Dripchak on the Malagasy “Transfer of Power”

So much for democracy. As someone who had won two popular elections, I would think that there would have been more support for Ravalomanana, but things are never as they seem. I, personally, thought that Ravalomanana would never quit because he had all sorts of legal supports, such as a constitution that provided mechanisms for removing the President, as well as international pressure on the country to avoid a transition that did not come from democratic elections. Apparently, this is of no concern to Rajoelina, who plans to rewrite the constitution, probably to fit his needs, since he is six years too young to hold the office. And, as the BBC so aptly put it:

“Mr Rajoelina had said the president has been a tyrant who misspent public money but Mr Ravalomanana's supporters said his rival is a young troublemaker who has not offered any policy alternatives.” (See article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7949596.stm )

An Associated Press story (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090318/ap_on_re_af/af_madagascar) said, “Rajoelina, however, comes from the wealthy minority that has had a stranglehold on Madagascar's politics.

The African Union has a rule to the effect that any country that experiences a change of leaders through any means other than democratic elections can no longer be a member of the AU. This year will be particularly interesting because the AU was planning to hold their summit in Antananarivo, and many businesspeople were in the process of investing in infrastructure, more specifically hotels and service industries, in anticipation of the event. While the global economic crisis begins to cool off elsewhere, it’s getting worse here.

I live on the east coast, where most people do not / did not like Ravalomanana, and are happy to “have their way,” in a sense though this is not their candidate. But there are people here who say they did not see that Ravalomanana did anything wrong. They recognize many of the positive things he did for the economy, even while stating outright their suspicions that he probably had his fingers in every deal so as to obtain personal gain.

We’ll see how things evolve. Hopefully, I’ll be able to stay…