Rene Preval

In “Haiti Elected a New President, But Can He Replace Aristide?” (Opinion, Dec. 24), J.P. Slavin completely misses the significance of Rene Preval’s election to Haiti’s highest office.

Slavin questions whether Preval is President Aristide’s “protege” or “acolyte.” In fact he is neither. It was Preval who convinced a reluctant Aristide to run for the presidency in 1990 and it was Preval who as prime minister and interior minister in 1991 led efforts to eradicate the corrupting influence of the Tontons Macoutes from the governmental apparatus. During the first seven months of his administration, state enterprises showed a profit while customs duties and the collection of taxes contributed to the largest budgetary surplus seen to date.

Moreover, it is untrue that Aristide “chose” Preval, nor did he “appoint” him. The selection of Preval as a candidate for the Lavalas Political Platform was done through a democratic balloting held by the leadership of hundreds of grass-roots organizations making up the coalition. These leaders nominated Preval and the peasant leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste. In a straw poll, Preval emerged as the consensual candidate. Only in the last days of the campaign did Aristide come out and publicly support Preval’s candidacy.

Slavin’s erroneous claim that Preval was selected “because he doesn’t threaten Aristide’s popularity”--whom we are told “enjoys being the center of attention”--is prattling nonsense. Slavin paints a superficial portrait highlighting a politics of personality when nothing could be further from the truth. The transition of power from the first to the second democratically elected leader of Haiti is less a question of personal popularity and has everything to do with insuring that democratic institutions become permanent structures within Haiti’s political landscape.

JOHN C. KOZYN

Consultant to the Ambassador of Haiti

Washington