Haiti: Garry Conille won the Prime Minister prize

CSMS Magazine Staff Writers

The protracted war of words between Michel Martelly and the Haitian lawmakers ended last week with the approval of Garry Conille as the country’s new PM. Sources close to the political tergiversation said the ratification came to bear after intense political maneuverings and pressure from Bill Clinton and his cronies. Insiders said the majority of lawmakers said “yes” after receiving empty promises to be part of the rebuilding effort—where many parasite businessmen and traditional politicians hope to earn their tickets out of financial traps.

After months of political gridlock, Haiti’s Senate on Tuesday ratified Garry Conille as the new PM. His approval came just days after a similar endorsement last month by the country’s chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament. This ratification was brought to bear after a long debate on Wednesday night. At one point, many thought they were heading toward another rejection. But when it was over, it became clear that the shallow debate was none other than a political charade designed to camouflage an unspoken truth: caving in to Bill Clinton’s demands with empty promises of political immersion.

Who is Gary Conille?

Politically, little we know about Conille. He has no political overcoat; nor has he ever been at the forefront of the political trajectory that took the Haitian masses to a sweet political interlude shortly after Baby Doc fled Haiti under the cover of darkness in 1986, to the uproarious moments of the early 1990s, to the desolating rides of the early 2000s and to the final blow that stripped the country from its last vestige of nominal independence in 2010.

However, we know he is a 45-year old medical doctor—the son of Serge Conille who served as Minister of Sports and Youth under Jean Claude Duvalier. His Duvalierist connection does not rest solely with his father’s being a Baby Doc minister. Garry Conille married the daughter of Marc Bazin, a former Duvalier button-down technocrat who later went solo when it became clear the Duvalier regime was at its twilight in the early 1980s.

Conille has been a UN functionary for many years. In 1999, he served as a project officer for the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) in Haiti. He later became a representative and humanitarian coordinator for the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) in the West African state of Niger. From March 2010 to June 2011, he served as chief of staff for the United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, helping to coordinate the U.N. and international earthquake response and the mobilization and follow-through of donor commitments.

So, one can intellectually infer that his choice may have come about through a consensus between Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly, the actual president, and Bill Clinton, the current Proconsul. Conille’s Duvalierist lineage suits Martelly quite well, for he has sworn to uphold his Duvalierist credentials to the core. Conille’s UN experience in his résumé also swayed Bill Clinton, who sees in Conille a compliant petit-bourgeois totally inoffensive, especially with regards to Bill Clinton’s personal ambitions in Haiti.

Meanwhile, Sweet Micky continues to roam the country, making shallow promises of free education for all children. He was seen on Friday in western town of Arcahaie, taking credit for an elementary school built by Digicel, the local wireless telephone company. Watch here: