Broken vows from President Rajaonarimampianina, aren’t they?

The first excessive promise made by Hery Rajaonarimampianina on the day of his inauguration, was the promise to hold all of his promises. He said he would see to materialize whatever he promised earlier the way he promised them. Such a bold commitment happened to be a second to none premiere from an elected president. “You expect me to respect my commitments,” he said. “Stand by me” proclaimed the newly knighted president. How flatteringly did he depict himself as a sheer nemesis to hypocrisy, loyal to the call of duty and alien to the practice of finding complacency in political calculations at the expense of true development. The new president had the sincerity to make a speech which proved to make sense to the largest number of his audience…  but maybe too much sense on second thought.

No working site has emerged from the ground so far… worse, the government will not tackle any economic program before 2015. Hery Rajaonarimampianina promised “concrete impact on the people’s daily life” and asked citizens to give time to his government. The results are taking their time to show up. 2014 will be a kind of blank year for the ruling power which keeps failing from honor many presidential commitments. The process of restoration of confidence between the State and the people has a poor start. Notwithstanding that security issues remain serious concerns, the recovery of any rule of law will be a very long way. Whether in urban or rural areas, the “quick and strict recovery of security” proved to be a failure. In the fight against the smuggle of rosewood, the government might have displayed some evidences of its determination, which in the end served its own communication purpose more than justice.

The biggest failure in the President’s earliest months in charge might probably be the National Education related issue. Hery Rajaonarimampianina was granted three months to make a change, namely returning dropped out children back to school, enrolling more children to school … Besides, he made two more major promises: a primary education in public schools fully free from charges throughout Madagascar, and a significant status review for FRAM primary school teachers, whose salaries used to be paid by parents. It’s free, but parents will have to pay for it! So sounds the paradoxical first part of the national education ministry, second part of which consisted in recruiting 10,000 FRAM teachers out of the 70,000 active ones.

Problems related to the electricity and water supplier Jirama were expected settled within 06 months. Six months later, 80 towns and cities have to take turn in forced black outs. The President promised “energy for all so that Madagascans may feel the economic engine started from home.” The electricity supply remains an obstacle to long term development due to power gaps. No significant investor has dared the odds although conditions look better than before, when international acknowledgement was still absent. Madagascar is still expecting the expected funding. Too bad for the President and his slightly dazzling and overoptimistic plans, is it not?.

“Let this be the year of change expected by all Malagasy to emerge out of poverty at last”, said the President Rajaonarimampianina at his inauguration in January 2014; seven months later, promises remain empty while social tensions keep growing. The President has four months left to do something and eventually put a better face up. Elsewhere, in France for instance, the president has a historically low popularity rate as well; for only 15% of French are told to have renewed their confidence in him. In Madagascar, you would do well to keep away from such kind of political poll, for it might soon be considered as public defamation and severely punished by the court.