The disfigured body lay lifeless on the floor. Riddled with bullets, president Jovenel Moïse’s left eye had been gouged out and bones in his arm and ankle had been fractured. Haiti was stunned by the barbaric murder. An investigation led by Haiti’s police and assisted by Interpol and the FBI was launched to answer the pressing question: who was behind the assassination?
Malta witnessed its own barbaric assassination. Thousands of miles away, another body was left dismembered. Malta, or at least most of it, was stunned. An investigation led by Malta’s police assisted by Europol and FBI was launched. Malta, like Haiti, still waits to know who was really behind that assassination.
Much unites Malta and Haiti. The two countries were simultaneously greylisted by the FATF. Both are on the UK list of high-risk countries for money laundering and terrorist financing. Despite the laments that this was “unjust”, both countries roundly deserved it.
Like Malta, Haiti has a tumultuous past. It is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, notorious for its poor governance. Like Malta, Haiti was colonised for far too long. Its people finally overthrew the French. But France sent warships to threaten the Caribbean state and demanded reparations equivalent to $28 billion. Haiti was crippled having to take out huge loans. The debt from 1825 was finally paid in 1947.
As Haiti cleared its debt, Francois Duvalier, known as Papa Doc, grabbed power and declared himself president for life. He proceeded to destroy Haiti through rampant violence and corruption.
After its independence, Malta started to forge its own future. Soon after, Dom Mintoff gained power. After a promising start of social reforms, Mintoff allowed the country to slide into violence and corruption.
Duvalier died soon after Mintoff became prime minister in 1971. Papa Doc was swiftly replaced by his 19-year-old son, Jean Claude, nicknamed Baby Doc. He amplified his father’s brutality and led the country into increasing poverty and human rights abuses. Mintoff handed over to his handpicked successor, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici. Malta too descended into poverty, crumbling basic infrastructure and worsening human rights abuse.
Haiti waited until 1990 for its first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It was ecstatic that, finally, basic rights would be protected. Similar scenes of jubilation played out in Malta in May 1987 as the long years of repression, violence and scarcity ended.
A time of promise, aspiration and openness followed in both countries. Aristide and Eddie Fenech Adami led major reforms, including improving education, developing the infrastructure and, most importantly, improving the human rights climate.
The economic situation and job opportunities also improved dramatically.
In 2017, Jovenel Moïse was elected president of Haiti. Joseph Muscat was re-elected prime minister.
Major corruption scandals in both countries surfaced. In Haiti, the Petrocaribe scandal precipitated massive anti-corruption and anti-impunity protests. Petrocaribe was a strategic oil alliance with Venezuela that allowed Haiti to procure cheap oil.
The real problem in Haiti is lack of justice. Sadly, the same applies for Malta – impunity and injustice- Kevin Cassar
The billions of dollars Haiti saved were meant to develop the economy and fund social programmes. Instead, $2 billion went missing and Haitians saw little of the promised benefits. A Court of Auditors’ anti-corruption report linked Moise himself to the embezzlement. It concluded that contracts awarded did not go through the usual government bid process.
Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri travelled to Azerbaijan on a secret trip and concluded a deal with SOCAR that costs the country millions of euros per year more than the true cost of gas procured. The Guardian estimated that €40 million per year were lost. Subsequent revelations of millions of Azerbaijani funds transferred from a Seychelles company, through a Latvian bank, into 17-Black’s account in Dubai’s Noor Bank completed the link between Yorgen Fenech, Mizzi and Schembri.
In both countries, people started protesting – against the president in Haiti and against the prime minister in Malta. Protesters knew both men were the root cause of the problem. Government critics were viciously targeted. In Haiti, critics were massacred by armed gangs supportive of the president. In Malta, the man linked to Mizzi and Schembri allegedly commissioned hardened criminals to assassinate Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Moise became increasingly autocratic, ruling by decree and going unchallenged as he changed laws. In Malta, Muscat’s parliamentary majority, his contemptuous disregard for the opposition and a subservient Labour parliamentary group meant he had free reign.
Moïse deliberately weakened the major institutions including the police and the judiciary. By placing his own people at the helm, Moïse could easily control them. Muscat’s strategy was identical, appointing an incompetent loyalist to lead the police force and stuffing the judiciary and major regulatory authorities with unqualified, inexperienced party faithful.
In February 2021, while trying to gain public sympathy, Moïse addressed the nation. An attempt to overthrow him had been discovered. Muscat did the same in 2017 when he accused those levelling Egrant allegations of attempting to discredit him.
Moïse positioned himself as the peasant who had come to save the people from oligarchs and corruption. Instead, he removed those who had enriched themselves in the energy sector and replaced them with his loyal supporters. Muscat came to power promising to root out corruption. Instead, he empowered his inner circle to loot the country, ignoring multiple NAO damning reports.
After Moïse’s assassination, François Pierre-Louis, professor of political science and Aristide’s cabinet minister was asked “what’s next for Haiti”. His reply was: “I hope this will be a new beginning but it has to start right.” This was an opportunity for Haitian society to look at itself and exclaim: “How did we let this happen?”
After its own shocking assassination, Malta too should look at itself and ask the same question.
Pierre-Louis’s recommended path to recovery is simple: restore faith in the political system and mend society’s fabric through honest open dialogue. But first you must stop impunity. The real problem in Haiti is lack of justice. Sadly, the same applies for Malta – impunity and injustice.