As Haiti’s lawmakers move to install their country’s new prime minister, key members of the million-plus Haitian Diaspora in the United States are upbeat about the opportunity Michele Pierre-Louis offers to kick start the re-development of the Western Hemisphere’s oldest Black sovereignty nation.

“It’s a chance to break new ground in Haiti and for the country to tackle some of its chronic problems of hunger, joblessness and insecurity,” Rosemond Pierre Louis, Manhattan’s Deputy Borough President, told the Carib News as Haiti’s parliament acted to end three months of political infighting and deadlock by taking a vital step to ratify Michele Pierre-Louis’s nomination and to endorse her new government’s economic and social program.

Alice Blanchet, who in the 1990s was an adviser to four different Haitian prime ministers, agreed.

“I am relieved that the process of selecting someone to form and run a government in Haiti has finally come to a conclusion,” said Blanchet, currently a manager of concert and classical artists in Manhattan. “What this means is that Haiti is going to have a functioning government. I am also elated because I see it as an extraordinary window of opportunity for our country and I expect her to bring new hope and a different way of governing the nation. Haiti will benefit very much from her insight, patience and dedication to the country.”

Dr. Henry Frank, executive director of the Haitian Centers Council, an umbrella body of social services organizations in Brooklyn, said that although the reaction to the decision of both houses of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, to ratify Pierre-Louis’ nomination was mixed, he was hopeful that her “tremendous administrative skills” and foresight when it came to social issues would help the government address the long list of problems affecting the country.

“There are problems of unemployment, inadequate health care and educational facilities, hunger and poverty that must be addressed almost immediately,” said Dr. Frank, a former Haitian Consul General in the city. “She has a good reputation for being efficient and as a person of integrity. She has the experience of running a complex institution and she can bring that to the government. I am hopeful that her programs and policies would turn out to be the best for the country.”

Michele Pierre-Louis, 61, is an educator who heads the Haitian branch of Open Society Institute, a foundation, which works to improve education and other social services in the French-speaking nation of more than eight million people. She was the third person nominated to replace Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, who was dismissed on April 12 in the wake of weeks of riots triggered by soaring food and energy prices. At least seven people lost their lives in the unrest and hundreds of businesses were destroyed. The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies later rejected the first two nominees put forward by President Rene’ Preval.

Interestingly, the Senate dragged its feet on giving Pierre Louis the green light to take over the number two job in the government in Port-au-Prince.

A major hurdle for the new Prime Minister was a claim that she was a lesbian, a charge she has publicly denied. In fact, the rumors that she was gay were the subject of lengthy debates in both Senate and the Chamber of Deputies and many members of the upper house of parliament said they only voted for the nomination after she publicly denied she was a lesbian.

“I have already said that it was slander and lies,” Pierre-Louis told a Radio Caraibes audience in the Haitian capital. “I hope that this debate will be closed and we will move on to serious things.”

But she has another challenge to meet: both the Senate and the Chamber must now approve her government’s program and her cabinet before the government begins to function.

To get them through the Senate, she must secure 16 votes, four more than she received when her nomination was acted on.

Haiti’s first female prime minister was Claudette Werleigh, who held the job for less than a year during President Jean Bertrand Aristide’s Administration in 1995-96. The country also had a female provisional president, Ertha Pascal Trouillot, who occupied the presidential palace for a short period in 1990.

“I certainly don’t believe gender is going to be an issue because women have played key roles before in Haiti,” said Pierre-Louis, the Deputy Borough President in Manhattan. “If you look around the world you would see that Haitian women have played these kinds of roles before and Michele is certainly someone who represents the best for all of Haitians, regardless of her gender. Being a female is not going to be an issue. I would be very disappointed if this question of gender became an issue.”

Blanchet, who had previously worked with the Prime Minister-designate, said that job creation must be very high on the new government’s list of priorities because of the youthful nature of the country’s population and the high level of unemployment in Haiti.

“Unemployment is high and 65 percent of the population is under 30 years old,” said Blanchet. “Health care is also a pressing problem and so is the environment. There is the issue of education that must be tackled right now. In addition, the Prime Minister should move to put the government in a position to sign foreign aid packages and arrange an international donors’ conference,” said Blanchet.

“She will have quite a lot on her plate but we are all confident that she is up to the task,” Blanchet added.