Political crisis: The civil society is putting a mediation committee in place

The idea of a “home made” solution to the political crisis is developing. To such an end, the civil society member associations have united representatives of the four political mobilities which signed up to the Maputo agreements, and have just put in place a mediation committee. 

The civil society is in for a race against the clock. The objective is indeed “to precede”, for the sake of honour, the international mediators who already programmed an emergency meeting in Antananarivo, on October 6th.  

All along the latest weeks, politicians and members of the civil society have actually been asking, on end, for a “Malagasy made” solution to the crisis, more particularly after the failure of the second leg of the Maputo meeting between Andry Rajoelina, Marc Ravalomanana, Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy.  

A “Malagasy made” solution, many thanes have been telling about it since the beginning of the crisis in January 2009. Various kinds of mediation attempt have been tried. The starring actors were, at that time, only Marc Ravalomanana and Andry Rajoelina. A first mediation failure from the Council of Madagascar’s Christian churches (FFKM) and from the international community has opened the path to a putsch back in mid-March and forced Marc Ravalomanana into exile.  

This time around, the failure of the second leg of the Maputo Summit definitely pushed the civil society to step into mediation. Following a failure at the international level, the national ambition has been shaken. 

The civil society’s mediation committee’s objective is to organize another meeting “on top” between the four political mobility leaders, in Madagascar. To such an end, the committee needs the army’s support. A letter has been addressed to the concerned officials to serve that goal. Without the armed forces’ support, Marc Ravalomanana and Didier Ratsiraka’s trips back home might be quite risky.  

The committee put in place by the civil society is made of seven members stemming from different associations. The civil society, being part of those groupings which solemnly subscribed to the agreements signed on the latest August 9th in Maputo, is, thus, intending to play an important role in the resolution of the political crisis in Madagascar.