News Information
- NEWS_POSTED_BY: Haiti Place
- NEWS_POSTED_ON: Feb 07, 2015
- Views : 757
- Category : Haiti News
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Description :
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES, JCHARLES@MIAMIHERALD.COM
02/05/2015 7:53 PM 02/05/2015 9:20 PMHaiti's new Prime Minister Evans Paul gives an interview at his government residence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015. Paul, the former mayor of Port-au-Prince and presidential candidate, automatically became Prime Minister after both houses failed to approve him by Jan. 12 when the terms of both houses expired. DIEU NALIO CHERY / AP
- Location : Port-au-Prince, Ouest, Haiti
- Website : http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article9369944.html
Overview
PORT-AU-PRINCE - He is one of the country’s most well-known politicians, but newly installed Prime Minister Evans Paul is seen by many as little more than a figurehead for a government that appears to be drowning in a sea of political and economic troubles.
On a political radio talk show on Radio Caraibes, a Haitian journalist recently called him a lifeless “rag doll,” demanding that he “shakes himself off and man up.”
“I don’t sense there is a prime minister in the country,” Jean Monard Metellus told listeners before directing his comments to Paul, a friend and former radio host and playwright known by the nickname K-Plim (KP). “I don’t think your dream is to die with a line on your [résumé] that simply said ‘Prime Minister.’”
Paul, a veteran politician and democracy combatant, is at the height of power as Haiti’s latest — and President Michel Martelly’s third — head of government.
But the de-facto way in which he got there — he was tapped by Martelly in December and parliament dissolved last month before giving its constitutionally required blessing — has both friends and foe wondering: How long will he last? Is he capable of rising to his biggest political challenge yet — steering Haiti to credible long overdue elections?
“I’ve always carried out difficult battles,” said Paul, 59, a former presidential candidate and long-time leading figure in Haiti’s fractious political opposition. “I’ve never had it easy; it has always been in the context of dictatorship, repression, beatings, hiding, aggression. I’ve always been a victim of these because I’m always fighting in a difficult landscape.”
While the elections remain the priority, Paul says he wants to return some dignity to Haiti while making the public administration more responsive. Don’t expect him, however, to continue with former Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe’s Gouvènman An Lakay Ou town hall-like meetings that crisscrossed the country — and even made it to Miami.
“It cost a lot of money and resembled more of a media show,” Paul told the Miami Herald. “The state doesn’t need to run its affairs in the public sphere. I would like to create something called ‘the Listening Government,’ a call-in system where someone can report something they don’t like or get information.”
Whether Paul is allowed to accomplish this remains unclear. While he rose from humble beginnings to become mayor of Port-au-Prince in the 1990 election that brought former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, his managerial skills are limited, say critics. Most of his tenure was spent in hiding, surviving attempts on his life after Aristide’s September 1991 ouster in a military coup.