There are many social requisites to democracy. The most overlooked but yet vital aspect of establishing and securing democracy is human capital. An educated citizenry is a fundamental prerequisite for the establishment of a stable democracy in Haiti. A. LeRoy Bennet observed of the Third World that, “….without a broad corps of adequately trained (indigenous) political leaders and administrators and industrial managers progress in economic development will continue to be laborious and slow.”
In the last quarter century, many Haitians have lack the necessary zeal to transform their nation due to internal political tension, strife, chaos and economic instability. The term brain drain has been used to describe the movement of hundreds of thousands of educated and skilled Haitians who migrate to other countries in an attempt to better their living condition and improve their prospect at a brighter future for themselves and their children. Due to this mitigating factor of brain flight, Haiti has not benefited from the wealth of human investment that is necessary for progress. The flight of brain power “human capital” has been Haiti’s jugular wound.
Although brain is the most significant negative contributory factor in the underdevelopment equation, there are many other barriers to the democratization process in Haiti. The following paragraphs have simply highlighted a few of the many challenges face Haitian democratization.
Governance: Haiti's embryonic democracy cannot survive without peace and security. There is national support for curbing corruption, securing human rights initiatives and implementing socioeconomic reforms. Although there is a national will to achieve these objectives, Haiti needs more will qualified leaders to implement the national will.
Fragmented National Identity: Haiti is struggling to forge a cultural identity. The strong roots of African influences coupled with the quasi-European elite and a crippled middle class all asphyxiate the emergence of a national identity. Haiti’s effort to form an identity is further undermined by the influence of what can be considered a "Pro-French system” which functions as a powerful barrier to democratization. The Pro-French system is established and supported by members of the Haitian elite, middle class, and educated poor. These individuals, use the French language to indirectly hinder the majority Creole illiterate populace from participating in political and economic self-determination by encouraging cultural stratification based on linguistic discrimination.
Haiti's modern day Pro-French supports are analogous to the Creoles during the Haitian Revolution. Historian David Geggus maintains that the creoles associated themselves more with the French Europeans than with the Kongo Africans. Pro-French supporters impede democratization in many ways? For example, the International Encyclopedia of Education, whose sources include the Haitian National Board of Education and UNESCO, have concluded that Haiti's, "... educational curriculum bears no relation to Haitian cultural values....pupils whose mother tongue is Creole are taught the first notions of reading and arithmetic in French, a language they do not understand....[furthermore] elite-oriented teaching...is accessible only to children who practice spoken French at home, and results in contempt for the government's efforts at teaching rural areas where the results of the system are practically nil." Consequently, students who have graduated from rural schools receive a "limited education" or one that is stigmatized by urban Pro-French supporters. Once these individuals enter urban centers for further education and work they are greeted with the disobliging Pro-French system and their linguistic discrimination.
Bureaucratic Methods: Transforming the inefficient state managed enterprises to private enterprise is one of Haiti's pressing democratization restraints. As the gradual privatization process occurs, the state's semiskilled laborers are being integrated into a more technologically advanced private sector. Imprudent labor policy reforms and restructuring characterize the current environment, which has further burdened the labor market. The inefficient autocratic state tax bureaucracy is in need of moderate tax reform. Haiti has yet to achieve a desirable administrative structure or legitimate political institutions to effectively extract taxes needed for democratic development.
Interest Groups: Interest groups are a necessary coalition in the process of democratization. However, key political and economic reform researchers have little encouraging news for interest group participation in the Third World political arena. The structural process of democracy and the institutionalization of political and socio-economical progress in Haiti is dependent on the various activities of interest groups. The democratization process in Haiti needs interest groups to bring about a greater level of politicization to the disenfranchised rural and urban poor.
Leadership: Democratization has no future without strong entrepreneurial capitalistic leadership. For decades, genuine entrepreneurial competitiveness has been discouraged. Although, many elite enterprises have reduced the level of unemployment, their monopolistic practices have been antithetical to democratic growth. Entrepreneurs have been discouraged from embracing market-oriented policies. The absence of self-regulating and a vibrant economy has decreased the opportunity for respectable upward mobility, employment, infrastructure and other development-related changes associated with democratization.
The aforementioned barriers have overwhelmed unqualified and ill-advised presidential administrations since the fall of autocratic rule in 1986. Are there practicable solutions to the complex challenges in Haiti? In order to bring about sustaining reform and reverse the devastating effects of brain drain in Haiti, there must be brain repatriation. Appropriate research is needed in order to identify members of the expatriate community. In the short term, it is important to gather information, by means of quantitative research, members of the Haitian diaspora community who have been part of the massive brain drain phenomenon in the past five decades. In the long term, research gathered about Haiti’s diaspora population can be used by expatriate and indigenous leaders to establish think tank institutions. These institutions would bring together Haiti's diaspora and indigenous scholars to tackle the pressing development problems based on their expertise.
In the next ten to fifteen years, a well orchestrated expatriate and national effort can lead to the establishment of a well-secured residential college campus along with think tank institutions manned by expatriate and indigenous experts is probable. This forum would be idyllic to being the process of searching for practical and sustainable solutions for the development of Haiti.
The lack of trained indigenous personnel has led to incomplete, unsustainable and ill-equipped national development programs. Nation building requires far more investment in human capital than currently suggested by international non-government agencies (NGO) and specialist. NGO’s, although well intended, often handicap national development growth because their efforts predictably promote a “State Well-Fair System” which leads to further dependence, debt, and depression. Haiti needs expatriate and indigenous experts teaching Haitians how to develop Haiti. Notwithstanding the gloomy forecast of current third world development analyst and expert, Haiti’s future is bright. It is bright only if it is viewed through the unconventional prism of diaspora or brain repatriation.
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