Friday , 29 March 2024
enfrit
Slowly, TIM widens its base, while President Ravalomanana had to explain why he transformed this association into a political party.

TIM’s evolution into a political party, explained

During a short visit to Faratsiho, last Saturday, President Ravalomanana had to explain why he transformed TIM (Tiako I Madagascar – I Love Madagascar) into a political party. He suggested, “The new leadership needs a tangible support mechanism to carry out its agenda.” He added, “That is why, TIM, which, as everyone recalls, started out as the association behind my bid for the presidency, had to evolve into a structured political party.” This arrangement will allow it to play a new role on another front, the up-coming general election.

Today, with Andrianantoandro Raharinaivo as its president, TIM appears to be in good hands. Raharinaivo once served as president of Antananarivo’s town council, and was formerly an executive officer in Marc Ravalomanana’s TIKO, an agribusiness enterprise. His mission consists mainly of the establishment of TIM’s basic structure, as a political entity, within local communities, all over Madagascar. He will carry this out in the midst of a growing storm of criticisms from an opposition concerned with a political playing field monopolized by one presidential party. For now, President Ravalomanana’s team, too busy tackling the enormous task of establishing a solid national foundation for TIM, does not seem to want to attach any importance to these criticisms.

Up to now, TIM seems to have confined itself to the district level, as a political party. This is where Ravalomanana sympathizers from the capital city, and its surrounding areas, are right now. Case in point, TIM militants from Alasora district have just elected the party’s administrative staff. Political observers still remember the precedence set by the MFM party, whose solid base, ten years earlier, reached all the way down to every little section of every Malagasy district, but was not enough to propel Mr. Manandafy, the party president, to the Supreme Court.

TIM leaders, whose current actions are aimed at establishing the party’s standing, all over the entire national territory, have not failed to learn from the experiences of the various Malagasy political parties with national reach. The TIM offensive has not, in any way, kept its allies from rolling up their sleeves in an attempt to erect a well structured presidential sphere of influence around President Ravalomanana.

Translated by J. F. Razanamiadana