No more Duvaliers

By G.A. Dwyer Astaphan

She has had a number of natural disasters. But perhaps her worst suffering has come at the hands of men of France and other foreign lands who punished her for her audacity and made her weak, and men of Haiti who have kept her weak.

One of the latter was Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier, born in Haiti in 1907 to Mr. Duval (‘DD’) Duvalier, a justice of the peace, and Ms. Ulyssia Abraham, a baker. His mother had little to do with his early development.

As a young man, he manifested an appetite for power and an interest in language. It is said that he took great pleasure in showing how language could be used to achieve any desired objective.

He supported the teachings of 15th-16th century Italian Nicollo Machiavelli, who had espoused leadership based on cunning and deceit, in order to achieve the leader’s essential objective, which is to secure and maintain power.

Machiavelli said: “A prince (leader) may be perceived as being merciful, faithful, humane, frank and religious, but he must only be seen to have those qualities. He cannot truly have them, because at times it will be necessary for him to act against them.

“He must keep his word only if it suits him. The illusion that he keeps his word is more important than him actually keeping it”.

He also believed that a good leader has to create the illusion for his supporters that his power is their power, and that his success is their success, untrue as that may be, so that they will identify with him, and remain malleable to his dominion over them.

Duvalier’s focus was the poor Black population, their resentment of the mulatto elites and their involvement in voodoo. So he joined the Negritude Movement and began studying voodoo practices.

He became the Director-General of Public Health and, later, Minister of Health & Labour, building his power base with the masses along the way.

As President, he put his cronies in key positions. And he built a public service based on systemic patronage and corruption, with loyalty to, and fear of, him being the overriding factor in all things.

He was the focus. He was Haiti.

He used the poor masses as his passport to power, and he manipulated them into seeing him as their only protector and beacon of hope. He became their ‘Papa Doc’.

He outgrew the political organization around him, sucking all of the power ‘space’ yielded freely up to him by the weak and the fearful, whom he chose to surround him.
 
Those who showed signs of strength were disposed of in one cruel way or another. He reserved a special disdain and vindictiveness for anyone who from time to time questioned him or his actions, as well as for his deputies and others regarded as potential successors to the presidency.

He felt that it was his decision, rather than their aspirations and merit, that should determine the leadership succession process.

He was said to be a notorious liar, with an extraordinary ability to tell the truth or a lie with no discernible facial or physiological difference. He used this skill to great effect to sew distrust among his colleagues, in order to keep them weak.

In the army, he set up a special unit, made up of loyal Duvalierites, called the Presidential Guard. But he didn’t trust them enough. So, in 1959, for further ‘insurance’, he established the rural militia, which came to be known as the Ton Ton Macoutes, who, for the most part, were fiercely loyal to him and merciless on the people of Haiti.

By 1961, the Ton Ton Macoutes boasted twice as many members as Haiti’s regular army. They had ‘licence’ to use Government services without paying, to benefit handsomely and unethically from the resources of the State, to extort, to rob, to rape, to plunder and even to kill.

Papa Doc exploited the voodoo influence, claiming to be Baron Samedi, who is the head of all voodoo spirits and also the embodiment of at least ten different spirits, responsible for life, death, resurrection, sexuality, and so on.

Baron Samedi is also known for his nasal, hysterical voice and his obnoxious and outrageous behaviour.

As the ‘protector’ and ‘redeemer’ of the poor masses, and also the incarnation of the head voodoo spirit plus all of those other voodoo spirits in one, Duvalier’s stranglehold on government and on the minds of the vast majority of Haitians was complete.

This arrangement was perfect for this psychopath obsessed with an insatiable lust for power and dominion over people.

He suffered from diabetes, heart disease and poor circulation. And in 1959 he suffered a massive heart attack which put him in a coma for ten hours. People believed that during those ten hours he may have suffered neurological damage, because, after that, he became even more autocratic and outrageous.
While he was convalescing, he put Clement Barbot, the leader of the Ton Ton Macoutes, to deputize for him, but friction developed between them and he sought to have Barbot killed. He told the masses that Barbot had been transformed into a black dog, and he ordered all black dogs in Haiti killed. And the poor masses obeyed.

In his ‘victory speech’ after a particular election in which he was the only candidate, he declared in a humble, measured voice: “I accept the people’s will. As a revolutionary, I have no right to disregard the will of the people.”

In 1957, he began his assault on the Constitution. He wanted to be president for life.

Then in 1964, in the referendum to decide whether he could be president for life, 99.9% of the voters of Haiti voted ’yes’. By the way, on all of the ballots was printed the word “oui” (yes).

Duvalier’s policies and actions were based on the raw and ruthless use of power, fear and favour over friends and foes alike.

Almost everything that happened in Haiti had implications for the pockets of Duvalier and his cronies. And in quick time, the leader of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere accumulated a fortune, while the cronies did well for themselves too.

After his death in 1971, he was succeeded by his inept and totally unqualified 19-year-old son, Jean Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier. So powerful was Papa Doc, even in death, that, transparency and the best interests of Haiti be damned, his son would succeed him instead of a qualified, able and reputable Haitian.

Today, nearly forty years later, Haiti is still trying to catch itself.

The lessons of Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier need to be learned by Caribbean people, because although his mortal remains have long disappeared from the face of the earth, evidence of his political DNA can be seen about us, both in incumbent and opposition parties.

On January 24, 2010, the United National Congress (UNC) in Trinidad & Tobago started the ball rolling when it replaced its leader, who was grandiosely enamored with himself.

And four months to the day after that, the voters of that country followed suit by sending home their prime minister, a man also grandiosely enamored with himself, in a bold and democratic statement, bringing a great, collective sigh of relief to T&T, and giving People’s National Movement (PNM) supporters a fresh lease on life under new leadership.

But the other Duvaliers in the region need to be sent packing, whether by their own party members (incumbents and aspirants alike), by the general public applying the vote in an election, or by relentless pressure every day, and all within the law.

Of course, that will not be easy, as can be seen from other recent happenings, because these chaps have control of their parties’ machinery, and those in office have personal control of the government apparatus, with systemic patronage and corruption very much in play. And they exercise their control ruthlessly.

Duvalier would be proud of them.

Necessary and worthy action has never been easy, and never will be easy. It is the people who must ensure and protect their own democracy and dignity. That is an obligation which they cannot entrust to their leaders.