BY EDWIDGE DANTICAT It was the presidential bid heard around the world. However, to those who have been following Wyclef Jean closely, it was no surprise. I remember as early as 2004 hearing of a Wyclef Jean candidacy being discussed by friends and family members, some uneasy and others thrilled at the possibility. As much as carriers of Haitian passports are pestered at borders all over the world, Wyclef, who travels constantly, never traded his Haitian passport for any other.
``His journey,'' one friend told me, ``will begin with his foundation [Yele Haiti] and end at the national palace.''
The timing of his presidential run, Wyclef recently told Time magazine, had a lot to do with the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake that all but leveled Port-au-Prince and several other cities. Otherwise, he would have waited another 10 years to run. Now, unless Article 135 of the Haitian constitution -- which requires habitual residence in the country for five consecutive years prior to the election -- is amended or unless, in spite of reported death threats, Wyclef moves to Haiti for the next five years, he will not be able to run. Haiti's electoral council has decided that he is ineligible because he has failed to meet the residency requirement. That too is no surprise. Had they ruled in Wyclef's favor, they might have opened a Pandora's box that might cast further doubt on their desire and ability to hold elections that are as fair and transparent as possible given the already tenuous and potentially volatile post-earthquake situation in Haiti.
At this point, I should mention that I know Wyclef Jean. From the very beginning of his musical career, I have seen him perform on both small and large stages, but I have also seen him write a song on the spot while looking at footage of a dead friend. I have seen him play with his 5-year-old daughter, and I have seen him act as master of ceremony at both a brother and sister's weddings. I cannot vouch for him as a presidential candidate (and less so as a president), but I must admit that I initially found his candidacy exciting. The idea that he might be our first forty-something, Creolophone, diaspora-hailed candidate -- anticipating this very outcome, I had not allowed my mind to go as far as president -- was rather electrifying. His entry into the race has energized thousands of disempowered young people. It has also brightened a fading international media spotlight on Haiti, where 300,000 people recently lost their lives and more than a million still remain homeless.
Among both his supporters and detractors, Wyclef's candidacy has also generated a passionate dialogue about the kind of leader Haiti needs at one of the most critical moments of its 206-year-old existence. The fact that only Haiti's current president, Rene Preval, has been able to finish a full term in office speaks volumes about the office. Whoever becomes president of Haiti this fall will have the Sisyphean task of rebuilding a nation even as other potential disasters -- health, economic and environmental -- loom ahead. For example, should Haiti be struck by one or a string of hurricanes as it was it was two years ago around this time, there could be as many casualties as during the earthquake.
Now that the decision has been made, we must return to the less exciting and more somber business at hand. Nine million people, many of whom live in deplorable conditions in makeshift shelters, deserve no less. Haiti's next president must burrow in, and along with the people of Haiti, fight corruption, create housing, educational opportunities and jobs, among many other grueling and unglamorous tasks. He or she -- there is one woman in the race -- will have to keep expectations low while working as hard as possible to deliver tangible results to a long suffering population.
I hope that my friend will not be too disappointed that these tasks will not fall on his shoulders. The burden will be enormous on whoever takes on the job. Now there will, of course, be people who lose interest in the race, who feel that they have no dog in the fight. I hope Wyclef Jean is not one of them. What he has promised to do before -- create jobs and educational opportunities and inspire young people who have already lost so much to the earthquake that inspired him to run -- he can continue to do through a reformed version of his Yele Haiti foundation and his music. As our roving ambassador, he can now do this more freely, without the statesman straitjacket and forced political lingo. He can speak directly to us and from his heart. He can console his young supporters and urge them once again to remain calm. And he won't have to do it en francais. That could be his most important contribution yet to a country for which he has proven his love and devotion over and over again.
Edwidge Danticat is an author whose most recent works are y ``Eight Days'' and ``Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist At Work.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/22/1787068/barred-from-ballot-wyclef-remains.html
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