Pooh-Bah

HAITI Pooh-Bah By invitation of the President, about 30 young Haitians leaped astride their yammering motorcycles one recent Sunday afternoon and raced wildly up and down the broad avenues beside the gleaming white national palace and the mustard-yellow army barracks in the center of Port-au-Prince. Afterward, President for Life Jean-Claude Duvalier happily shook hands all around and basked in the cheers of 15,000 spectators, who were clearly enjoying an event that would have been unimaginable in the days of his father, the late Francois ("Papa Doc") Duvalier.

At 20, "Baby Doc" is the youngest President and most implausible statesman in the world. His country, with its 3.5 to 5 million wretchedly impoverished black and mulatto peasants --no one knows exactly how many there are--has long been a pariah of the Western Hemisphere, ripe for almost any sort of political chaos. Thus when he assumed office after his father's death in April, Baby Doc was widely voted the Pooh-Bah least likely to succeed. However, Baby Doc--or at least the government that operates in his name--has presided over five months of unlikely tranquillity and even initiated a few cautious reforms.

Mild Boom. Haiti now pays its foreign debts promptly, in contrast to its dismal credit record in the past. Foreign investment is encouraged, and Haiti is enjoying a mild business and tourism boom, thanks in part to a new quickie-divorce law that allows anyone to get a decree in 24 hours, for $825 and up, including air fare from New York City (TIME, Aug. 30). To meet the demand for hotel space, the government last month called in leaders of the local Italian and Lebanese communities and ordered them to foot the bill for two new hotels. The casinos too are once again raking in big money. More important, the dread Tonton Macoutes, or "bogeymen," who served as Papa Doc's private army of extortionists, are being relegated to the background. The warden of the notorious Fort Dimanche prison has been replaced, although an unknown number of political prisoners are still held there.

Great Special Cordon. Could even that much change have been accomplished by a roly-poly young playboy known to his critics as "Baskethead"? Hardly, and there are signs that Jean-Claude is not even enjoying the role of figurehead. He is not allowed to ride his Harley-Davidson and has to settle instead for joyrides in his sporty blue Toyota or flashy Lamborghini, usually escorted by a caravan of scowling secret policemen. One of the few pleasures of office was his acceptance recently of the Chinese Nationalist Order of the Propitious Clouds, Great Special Cordon grade, bestowed as part of Taiwan's diplomatic offensive to garner anti-Peking votes in the United Nations. As one sign of his restricted power, Jean-Claude reportedly told some youths that Afro haircuts were all right with him--then had to retract the statement in a newspaper announcement and call for everyone to adopt the prescribed crew cut.

In set speeches he delivers grownup thoughts ("I accept the responsibility so that all true Haitians can move to better things"). But at press conferences he answers in monosyllables, which are endowed with flowery phrases by his interpreters. As one veteran Hai-tiologist in Port-au-Prince told TIME'S Jerry Hannifin: "Jean-Claude is learning fast, and as time goes by, maybe in five or six years, he'll be making his own decisions. Right now, he has little to say."

Jean-Claude is a necessary fixture to keep alive the myth of Duvalierism, which has helped to give Haiti one of the few peaceful turnovers of power in its bloody and voodoo-steeped history. The decisions in Haiti today are made by a Council of State, a fragile alliance comprising Papa Doc's frail-looking but steel-willed widow, Simone Ovide Duvalier; General Claude Raymond, army chief of staff; his brother Adrien, the Foreign Minister; and Luckner Cambronne, Minister of Interior and National Defense, the apparent first among equals.

Power Struggle. A case-hardened political intriguer and unscrupulous entrepreneur, Cambronne, 40, was one of the chief extortionists for Papa Doc's Tonton Macoutes and rose to prominence through such sentiments as "A good Duvalierist should be ready to kill his children, and good Duvalierist children should be ready to kill their parents for the sake of Duvalierism." He owns the country's biggest tourist agency, Ibo Tours, which specializes in packaged hurry-up divorces (85% of the divorce-court costs goes to his National Defense Fund). Among a number of other lucrative enterprises, he owns Air Haiti, which has only one operational aircraft, a lumbering World War II vintage C46 cargo plane.

Cambronne last August won a power struggle with Jean-Claude's shrewd and ambitious elder sister, Marie-Denise Dominique. She and her husband Max were allowed to depart peacefully to Paris, where Max is Haitian ambassador. Whether Cambronne might eventually move against the other Duvaliers remains to be seen. No one knows the real purpose of the elite corps, "Les Leopards," that he has formed. The stated purpose is to protect the country from invaders and Communists and protect the President.

Cheap Labor. For all the unease behind the throne, Haitians are enjoying the surface stability. Haiti has long presented a moral dilemma for the U.S. and international-development organizations who have wanted to raise the Haitian per capita income of $63 a year, but could not stomach Papa Doc's regime. Now they are looking favorably on Haiti's comparatively happier state of affairs. Typical of the enterprises that have been set up to take advantage of cheap Haitian labor (a decree signed by Jean-Claude raised the minimum daily wage from 700 to $1 only two months ago) is Tomar Industries, which employs 350 workers, mostly women, to hand stitch the horsehide coverings on 2,000,000 baseballs a year for export to the U.S.

Last July the first U.S. AID man in eight years arrived on the island, and both the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are sending a study team. Carlos Sanz de Santamaria, chairman of the Inter-American Committee on the Alliance for Progress, has pronounced himself "well impressed" by changes in Haiti. The Inter-American Development Bank will shortly announce a $3.2 million loan for agricultural and industrial development on the island, and $500,000 in grants for roads and hospitals. As a well-connected Haitian put it last week: "The cash potential that is available will have a miraculous influence on the politicians. Mon Dien! The last thing this government wants is a march double time back into the past."

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