once upon a time, there were Lalao Ravalomanana and her ideal son in law

It took one full week to Andry Rajoelina to understand that he cannot prevent  the wife of the former president ousted by his militarily supported putsch to come home. He could nothing but playing a deaf ear during a whole week, for the transitional government immediately and somehow unexpectedly delegated the decision. Could Lalao Ravalomanana be prevented from going home, it would have been Rajoelina’s fault. The capitalization of this return before the elections is being perceived as one more blow and a bad omen to the Rajoelina sphere.

By the end of July 2012, actually not that long ago, Lalao Ravalomanana, accompanied by his daughter Gergana, attempted for the first time to come home to visit her family, including her son Tojo. She asked her husband, the former President, how possible such a trip was, considering that contacts were by the time renewed with Andry Rajoelina  in the Seychelles. The family trip turned to a nightmare for Lalao and Gergana Ravalomanana. Andry Rajoelina held it as a provocation, or a potential putsch attempt against him, and responded accordingly.

At that time, the crisis settlement Roadmap was signed and granting free and safe return to every political figure so far kept out in exile. And anyway, the ruling power’s security forces were in no way entitled to surge, let alone against any of the Ravalomanana family’s ladies. Yet they captured the concerned ladies, put them on the first available flight and forced them out of the territory, direction Asia, without passports, without luggage. Rajoelina’s military dictatorship proved worthy of its name.

In 2013, after a week spent pondering the issue, regardless of what he got in his mind, Andry Rajoelina decided to play the complacency card and let Lalao Ravalomanana come home on humanitarian account. One week is largely enough to get any battlement ready, is it not? This return will consequently not come true without a set of conditions and warnings. The Opposition will not be allowed to build any political capital from the visit. Mrs. Ravalomanana will have to restrict to a strict humanitarian visit, that is to say, a call in to her elderly mother at the hospital.

The purpose of the visit must have basically been irrelevant if Andry Rajoelina were inclined to respect the crisis settlement Roadmap supposed to be the supreme ruling law in the country. But he is not. The head of the transition needs to recall that he makes the law in Madagascar. Out of question to let Lalao Ravalomanana freely bring sparkles of hope to a part of the Malagasy population weary of his 4 year term conquered through an illegal and illegitimate putsch. Only one prospect must be promoted: her perfect son in law will access the Presidency in 2018.

And the lucky nominee’s name is obviously Andry Nirina. The young man tries to take advantage of this return to home soil of another Ravalomanana family member and turn this political embarrassment into an opportunity. He regretted that the former government, and not he, so ruthlessly took action against his stepparent, and would like to make amends for its, and no his, mistakes. On this account, Marc Ravalomanana’s mother in law will not be denied her daughter’s presence. The ideal son in law even offers “Madame Lalao” a jet and a car to this end. Out of prudence or dignity, she politely turned an offer down which strongly sounds like a communication operation.

“Visit” basically means that Lalao Ravalomanana will not permanently stay. Will she be invited to leave again when Mommy gets better? What about her children then , since her husband’s case is the International Community’s concern. Could Lalao Ravalomanana’s mere physical presence prove enough to influence the outcome of the incoming elections? It would, if she were allowed to speak out. But Andry Rajoelina carefully forbad it.