Hip-hop star Wyclef Jean said he wanted to become president of Haiti as he was "the right person" for his impoverished quake-battered country, in an interview to be published Monday.
Haitian hip-hop star Wyclef Jean (R) walks with his wife Cladinette in Port-au-Prince.
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"While I don't pretend to be a miracle worker, I wholeheartedly believe that at this important time in Haiti's history, I am the right person to put the country on the road to the brighter future it so desperately needs and deserves," Jean wrote in an article in The Wall Street Journal.
Jean entered the race to become president of Haiti last week, jetting into the Caribbean nation on a private plane and asking Haitians to give him "power for change."
Jean's bid for presidency has won support in Haiti, where many hail him as a hero, but has also drawn sneers from figures skeptical of a hip-hop star in the national palace.
But Jean wrote that Haiti needed a president "who can turn promises into reality -- someone who will crisscross the earth and convince world leaders" to help the Haitian people economically.
"We also need to cultivate Haiti's rich culture of entrepreneurship by increasing the availability of microcredit and simplifying laws and bureaucracy," the musician stressed.
Jean lives in the New York area but has traveled to Haiti multiple times seeking to defuse gang violence and help the poorest Haitians.
He has said his inspiration to enter politics emerged from the devastating January earthquake that left 250,000 people dead and 1.5 million homeless.
SOURCE: AFP
