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Madagascar: Ravalomanana Lobbies on YouTube

John Allen

20 May 2009


Cape Town — Madagascar's ousted president, Marc Ravalomanana, may be down but he is not out.

After being removed from power in March by Andry Rajoelina, the former mayor of Antananarivo and currently the head of a transitional authority ruling the country, Ravalomanana has mounted a fight-back which includes vigorous diplomatic activity and a sophisticated public relations campaign.

Boosted by the condemnation of Rajoelina's power-grab by the African Union and the Southern African Development Community, Ravalomanana has based himself in South Africa, from where he flies to Gaborone and Mbabane for meetings with the leaders of Botswana and Swaziland and lobbies influential figures such as former United Nations chief Kofi Annan by telephone.

He has spoken by phone to crowds of "legalistes" - as his supporters like to call themselves - demonstrating on the streets of the capital. His backers e-mail photographs of the protests to the media.

Marc Ravalomanana's address in English.

When South African President Jacob Zuma was inaugurated 10 days ago, photos of Ravalomanana arriving in his capacity as the still-recognized Malagasy head of state were e-mailed to journalists long before the host government's PR photographs were posted.

Now, in his latest move, Ravalomanana has posted an address to the international community on a YouTube account called "MadagascarPresidency".

Speaking in separate French and English clips, Ravalomanana "demands" that "the illegitimate coup regime step aside and make way for the return of the democratically-elected government" and calls on the world community to withhold diplomatic recognition and avoid business dealings with Rajoelina's government.

See the YouTube clip here in English >>

See the clip here in French >>

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Author: Cyclone
Fri Mar 20 09:16:39 2009

Why they can't be like Jakaya Kikwete? This is terrible when a person takes power without official election, Please AU should check his capabilities befor he rules the country. Is he educated? I don't think so, please help Madagascar people before they kill each other. They even cant run from that Island to find refuge nearby.

Author: Meloky
Fri May 1 08:48:38 2009

I think the ousted Pdt should behave also and follow the warning by the South Africa, But if he want to kill more people by his carelessness and by showing that he doesn't care as usually he did when he was on power (amending constitution without people's agreement), then this really shows how power hungry he is! I do not agree the idea that Rakoto Albert said about communism in Madagascar. It is simple many loosing parties in Madagascar know how to keep silence after being literally vomited by the population, but this time the TIM and MFM could not contained it and they try to create terrorizing situation or genocide similar to Rwanda or far more Somali but people have understood from the beginning and very conscious. I believe that taking Ravalomanana and his allies away from the political life in Madagascar can do more good than bad for the future of the Island if they keep on to their way of inciting troubles in the capital and its suburbs. Also the international communities have to understand that to face the international crises and the local instability, the democratization lead by the HAT should be assisted with full precaution to avoid chaos. As it has been clear that the HAT is committed with 19 months plan to return the democratic regime. It is also understood why most counties in Africa hate the situation that happened in Madagascar, but they will be far more in trouble if they try to reinstall the former and resigned president because (only few groups of people were enjoying the life while he himself gets more and more authoritarian and 80% of the population gone down under the poverty line) they support a dictator leader such as Mugabe or more who are still holding power in Africa. So in that case they become so interesting to think about the bunch of leadership in Africa that could not help to get rid of the poverty!!! Above all, the ignorance also affect deeply the local community in Madagascar because of these politics of partisanship which can lead to deep and difficult trouble.

Author: Rob
Sat May 2 11:45:34 2009

Meloky, when have you been the last time in Madagascar to bring so theorical critics like this ? No comment is needed. Just come and visit Madagascar by your own eyes to see what progress have been achieved during the past seven year: roads, conservation, schools, hospitals, new investment including the big ones like Tinto Rinto, QMM and so on. I am operating in the tourism business and we have doubled our turnover during the past three years. That's all to say about it. Thanks.

Author: johndeer
Fri May 8 13:24:27 2009

What Meloky is saying is very theorical. I don't know if you had the opportunity to visit schools, hostpital and new markets in the farway countryside in Madagascar. You will see how much growth you can see and feel with the living of population. When you do not see it, your judgement remain on the air. Once you land on the ground, you see how many new employment have been created when Madagascar was selected to export through the AGOA preference - this AGOA agreement is now compromised with the HAT because the US governement will stop this agreement as democracy is spoilt. Where will go this 100.000 employes. Since February and March, many factories have been burnt and robbed by the TGV's people, it is like the unemployment rate have increased into 30 percent.

How much roads have been built during the past 4 years to allow people moving around and to transport local product and avoid rise of the prices.

You see how much wealth have been created for the country the last past 4 years and how much good was the economy environment to realise how much effort have been made.

You can simply see how many journalist have been arrested these last few days as reported by Reporter Sans Frontier.

The hardworks, the progress and the growth made by all of us are now jeopardized because Rajoelina and the military want to be the leaders of the country.

When 80 percent of the Malagasy are from the country side and that Madagascar is an agricultural country, why the HAT want force the price of the local product into half. It is no sense because the producers do not even meet their costs. It is to destroy the Malagasy little by little.

Now some unkown Arabian investors have come to Madagascar and promised to cut the price of all the imported products by two while the same products costs 10 times more in their own country. It is just killing the local industry without saying that these guys are laundering black money.

It is very easy to understand that Madagascar is at very bad hands.

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