bcholmes | Negative and Positive Peace

The return of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti is an unwelcome development.
His homecoming will only add to the country’s political turmoil, make the second round of disputed elections more contentious, and the orderly transition of power more difficult.
Mr. Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest forced into exile, remains an extraordinarily popular, if divisive, figure. Regardless of whether he inserts himself into the political process, his very presence is polarizing. He was twice removed from office, in 1991 and 2004, and while his supporters blame his ousting on the U.S., his detractors accuse him of human-rights abuses.
“I cannot see a scenario where he will be helpful,” says Peter Hakim, with the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank. “He will undercut or compromise the formally elected president.”
Several hundred of Mr. Aristide’s supporters mobilized on Wednesday by setting fires in front of a government ministry. “We’ll die for Aristide,” they chanted. The government has said it will issue Mr. Aristide a diplomatic passport.
— "The return of the polarizing Aristide", The Globe and Mail

Let's say that this is true. Let's say that Aristide's return does increase political turmoil. Suppose his presence in the country makes the elections more contentious. Let's say, for the sake of argument that Aristide's return to Haiti makes the orderly transition of power more difficult.

Two things are, I think, important here. First: it's what the majority of Haitians want. They want Aristide to return. I've had countless Haitians explain to me that the Haitian constitution does not allow for involuntary exile. Aristide is a Haitian citizen, he has a right to return to Haiti, and it's what the majority of Haitians want. Seems like a no brainer, to me.

So that brings me to the second point: the international community is trying to make the argument that "peace" in Haiti is of paramount importance. More important than giving the majority of Haitians what they want. And I'm inclined to point to my favourite portion of "Letter from Birmingham Jail", where Dr. King talks about people (in the case of the civil rights movement, the white moderate) who prefer "a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice." Dr. King goes so far as to say that people who espouse these ideas are a bigger stumbling block to the civil rights movement than the Ku Klux Klan.

Haitians get this. That there isn't justice in the country, and that artificial calm is not a reasonable substitute for justice. The only way to achieve real, positive peace in Haiti is to correct injustices, and it is clear that the majority of Haitians view the removal of Aristide as an injustice perpetrated on the country.

I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes.
— Martin Luther King, "Letter From Birmingham Jail"