escaping. But the political process after the riots has been handled democratically. In the end, there is a kind of silver lining to this whole situation."  And, with the world's spotlight on Haiti -- and around 7,000 United Nations Mission Troops and employees stationed there since 2006 -- increasing international response has been initiated to relieve the hunger crisis plaguing the nation.