An update on the crisis in Madagascar

We, not to mention the Malagasy population, were hoping that the political crisis was going towards a solution. Three former Presidents and the acting president of the transition had two meetings in Maputo. It seemed like they had come to an agreement concerning a consensus transitional government, but I guess the agreement from the first meeting was just hiding their differences. During the second meeting, the four movements were not able to agree on the positions in the transitional government.

Some days after returning from Maputo, the ”de facto” president Andry Rajoelina, decided to ”implement” the agreement by creating his own new ”consensus” government. This decision seems to have two major consequences:

-The three other movements are now united against Rajoelina, something that 6 months back would have been nothing less than a miracle. These movements are led by a dubious bunch, three former presidents: Albert Zafy (impeached for corruption in 1996), Didier Ratisraka (the dictator given the boot by the people/Ravolomanana in 2002), Marc Ravalomanana (chased out of the country by ex-DJ Rajoelina, his followers and the military in 2009).

-The people in Tana seem to be reacting against Rajoelinas movement’s unilateralism and lack of democratic spirit. (All demonstrations have so far been suppressed). The “united” opposition has called for a big demonstration the 20th of September, and a large turnout is to be expected.

So far it seems like the demonstrations have been concentrated to Tana. We hope that they will be kept peaceful. However, if there is one thing we’ve learned from living here for almost a year: to predict what will happen when Malagasy politicians are calling the shots is close to impossible.