Although singer and entrepreneur Wyclef Jean has not yet announced his Haitian presidential bid, his brother knows that his sibling has quite a rough road ahead if he does decide to run for office.
Samuel Jean told the Associated Press that his entire family is going in to the political process with their eyes open but with their breath held. "It's not something that was taken lightly, it's not a joke, it's something very, very serious," the younger Jean said via a telephone interview. "It is different for us, but we are proud of him and we are going to support him in any way we can."
When election time rolls around, whoever wins the presidential post will have to almost immediately roll up their sleeves and get to work piecing back a country that has been seriously ravaged. Haiti is still reeling from the January 12th earthquake that devastated large areas of the country and killed hundreds of thousands of people. Seventy percent of the country's infrastructure has been destroyed and experts estimate that it could take as long as 10 years to rebuild it. Although great strides have been made in Haiti since the deadly earthquake, there are still critical challenges to tackle.
Jean is expected to announce his bid on August 7th. There will be other viable candidates as well who will be competing for the country's highest post as well, among them, Jean's uncle Raymond Joseph, who is Haiti's ambassador in Washington D.C.
The job of being president in a country that is fraught with problems will be a gargantuan task. Haitian politics has a history of being contentious. According to the Corruption Perception Index, a published annual compilation that categorizes the countries of the world according to the degree of corruption present among public officials and politicians, Haiti has a very high level of corruption. The current president of Haiti is René Garcia Préval.
The question remains, will the former Fugees member be allowed to run for the presidency? The rules stipulate that the Haitian humanitarian must prove he has resided in Haiti for five consecutive years, own property in the country and be only a citizen of Haiti and no other country.
Samuel says that his brother has never held a U.S. passport. He added that Jean's residency requirement will be waived because he has been a presidentially appointed Haitian goodwill ambassador since 2007.
There are also some other questions that Jean will have to deal with like his Yéle Haiti charity, which raised more than $9 million after the quake. The financial health of Jean's organization, which he founded in 2005 to raise awareness and support for his homeland, was questioned earlier this year by charitable watchdogs. A new accounting team was hired after the allegations were made public.
"I think what he demonstrated in Yéle was leadership. When a problem was brought to his attention, he immediately dealt with it openly and transparently," Samuel Jean said.
With just a few days left until the possible presidential bid announcement, Jean has ensured the masses that no matter what, he will be relentless in making sure that the country's youth get involved in rebuilding their land. "I don't want to be a puppet. I just want to be able to do more," the Grammy Award winner said.