Over the past forty years, political life has been punctuated by short-lived slogans shouted into microphones or in the streets by self-proclaimed tribunes, or hastily printed on signs. Who does not remember those improvised formulas, in times of turmoil, that rested only on the raw emotion of the moment and meant nothing anymore once the crisis had passed? The most mobilizing slogan of the past decade, Kot Kòb Petrokaribe a [Where is the PetroCaribe money?], only remained in the spotlight for as long as the media frenzy lasted. Nowadays, anti-government slogans saturate the public space and amuse or outrage social media for a week before ending up forgotten the following week, displaced by the news. This volatility strips protests of any seriousness, with the consequence of shrinking civil society. Far from shaking those in power, these slogans, because of their fleeting nature, reinforce them in their inertia.

While deep-rooted problems persist, such as insecurity, inflation and hunger, to name only those, the debate, when there is one, is allowed to be taken over by electoral issues, with no real bearing on citizens’ daily lives. Nevertheless, decision-makers should beware! A muted anger continues to smolder beneath the population’s apparent calm, and a gap continues to widen between the people and those who believe they have been entrusted with their confidence. For five years, as the country has gone through the darkest and deadliest period in its history, only a few figures, moral by virtue of their standing and political through their sense of the State, have denounced the inaction of those in charge and called for civic action. A lack of consistency and substance has irreparably discredited the voices that once carried authority.