Once seen as a beacon of hope, Fritz Alphonse Jean exits the stage with a legacy stained by inaction, missed opportunities, and national disillusionment.
Politics | Crisis & Transition | The Haitian Pulse Editorial Team | August 6, 2025
Six months after assuming the rotating presidency of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council (CPT), Fritz Alphonse Jean—once hailed as a symbol of hope and a key figure of the Montana Accord—has handed over the reins to Laurent Saint-Cyr, a representative of the private sector. His departure, though anticipated under the April 3 agreement, leaves behind not a legacy of progress, but a stark record of paralysis, deepening crisis, and shattered expectations.
A Leader Who Promised Change, But Delivered Collapse
Fritz Alphonse Jean, a former governor of Haiti’s Central Bank and an economist by training, was positioned as a beacon of integrity and intellectual rigor. Selected by civil society and political groups rallying under the Montana Accord, Jean was meant to guide Haiti through one of its darkest chapters and toward a more autonomous and democratic future.
Instead, under Jean’s watch, the nation’s descent only deepened. Armed gangs expanded their control across entire departments. Inflation and food insecurity surged to record highs. No national dialogue or credible political roadmap was initiated. Foreign security contractors operated freely without legal oversight. And throughout it all, the CPT remained opaque and disconnected from public sentiment.
A Ghost Government
Jean’s term will be remembered less for its intentions and more for its inaction. Despite having the moral backing of the Montana coalition, he failed to organize elections, convene a constitutional referendum, or produce any visible governance roadmap. Communication with the public was scarce. Decisions were made in a black box. The Haitian people were left to wonder: Who governs? For whom? Toward what end?
“You cannot lead a people from silence and shadows,” remarked a grassroots activist from Jacmel. “Fritz Jean’s silence became his verdict.”
The CPT: A Nine-Person Embarrassment
Jean was not alone in this failure. All nine members of the CPT are complicit in what amounts to one of the most uninspiring, disconnected, and ineffective governing bodies in Haiti’s modern history. Appointed to represent sectors ranging from civil society to political parties, they functioned more as a bureaucratic buffer than a visionary leadership council.
Instead of crafting a united front against insecurity, economic collapse, and social despair, the CPT became a carousel of inaction, infighting, and spectacle politics. They shuffled power among themselves like playing cards while Haiti’s institutions continued to decay.
Laurent Saint-Cyr Takes Over Amid Ashes
Now, with Jean stepping down, businessman Laurent Saint-Cyr takes the helm of a ship that is already sinking. His mandate is daunting: relaunch the electoral process, install a provisional electoral council, re-establish public security, and ensure an eventual transfer of power to a democratically elected government.
Yet the odds are stacked against him. Public trust in the CPT is almost nonexistent. Political factions remain polarized. Foreign actors wield quiet but decisive influence. And the people—hungry, tired, and ignored—are losing hope in any form of representative leadership.
“Changing chairs on a broken deck won’t keep the ship afloat,” one observer noted. “The people want a new vessel altogether.”
Haiti’s Transition Has No Compass
The sad truth is that Haiti’s so-called transition is neither transitional nor transformative. It is stagnant. The rotating CPT presidency offers symbolic change, not structural reform. Power circulates, but progress stalls. Sectors are represented, but the people are not heard.
The real crises—soaring prices, mass youth migration, crumbling public institutions, gang control, and foreign dependency—remain unaddressed. In many ways, they have worsened.
The Verdict on a Failed Transition
Fritz Alphonse Jean’s tenure was a historic opportunity to reset Haiti’s trajectory. Instead, it became a cautionary tale. The CPT's failure to act, to speak, and to lead has widened the gap between state and society, between promise and performance.
What Haiti needs is not another rotating figurehead—it needs bold leadership, grassroots engagement, and a break from the same recycled faces who’ve failed the nation time and again.
The Haitian people are not asking for miracles. They are demanding honesty, action, and accountability. Until then, no handover, no roundtable, and no new CPT president will restore the nation’s dignity.
Haiti deserves a future that doesn’t depend on the resignation of the incompetent, but on the rise of the courageous.
Comments