COLUMN RIGHT : America Should Leave Haiti Alone : Foreign aid can undermine the very democracy that we hope to encourage.

With the collapse of communism, there’s a debate in Washington about America’s role in the world. A sudden case in point is Haiti, where the recently elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has been deposed by Haitian troops. President Bush has condemned “those who have attacked the legally constitutional, democratically elected government of Haiti,” and TV news programs are already illustrating their reports on developments with footage of U.S. warships. “If Haiti is ever to be a democracy,” the Washington Post asserted, Aristide “will have to be restored.”

Maybe it would be better if we left Haiti alone, however. What is striking is the extent to which we (and other countries) are already interfering there. Foreign aid allocated to Haiti this year includes $85 million from the United States and $148 million from the European Community. When Aristide was elected last December, he at first expressed reservations about accepting such aid. But the “international community” prevailed upon him to give up such independent notions and he duly took the money.

News reports from Haiti are sketchy, but it seems that the coup began when soldiers, not senior officers, suspected Aristide of training an elite presidential guard. This brought back memories of the Tontons Macoutes, the private army that for many years protected the Duvalier family dictatorship in Haiti. Elected or not, President Aristide has shown himself less than totally devoted to the “legally constitutional” practices praised by Bush. Among other things, he has defended the practice of necklacing--torching victims with a gasoline-soaked tire.

Recent developments in the African country of Zaire suggest that the rebellious soldiers in Haiti may have had a point and that Americans should be far more cautious about doling out foreign aid. For many years the United States bankrolled Zaire’s ruler, Mobutu Sese Seko, believing him to be a bulwark against Soviet influence in Africa. But with the collapse of communism Mobutu was dispensable and the aid was cut off. Two weeks ago serious rioting and looting broke out in Kinshasa, the capital. The army participated in the rebellion. Buried in the fine print of news reports was the observation that Mobutu’s troops were no longer being paid.

Foreign aid goes from government to government, and it is clear that Mobutu used the money, first and foremost, to ensure his own protection, diverting a good deal of the remainder to his private bank accounts and real-estate holdings.

Cash flowing in from abroad permits dictators to remain indifferent to the plight of their own people and to protect themselves from the people’s wrath by buying the services of a palace guard. That process may well have been under way in Haiti.

When the money is cut off, however, the troops feel the pinch and join the mutinous ranks. Tyranny is then placed in jeopardy. Following the looting, Mobutu agreed to share power with an opposition leader. (It does say something for Mobutu that he permitted such opposition to survive. Aristide allegedly ordered the assassination of one of his key opponents only last week.)

In poor countries such as Haiti and Zaire, foreign aid can make all the difference to government finances. It can also undermine the very democracy that we hope to encourage. Another foreign ruler who was able both to enrich himself and (for a while) shield himself from local unrest was Ferdinand Marcos. When discontent in the Philippines became hard for us to ignore, support was partially withdrawn and Marcos soon fell. But the U.S. Treasury has continued to support the Filipino government under Corazon Aquino, lavishly bribing that country to retain our military bases. We should be grateful for the volcano that finally drove us from Clark Air Base. Soon we will also leave the naval base at Subic Bay.

Significantly, economic reform never seems to take place in countries that receive U.S. aid. Analogously, people on welfare are not disposed to take entry-level jobs. The U.S. Agency for International Development is hard put to name any country that has risen from “undeveloped” status once it was put on the international dole. No doubt the Philippines will improve economically once we leave.

In recent decades there has been a pattern of repeated U.S. support for countries supposedly vital to our interests, followed by disclosure of human-rights violations, a reduction of aid and the overthrow of the government. Now that international communism has disappeared as a threat, there is no justification for continuing this destabilizing cycle. Let us discontinue all such aid and put American interests first. The recipient countries, no longer enervated by our misplaced generosity, will be the winners.