LAST Wednesday’s (October 20) annual Eric Williams Memorial Lecture, delivered in Miami, Florida, by Jamaica’s former Prime Minister PJ Patterson, would have served to further underscore the urgent need for the international community to cut the talk and walk the walk in delivering pledged reconstruction aid for earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Questions raised among the hundreds in attendance for the lecture pointed to the horrors of life for the people of Haiti, the “mother of freedom in this hemisphere”.

Hopefully, the concerns expressed at the event would also serve as a reminder why both the Caribbean Community and the Organisation of American States should speak boldly to the reconstruction aid problem, among other things.

There is also the dangerous politicking that has already led to the unilateral exclusion of some 14 parties from contesting the upcoming November 28 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Before returning to the aid and political problems affecting Haiti, readers should know that the topic for this year’s lecture was “The Renaissance of Haiti: A Template for Caribbean Integration”.

It was organised by The Eric Williams Memorial Lecture Collection (EWMC), headed by Erica Williams-Connell, daughter of the late historian prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago who led the country into independence and headed governments over a quarter century until his death in office in 1981.

Patterson’s assessment

Patterson, known for his deep commitment to regional integration, was chosen as the Caribbean Community’s special envoy for Haiti in the wake of last January’s unprecedented earthquake disaster.

He knows only too well about the prevailing “words game” over the distressing gap between aid pledges by donors and lack of deliveries in the face of immense suffering of Haitian earthquake victims, and in general the entire population of Haiti. In the circumstances, Patterson was the perfect choice for this year’s Eric Williams Memorial Lecture.

He is well aware of the influence of Williams’ pan-Caribbean vision that had significantly contributed to the inauguration of the Caribbean Community at Chaguaramas in 1973; and why today’s 37-year-old Caricom must remain firmly committed to being a strong voice in the mobilisation of international support for the reconstruction of Haiti.

With respect to the current challenges facing the Haitian people and what functions as their “government” amid the ruins and squalor in Port-au-Prince, it may be useful for the region’s public to learn of Patterson’s latest assessment as Caricom’s special envoy on Haiti.

Two critical issues

It is certainly time that the secretariats of Caricom and the OAS communicate with the region’s public, either separately, or through a joint statement, their own concerns over the two very critical, agonising problems affecting the Haitian people — one economic, the other political.

Desperately struggling to survive amid choking poverty long before their country was devastated by an unprecedented earthquake disaster, Haitians are today anxious to know why it is taking so long — nine months after their worst natural disaster – for just US$732 million of the promised US$5.03 billion in “reconstruction aid and debt relief” to trickle down to them.

Of particular concern is, why has the administration of President Barack Obama, which had committed itself to an initial US$1.15 billion of the original US$5.03 billion, not yet delivered even a portion of its pledge?

Both United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and former President Bill Clinton, the UN special envoy to Haiti, continue to openly lament the failures to honour aid pledges in the face of the horrible daily problems of Haitians, who languish in tents where criminality, sickness, hunger and a loss of dignity for many remain a way of life.

The second, and related question, is why are donor nations, among them the USA and Canada, yet to condemn the arbitrary exclusion by Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) of candidates from 14 political parties?

Among the parties is Haiti’s largest and most popular Fanmi Lavalas, whose founder-leader, ex-President Bertrand Aristide, remains in exile. What would justify this most strange action by the Electoral Council?

With presidential and legislative elections just about six weeks away, there needs to be a proper explanation from the Council, a constitutional and supposedly independent body, which is being funded by the international community to ensure free and fair elections in the interest of democratic governance.

That’s why neither the OAS nor Caricom can fail to share their positions on the sensitive issues of lack of aid delivery and the arbitrary exclusion by the CEP of more than a dozen parties from contesting the forthcoming elections.

After all, both Caricom and the OAS have teamed up to monitor the conduct of the Novermber 28 elections.