Madagascar’s political difficulties
Posted by Sappho on October 6th, 2009 filed in Africa news and blogwatch
My husband informs me that today is a no hate blogging day, on which we’re to share our thoughts on the issues with no hate and divisiveness. I’m picking the easy, chicken way of making sure I don’t hate on anyone, by scrapping my previously planned topic of more blogging about Polanski, for events in a country farther away, on which I haven’t yet informed myself sufficiently to hate anyone. Yes, it’s time to take up Hector’s challenge to me, and say a few words about Madagascar.
But first, may I, without any hate at all toward Nea Demokratia, congratulate PASOK on its landslide win on Sunday in Greece. Second, and on a completely unrelated note, I’d like to point out this spiffy article my husband found about honey bees fighting back against Varroa mites. Third, on another completely unrelated note, bloggers now need to disclose any freebies they’ve gotten when reviewing products (not a problem for me, since I’ve never gotten any freebies that I haven’t disclosed).
Those two things out of the way, here’s a very brief overview of what’s been happening this year in Madagascar. I’ll start with the CIA World Factbook entry on Madagascar.
chief of state: President Andry RAJOELINA (since 18 March 2009)
head of government: Prime Minister Roindefo ZAFITSIMIVALO (since 18 March 2009)
cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister
elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 3 December 2006 (next to be held in October 2011); prime minister appointed by the president
election results: percent of vote – Marc RAVALOMANANA 54.8%, Jean LAHINIRIKO 11.7%, Roland RATSIRAKA 10.1%, Herizo RAZAFIMAHALEO 9.1%, Norbert RATSIRAHONANA 4.2%, Ny Hasina ANDRIAMANJATO 4.2%, Elia RAVELOMANANTSOA 2.6%, Pety RAKOTONIAINA 1.7%, other 1.6%; note – RAVALOMANANA stepped down on 17 March 2009
note:: on 17 March 2009, democratically elected President Marc RAVALOMANANA stepped down handing the government over to the military, which in turn conferred the presidency on opposition leader and Antananarivo mayor Andry RAJOELINA, who will head the High Transition Authority; a power-sharing agreement reached in August 2009 established a 15-month transition period, concluding in general elections
The Wikipedia entry on Madagascar reports:
Although the present head of State has self-proclaimed himself, Madagascar is usually a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Madagascar is head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Senate and the National Assembly. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The political situation in Madagascar has been marked by struggle for control. After Madagascar gained independence from France in 1960, assassinations, military coups and disputed elections featured prominently….
The latest, and ongoing, spate of violence pitted then-President Marc Ravalomanana against Andry Rajoelina, former mayor of the capital, Antananarivo. Since the power tussle started on 26 January, more than 170 people were killed.[23] Rajoelina mobilized his supporters to take to the streets of Antananarivo to demand Ravalomanana’s ousting on the grounds of his alleged “autocratic” style of government.
After losing support of the military and under intense pressure from Rajoelina, President Ravalomanana resigned on 17 March 2009. Ravalomanana assigned his powers to a military council loyal to himself headed by Vice-Admiral Hyppolite Ramaroson.[24] The military called the move by Ravalomanana a “ploy”[24] and said that it would support Rajoelina as leader.[25] Rajoelina had already declared himself the new leader a month earlier and has since assumed the role of acting President. He has appointed Monja Roindefo as Prime Minister.[26] Rajoelina announced that elections would be held in two years and that the constitution would be amended.
The European Union, amongst other international entities, has refused to recognize the new government, due to it being installed by force.[27] The African Union, which proceeded to suspend Madagascar’s membership on 20 March [28] and the Southern Africa Development Community both criticized the forced resignation of Ravalomanana.[25] United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson said he is “gravely concerned about the evolving developments in Madagascar”.[29] …
So, there you have the basic outline. Political unrest starting in late January led to a coup in March, which in turn led to international pressure against the new government. A power sharing deal was reached in August, facilitated by two former presidents of Madagascar. However, the crisis is not resolved. Madagascar’s power sharing deal remained in limbo as of September 4th, and was further strained on September 8th when Andry Rajoelina formed a “national unity” government that was denounced by the opposition and rejected by the Southern African Development Community. International pressure continues. The latest international response, on September 26th, came from the General Assembly of the UN.
The General Assembly ruled today that a delegation from Madagascar, where violent political unrest earlier this year led to the ousting of the president, cannot address the high-level segment of the Assembly’s 64th session.
Assembly President Ali Treki announced that the delegation – headed by Andry Rajoelina, who has proclaimed himself President of the High Authority of Transition of Madagascar – had been denied permission to speak after a majority of Member States present in the chamber voted against Dr. Treki’s earlier ruling to grant that right.
Earlier, a representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), speaking on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), told the Assembly that many delegations would walk out if Mr. Rajoelina was allowed to speak at the annual General Debate….
Global Voices has a round up of responses to this incident by Malagasy bloggers.
