MADAGASCAR’S SO-CALLED “NATIONAL RECONCILIATION”:
MESSY AND DOOMED TO FAIL!
The Constitution of the 4th Republic clearly states in its article 168 that: “Within the framework of the process of national reconciliation, a Council of the Malagasy Fampihavanana whose composition, attributions, and modalities of functioning are determined by the law, is instituted.” This Council of the Malagasy Fampihavanana (Reconciliation), which is also known in its Malagasy abbreviation as FFM, has been already instituted, and started its duty during the transitional government led by Andry Rajoelina. It is worth noting that it has so far failed in its attempt to reconcile the two main proponents of the last crisis, Marc Ravalomanana and Andry Rajoelina. Nevertheless, the FFM still exists, and it is still operational!
Despite this clear provision of the Constitution (and the Road Map signed by the major political actors in 2011), the newly elected president of the 4th Republic, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, has made the national reconciliation his major political program, and has proclaimed himself as the “national reconciler in chief.” As a result, he pushed aside, not only the legally instituted FFM, but also the Council of the Christian Churches (also known as FFKM), considered by most people as the traditional moral authority, which has successfully played the role of national reconciler in the past (particularly during the crisis of 1991–1992). Thus, from the start, the whole process of national reconciliation under the 4th Republic appears messy and confusing! Who is doing what? Nobody really knows!
To add more confusion to the process, the new president and his surrogates, including his Prime Minister Kolo Roger and Chief of Staff Henri Rabary-Njaka, are toying around with different conceptions and scenarios of what they believe the “national reconciliation” would be. Thus, according to the president himself, he would have two options (or windows of opportunity): the first would be to apply the law of the land (following his slogan of making Madagascar a “state ruled by law”), and the second would be to “reconcile the people.” It is not clear, however, which option he would really choose, given the fact that his government is now aggressively prosecuting the former president Marc Ravalomanana, accusing him of entering “incognito” his own country! For his part, the Prime Minister Kolo Roger stated once that to reconcile the Malagasy people would mean “to give everyone the same rights.” Finally, the superstar of the regime, Henri Rabary-Njaka, suggested that Marc Ravalomanana would be just a “small part of the national reconciliation.”
With regard to the process of reconciliation itself, no one knows how the president and his team would proceed in undertaking this task. So far, the president has said that he would talk to the military, because there would be some wounds to be healed and some grievances to be addressed among them. But, what is he going to tell the military, and with whom does he want reconcile them? Nobody knows! In addition to this lack of plan of action, there is no evidence that the president and his team have any objective criteria that would allow them to assess when the process would be completed and whether it would be a success or not.
In sum, without clear definition of what they mean by “national reconciliation,” without plan of action and objective criteria of success or failure, Hery Rajaonarimampianina and his team are embarked on a mission to reconcile “whoever” they want to reconcile! Any reasonable person would draw the conclusion that this kind of “national reconciliation” is doomed to fail! But, one may also think that, maybe, the failure is their main objective, because that would allow them blame the others and stay in power!
