Haitian group that backed Wyclef Jean picks new candidate

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

JCHARLES@MIAMIHERALD.COM
A burgeoning grass-roots youth movement that championed hip hop star Wyclef Jean's presidential bid -- until he was ruled ineligible for Haiti's ballot -- is now throwing its weight behind another young candidate.
Gary Bodeau, leader of Jèn Kore Jèn (Youth supporting Youth), says the nationwide movement plans to support Jude Célestin, a 48-year-old Swiss-educated mechanical engineer.
The former head of the state-owned road-building department, Célestin was endorsed by outgoing President René Préval to succeed him. Préval, who has served two non-consecutive five-year presidential terms, is constitutionally barred from seeking a third.
``He is the youth whom we were searching for; what Wyclef Jean symbolized -- the future, hope for our youth -- that is what Jude Célestin symbolizes,'' Bodeau told The Miami Herald in an exclusive interview. ``We are supporting a young person who has a track-record for demonstrating results, a young person who loves his country, a young person who is 100 percent for Haiti.''
Célestin did not return calls seeking comment.
Jean said Jèn Kore Jèn is free to support whomever it chooses. It does not represent all of the university students in Haiti who are part of the groundbreaking movement, known as Fas a Fas or Face to Face, that recruited him and remains the backbone of his supporters. It's estimated that those under 21 make up 50 percent of Haiti's population.
``Jèn Kore Jèn was one of the minimal forces that did an alliance with Fas a Fas,'' he told The Miami Herald while in route to Brown University in Rhode Island Monday to hear Miami resident and Haiti-born author Edwidge Danticat speak on Haiti. ``If they feel whatever candidate they chose is going to work for them, they have to do that. Myself and my movement, Fas a Fas, what we are trying to do, it's bigger than Jèn Kore Jèn....I don't see it going downhill from here.''
The Haitian-born Jean, who is not ruling out a 2015 presidential bid, said that for the time being he will remain neutral in the race even as ``every candidate wants to talk and with open ears we are listening. It's too early for me to make that decision. I am still in the process of listening to everybody.''
Célestin faces a tough road to victory in the Nov 28 elections. He's the choice of a president -- and political platform, INITE -- whose popularity has withered following the devastating Jan. 12 quake that left an estimated 300,000 dead and at least 1.5 million people homeless. A poll published last week showed Célestin placing sixth in name recognition among Haitians. Former first lady Mirlande Manigat placed first.
Bodeau said his group is well aware of Célestin's challenges but believes that with thousands of youths preparing to mobilize across the country on Célestin's behalf, he and Jèn Kore Jèn can be propelled to victory.
The decision to support Célestin, Bodeau said, came after a week of consultations with at least a dozen of the 19 presidential hopefuls, including former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, industrialist Charles Henri Baker, and former minster of social affairs Yves Cristallin, whom he referred to as a personal friend.
Bodeau concedes that many of the candidates were out of the running before they walked through the door. The group was determined to support a young candidate.
``When we say youth supporting youth, we are talking about a youthful candidate who has a project for the youth. We are fighting for the marginalized youth of this country so that we can create a space for them.''
Célestin, a low-key technocrat known as ``the deliverer'' within government circles, impressed the group with both what he had done in training and hiring women as heavy equipment operators -- more than 50 percent of workers at Centre National des Equipments, the department he ran, are females -- and his lists of youth-focused projects he plans to pursue should he win, Bodeau said. They include increasing professional and training schools in Haiti, and setting aside an entrepreneurial fund for recent college graduates to start their own businesses.
The key endorsement comes just weeks after Jean, who is still being pursued by other presidential candidates, told followers to stay mobilized and that he had yet to endorse any candidate. He told The Herald, ``I have absolutely no pact with President Préval or INITE when it comes to politics.''
``Today, Wyclef Jean is no longer in the running and we are not prepared to abandon the democratic process when we have a young candidate in the race who has good projects and believes that the youth of this country should receive training, good schools, and good universities,'' Bodeau said. ``We've changed drivers, but we have not changed direction.''
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