14 DAY TRIAL // A few days ago, singer and producer Wyclef Jean announced that, in light of the events in Haiti earlier this year and the state in which the country now finds itself, he sees it as his duty and calling to run for President in the November elections. As such, perhaps the first thing he should become accustomed to is criticism, E! Online says – and he’s already at the receiving end of lots of that.
Sean Penn, an actor who has dabbled in politics before but who’s also been very busy in Haiti both immediately after the earthquakes and now, is the first to speak against Wyclef and his decision to run for Haitian President. It’s not right for the people in this country to be given false hope when they’re in this delicate situation, Penn says. It’s certainly not right to have a puppet of major corporations feeding them lies, when he doesn’t believe in them, the actor adds.
“The last thing in the world that Haiti needs – and I’m not accusing Wyclef Jean of being an opportunist, I don’t know the man. Right now, I worry that this is a campaign that is more about a vision of flying around the world talking to people, it’s certainly not about the youth drafting him. I would be quite sure that this was an influence of corporations here in the United States and private individuals that may well have capitalized on his will to see himself flying around the world doing that,” Penn says. The actor fears said corporations will create new job places for Haitian youths – but underpaid.
“This is somebody who’s going to receive an enormous amount of his support, if he continues this campaign, from the United States. I have to say, I’m very suspicious of it, simply because he, as an ambassador-at-large, has been virtually silent. For those of us in Haiti, he has been a non-presence. I want to see someone who’s really, really willing to sacrifice for their country and not just someone who I personally saw with a vulgar entourage of vehicles that demonstrated a wealth in Haiti that, in context, I felt, a very obscene demonstration,” Penn further says of the presidential candidate.
And the acclaimed actor and director is not the only one to see Wyclef’s run for President as not the most appropriate move for Haiti. While Penn is urging the media to keep a very close eye on Wyclef these days because, as the saying goes, something is rotten in the state of Denmark, former Fugees bandmate Pras has also expressed his disagreement. Pras will be supporting Michel Martell instead of Wyclef, he says.
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