I’ve noted in the past, when blogging about the interlinked conflicts in Darfur, Chad, and the Central African Republic, that Chad and the Central African Republic are both part of France’s sphere of influence in Africa. The same is true of Madagascar. For more commentary on how France is involved in Madagascar, see this other Global Voices round up, Françafrique casts shadow in Gabon, Madagascar, and Mauritania.
That’s as much as I can piece together quickly about the current situation; I may have more later this week.
More links:
A Congressional Research Service report, in May 2009, on Madagascar’s 2009 political crisis.
International Crisis Group on Madagascar.
October 8th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Hi Lynn,
Thanks for your post. I also await your links on your posts about divorce!
Just to clarify, I don’t think the 2006 election was a fair one. I was there when it happened, and it was fairly farcical (e.g. Jean Lahiniriko was accused of treason, and his campaign funds, which came from Iran, were frozen until right before the election). I also had a friend who after a political conversation told me, “if the police heard about this conversation, i would be in trouble”. Now the fact that the election was unfair, in itself, isn’t the end of the world, I don’t think most people in the countryside cared too much about who won the election. Much worse, in my view, was the fact that Ravalomanana did so much to help himself, his class,a nd his ethnicity, and so little to help the rural poor. Ravalomanana was distinctly unpopular in the countryside, particularly in the south and west, in my opinion for good reason.
– He disestablished the provincial goverments in order to centralize power in the capital.
– He passed a citizenship law discriminating against people with French last names, i.e. many of the non-Merina and coastal peoples (the Merina are the largest single ethnicity and the traditional ruling and economic elite).
– He encouraged the breakup of communal and village-based land tenure, and the move to a privatized, capitalistic system of land ownership (though I blame USAID as well for this).
– economic investment and foreign aid flowed disproportionately to the capital, to the rich, and to the Merina.
– Food prices soared under his rule, and he made no effort to distribute food to the rural poor, as previous governments had done.
– A good portion of the country, including the rural areas where I was, remained without much basic government social services, with social services provided only by foreign NGOs or by the churches.
– Ravalomanana had shut down trash collection in the capital after his enemy Rajoelina won the mayoral election, an act of pure and unmitigated spite.
– Ravalomanana burned down Rajoelina’s radio station (which was quickly reciprocated).
– In the aftermath of major floods and malnutrition in the South and West between 2004 and 2007, the government made abysmal efforts to relieve the situation, and such relief as existed was provided almost entirely by foreign faith-based NGOs.
– Ravalomanana funneled foreign aid money to his own (massive) businesses, including his cattle and dairy empire and his supermarket chain.
– Since his overthrow, he has collaborated with Libya to try to retake the country by force, and may have been involved in a plot to invade the country from Mozambique on heavily armed boats (this still unclear).
I saw footage from the capital the day that Rajoelina was ‘inaugurated’, and spoke to my best friend’s wife about it. She is of working class Malagasy origins, and her father (who lives in the countryside) was quite happy about the overthrow. My understanding is that so was much of the rest of the countryside- there were massive celebrations in the capital when Rajoelina took power. Personally, I think Ravalomanana had to go, and I’m bothered by the fact that Europe and the US are putting their political considerations ahead of the economic needs of Madagascar.
October 8th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Thanks for the detailed comment, Hector. I’m going to promote it to a post, with a few added remarks.
I’m planning to put up the post on divorce on Saturday.
October 18th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Hello Lynn,
Very glad I found your page and the re-cap of events (past & present) here in Madagascar. Thank you.
But I must take exception with Hector’s ‘assessment’. I hope people will not be taken in by his words without doing their own balanced research. His comments are only comments and not facts. For instance, perhaps it means something that international observers declared the 2006 election as fair. With the exception of the French, of course.
To be fair Ravalomanana is not a perfect President but I challenge Hector to name one perfect president in any country of the world. But Ravalomanana is still the duly elected President of our country.
Putting that aside for the moment a number of important questions must be asked:
~ Is a coup a legitimate way to change government?
~ If so, does that mean that Hector supports the brutal dictator Rajoelina?
~ Where did the backing come from to bring Rajoelina to power? It was certainly not a ‘popular’ movement.
~ Should Madagascar have a democratic government or a dictatorship?
~ Were the dark days as a colony of France or with D Ratsiraka the “good old the days”?
~ Should Madagascar once again become a colony of France?
~ Would is be best for D Ratsiraka to return?
~ The majority of the countries of the world (with the exception of France) reject the present dictatorship that controls Madagascar at this time.
~ Cost of the Coup: In terms of global assistance our very poor country given the present situation will loose approximately 1 billion US dollars over the next of the next 3-5 years.
~ The cost in terms of the suffering of the Malagasy people is evident everyday. No work, no food, no freedom, crime on the rise, brutal police & army actions, and forests disappearing along with our future…
~ Where would you have us go from here? Coup upon coup forever?
October 19th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Hello, John, good to hear from you, and thanks for your comments. Since I promoted Hector’s comment to a post, I’m going to promote yours to a post as well.