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Author: Gottson Pierre
P-au-P., August 21, 2024 (AlterPresse) – “Pepe Mujica, Nelson Mandela and Haiti”, a 2023 film that was screened on August 20, 2024 in Pétionville (eastern suburb of the capital Port-au-Prince) invites “a reflection on transparency in state governance”.
Directed by filmmaker Arnold Antoine, the initiative to screen senior state managers was initiated by UNESCO’s Haiti office in the context of a multidimensional crisis rife with corruption scandals.
José (Pépé) Mujica, former President of Uruguay (2010-2015), spent 14 years in prison, including two in a well. The released former guerrilla successfully led his party to victory in the 2010 elections. His social policies were exemplary. His success was recognized internationally.
In Montevideo, Arnold Anthony listened and followed him, referring to former South African president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela.
Mandela was imprisoned for more than 27 years, a symbol of integrity, before liberating his country from apartheid and laying the foundations for South Africa’s democratization.
The two share a common vision of “simple life”.
The promise of “simplicity” and “freedom”
Over the course of 61 minutes, Mujica passionately explains his attitude towards power and his philosophy of life based on sobriety. For Pepe Mujica, “simplicity” is the guarantee of “freedom”. This frees us from the bondage of insatiable material needs, which inevitably lead to corruption.
His implication is that the most important thing in life is not the accumulation of material things. “To live is to have a reason to fight for it.”
Anthony believes that this “atypical president” “thinks about the happiness of his people”. This small “poor country” in South America, with an area of 176,215 square kilometers and 3.5 million inhabitants, pursues a “policy of austerity” to meet the needs of its people.
Pepe Mujica addressed young Haitians, stressing the need for honesty in the performance of political functions. “To do politics you have to be honest,” he said in essence.
With this in mind, we find in the remarks of Tatiana Villegas, the UN representative in Port-au-Prince, the need to review approaches to public administration and redefine the concept of good governance: this is the underlying idea of the UNESCO initiative.
An onlooker asked if there was any connection between the two men’s painful experiences in prison and their choice of simplicity as their philosophy of life?
In the room, the public showed great interest in Pepe Mujica’s experience. Several speakers had lively exchanges with the filmmaker.
The exchange began in the presence of Presidential Advisor Smith Augustine, who represented the Haitian Council of Representatives (the nine-member Transitional Presidential Council) at the film conference.
Augustin himself and two other advisers and presidents, Gérald Gilles and Emmanuel Vertilaire, have been fired following the scandal involving the attempted corruption of Raoul Pierre-Louis, the former chairman of the board of the Banque Nationale de Credit (BNC).
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Eminent Persons Group (Group), which is responsible for overseeing the transition process, called for a quick resolution to the corruption incident on the same day.
Coincidentally, it was also on August 20 that former Haitian President Michel Martelly was sanctioned by the United States for drug trafficking, money laundering and financing gangs. (GP after 2:00 p.m. on August 21, 2024)
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