Friday , 29 March 2024
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The highest ranking official in charge of Toamasina is officially in place, and President Ravalomanana continues to call for "the rapid development" of the country.

Toamasina swears in a Special Delegation President

The Malagasy crisis is now history. On Friday, August 16, 2002, President Ravalomanana, who was once considered “persona non grata” there, marched into the port city Toamasina, his former rival, Admiral Ratsiraka’s ethnic, and political stronghold, at one time. Nonetheless, President Ravalomanana was jubilantly welcomed by a crowd of well-wishers who have grown weary, after six long months of political crisis, and economic isolation which started when the former dictator chose to turn the port city into his stronghold, before eventually leaving for France, following his defeat.

President Ravalomanana’s first visit to Toamasina, after the six month long crisis, coincided with the official inauguration of the Special Delegation President, Emile Tsizaraina, whom he appointed to be the highest ranking official in charge of the province.

During the official ceremony, President Ravalomanana stated, “I dedicate my life to Madagascar’s development.” He seized the moment to recall, as he usually loves to do, the major principles which will guide his five year term in office. First on his priority list, you will find highway construction. Understandably, he reminded his audience that only 33% of the Great Island’s highways are operational. He concluded, “Without any highway, there will be no development.”

He insisted on justifying the need for relentlessly attacking this front, while in Antananarivo, the threat of housing destruction looms over those families who live in the designated path of a new highway, the construction of which is scheduled to start shortly. This is why President Ravalomanana insists on the need to properly compensate the families displaced by his innovation projects.

Next, President Ravalomanana stressed the inevitable crack-down on corruption. He stated that this is a critical governance issue which must be attended to.

Thus, in the interest of “national reconciliation”, Emile Tsizaraina, one of former president Didier Ratsiraka’s sympathizers, now occupies the post of special delegation president, replacing former governor Samuel Lahady who, as everyone knows, figures as one of the key pro-Ratsiraka architects of the latest Malagasy crisis.

The last time President Ravalomanana set foot in Toamasina was during the December 2001 election campaign. Even then, Ratsiraka sympathizers tried to keep him from landing at the city’s airport, triggering the beginning of an arm-wrestling match which will last six months. Fortunately, the outcome delighted most of the Malagasy people who, obviously held peaceful, and development aspirations.