Year 2009 crisis: the political underside of Black Monday

In the psychological battle between the nation’s elected President and the capital city’s mayor anxious to bring him down, the young Andry Rajoelina gave the first stroke: He drove mobs out of from the forbidden place of May 13th. That day was to be remembered as the black Monday: insurgent demonstrators attacked the Malagasy national radio and TV station’s facilities, setting a couple of buildings alight in Anosy. On that memorable day, President Ravalomanana failed to react, so did the police forces under his command. 

Is there still any State in command when chaos, lootings and arsons are reigning in broad daylight, and keep on reigning to the break of the night? The lack of command was a matter of fact. For whom did the crime pay off? On one hand, Andry Rajoelina accused the power that he was striving to bring down, of leaving things happen, by the same way hinting that chaos would be to the leaders’ advantage. On the other side, President Ravalomanana was anxious to avoid the bloodshed trap in case of police intervention. In the end,  Andry Rajoelina, not indicted, let alone arrested, got the psychological upper hand while the President was showing one evidence of weakness. 

Why on earth weakness then? Few days earlier, Marc Ravalomanana was appearing again as the country strong man. Back from Cape Town, South Africa, he stayed in Morondava to pledge help and support to a population hit by a cyclone. Once in Ivato, the President did not yet grant relevance to the on going contestation. The most important priority was still the help to Morondava’s inhabitants, and the tackling of the national development program, the Madagascar Action Plan or MAP. This was the family father’s face, the country’s “Raiamandreny”. 

As for the political suit, Marc Ravalomanana also displayed evidences of strength. “I am very strict concerning any breach of the Republic’s Constitution, such thing pisses me off” he was warning. Without openly threatening the mayor anxious to operate a putsch, the President restricted to warning that any incitement to public disobedience under undercover of a popular movement is a national danger, and to calling upon the population to keep calm. By that time, Andry Rajoelina’s objective was no more the reopening of his Viva TV channel. 

January 26th’s Black Monday of 2009 gave the impression that the country had nobody in command anymore. Jean Theodore Ranjivason was arrested and held in custody due to his presumed involvement in the TVM and RNM facilities’ arsons, charges which he denied for putting forth that an educator of his sort would never do such thing. An arrest warrant against Roland Ratsiraka and Dolin Rasolosoa has been announced to the press by President Ravalomanana. The EU ambassador of the time, Jean Claude Boidin, perfectly summarized the situation: there are arrests without mandates and mandates without arrests “, he said from fear of a lack of governance. Subsequent policing operations only made matters worse thereafter.