When Former Leaders Rediscover the People After Losing Power

Port-au-Prince, October 2025 — During a recently organized spiritual vigil, former Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dominique Dupuy, delivered a poignant speech imbued with patriotic fervor and feminist consciousness. She exalted the memory of the heroines of independence… Catherine Flon, Sanite Bélair and many others, recalling that « women are the engine of society » and that they have « their place in the construction of the country ». A strong, sensitive speech, which would undoubtedly have resonated even more if it were not tinged with a paradox that many feminist voices did not fail to highlight. For, while the diplomat today presents herself as a defender of the rights of women and the Haitian people, several activists recall that at the time she held a position of power, her actions often betrayed a complicit silence regarding causes she now claims to embody. The Weight of Selective Memory The reaction of Pascal Solage, feminist and co-founder of Nègès Mawon, is unequivocal: « The same Dominique Dupuy who ignored the feminists who had asked her not to receive Josué Pierre-Louis in France when she was head of UNESCO, after correspondence, meetings, and supporting evidence, secretly rolled out the red carpet for him. » This statement refers to a painful episode for the Haitian feminist movement: Dominique Dupuy’s refusal, then Haiti’s representative to UNESCO, to take a stand against allegations of sexual violence targeting Josué Pierre-Louis. For Rosie Auguste Ducena, lawyer and human rights defender: « Jodia, se bèl diskou pou eroyin pase, prezan ak fiti. Men, nan moman nou te entèpele li sou yon dosye kote yon fanm te viktim vyòl… Nada ! » These reactions reflect a sense of weariness with what many perceive as an opportunistic reversal: political figures, after leaving power, rediscover a militant spirit, while their past actions contradict their current rhetoric. The Paradox of Repentant Elites Dominique Dupuy’s example is not isolated. Haiti abounds with former ministers, parliamentarians, or diplomats who, after leaving decision-making spheres, adopt a critical tone towards the system they themselves helped consolidate. This posture, often wrapped in moral or patriotic discourse, is part of a political tradition of self-redemption: one cleanses oneself of compromises by claiming to represent the people, once the levers of power are no longer held. The phenomenon deeply questions the sincerity of post-power political discourse. For when they were in charge, these leaders had the means to act, to denounce, to transform, but they often preferred diplomatic comfort or alliances of circumstance. Once excluded from the decision-making circle, they suddenly rediscover « true values », the misery of the masses, the violence of inequalities, and the feminist or social causes they had previously ignored. Haiti, a Theater of Permanent Contradictions The Dupuy case also illustrates a broader drama: that of a country where power alters consciousness, and where moral commitment often becomes a rhetorical ornament rather than a concrete practice. For more than two centuries, Haiti has produced political and intellectual elites capable of sublime discourse on liberty, justice, and dignity, but incapable of translating them into public policies. Dominique Dupuy, in her emotional statement about « 219 years of betrayal », seems to forget that she too, on her own scale, participated in the continuity of this system locked down by the « power-hungry » she denounces today. When Morality Arrives After Resignation The problem is not that Dominique Dupuy speaks today about the suffering of women or the country’s moral decline—these causes are just and urgent. The problem is the timing and the memory. Where were these voices when they had the platform, the resources, and the moral authority necessary to act differently?
Where were these feminist impulses when activists risked their safety to denounce male impunity in spheres of power? This discrepancy between words and actions, between past and present, fuels a deep crisis of political and moral credibility in Haitian society. For Coherence Between Words and Actions Haitian society does not lack discourse; it lacks coherence, courage, and continuity. Dominique Dupuy’s words could have been powerful, even inspiring, if their author had not left, in her diplomatic wake, the shadow of double-speak. The time has come, for those who have served the State, to understand that the struggle for justice, dignity, and the liberation of the Haitian people does not begin when one loses power. It begins when one has it. Haiti does not need new prophets of tomorrow, but honest servants of the present. The heroes and heroines of our national pantheon did not merely speak; they acted, risked, and gave. Their legacy does not call for vigil speeches, but for a radical transformation of political and social practices.