{"id":426353,"date":"2010-03-14T10:43:41","date_gmt":"2010-03-14T14:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalvoicesonline.org\/?p=128226"},"modified":"2010-03-14T10:43:41","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T14:43:41","slug":"year-after-coup-madagascars-leaders-face-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/426353","title":{"rendered":"Year After Coup, Madagascar’s Leaders Face Sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the anniversary of the coup d'etat of March 17, \u00a02009 \u00a0in Madagascar<\/a>, individual <\/a>sanctions are about to be imposed upon the current leaders of Madagascar<\/a> for not respecting the resolutions of Maputo<\/a> that were previously\u00a0agreed upon \u00a0by all participants.\u00a0 This decision come after a warning a month earlier\u00a0from the African Union and the\u00a0International\u00a0Contact Group and follow several annulments of international trade accords<\/a> that have affected the local industries. They also come on the heel of reports by Amnesty International<\/a> and the US State Department that document multiple human rights violations <\/a>and ongoing illegal international trafficking of precious rosewood<\/a> from Madagascar rain forests. According to a Malagasy insider, the individual sanctions would result in a freeze of the financial assets<\/a> of the people present in the list and possible arrest if they travel outside Madagascar (fr).<\/p>\n

The \u00a0government remains defiant in the face of the impending sanctions, arguing that only national elections will provide an effective exit to the crisis. \u00a0The organization and monitoring of these elections are not clearly defined yet and parliamentary elections have already been postponed <\/a> from the initial proposed schedule.<\/p>\n

The political deadlock \u00a0is\u00a0compounded\u00a0by humanitarian concerns caused by \u00a0Tropical Storm Hubert that killed 14 and left <\/a>37<\/a><\/span>,891 homeless<\/a> after making landfall earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

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\n
\n
\"Flooding<\/dt>\n
Flooding caused by Tropical Storm Hubert in South East Madagascar<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

(Photo credit: Global Green Grants Fund<\/a>) <\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Reflecting upon the upcoming sanctions on national Malagasy leaders, \u00a0Citoyenne Malgache, <\/em>a blogger based in Madagascar,\u00a0has mixed feelings about the possible consequences for the everyday Malagasy citizens. She is torn between satisfaction and fear<\/a> (fr):<\/p>\n

\n

Contente ?\u00a0Si l\u2019Union Africaine ne se contente pas de sortir sa liste des sanctionn\u00e9es, mais pr\u00e9sente aussi au peuple malgache (celui de 19 millions et pas celui de 912 personnes) les actions\u00a0concr\u00e8tes et imm\u00e9diates<\/strong> pour la mise en \u0153uvre des accords de Maputo [..] Worried ? En r\u00e9action \u00e0 ce que l\u2019Union Africaine dira ou fera, la troupe \u00e0 Rajoelina et leurs bandes arm\u00e9es pourraient faire de la r\u00e9sistance[..] Ce 17 mars, je me demande quel monde je trouverais \u00e0 mon r\u00e9veil<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Satisfied? Only If the African Union is not just posting the list of the penalized perpetrators but also presents concrete and immediate actions to the Malagasy people for the implementation of the Maputo agreement[..] Worried ? Depending on what the AU will decide to say or do, Rajoelina's group and their armed forces may provide resistance [..] On March 17, I wonder in what world I will wake up to<\/div>\n

Madagoravox<\/em> is also dreaming of a country with different standards as to not have to go through this cycle of crisis ever again<\/a> (fr):<\/p>\n

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On pourrait aussi r\u00eaver d\u2019une action politique qui ne serait le fruit ni de rencontres occasionnelles, ni d\u2019un calcul personnel, ni d\u2019une ambition partisane, mais le fruit d\u2019une morale, d\u2019une \u00e9thique qui engagerait pleinement chacun<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

One can dream of politics that would not come from sporadic meetings, personal agenda, or partisan ambition, but politics that would be the fruit of commitment to personal morals and ethics.<\/div>\n

Ndimby<\/em> thinks that a true exit to the crisis can only be reached through an in-depth dialog between former foes<\/a> and not the make-believe meetings that both parties held earlier and that were consensual only on the surface (fr):<\/p>\n

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L\u2019unilat\u00e9ralisme ne r\u00e9side pas dans l\u2019absence ou la pr\u00e9sence de d\u00e9bats mais dans le fait que le cadre du d\u00e9bat est d\u00e9j\u00e0 d\u00e8s le d\u00e9part tellement orient\u00e9, qu\u2019il a emp\u00each\u00e9 de parler s\u00e9rieusement des choses essentielles, et de r\u00e9unir les personnes qui comptent vraiment dans la r\u00e9solution de crise<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Unilateralism is not about whether there was a debate or not but it comes from the fact that the bases of the debate were already so skewed that it prevented a conversation on important subjects and to rally the leaders who can truly bring a resolution to the crisis.<\/div>\n

An initiative called “Mitsangana” (Stand Up in Malagasy) to get politicians from all parties to respond to question from Malagasy citizens<\/a> has been created on Facebook.<\/p>\n

While the crisis perseveres, the social toll is gradually increasing. Health workers and physicians were on strike for months and \u00a0factory workers were seen gathering outside a factory that plans to let them go in April.<\/p>\n

\"Unemployed<\/p>\n

Workers protesting outside a factory in Antananarivo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

(Photo credit: “Mitsangana” facebook group)<\/em><\/p>\n

As is often the case, \u00a0rural communities are\u00a0often more dramatically affected by poverty. \u00a0Louise, from Southern Madagascar, tells her story of hardship and explains that the many changes over the years have depleted her region<\/a> of land resources and fish species:<\/p>\n

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People in Ilafitsignana are now deprived of their farmland… As a result, there are many more people living off fishing, and resources are no longer enough…\u00a0Ambatsy <\/em>and\u00a0s\u00e2ro<\/em> are almost non-existent.\u00a0fiambazaha<\/em>are still around but not as many…angora lo<\/em> and\u00a0varavar\u00e0 <\/em>were so easy to catch in the past but are almost non-existent now…\u00a0tofoky <\/em>are also hard to find (author's note: names in italics are species of fish in Malagasy)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to the World Bank, the struggle of the \u00a0Malagasy economy has already forced the government to slash $200 million USD for the public service<\/a> from their national budget. \u00a0\u00a0Achille52 <\/em> explains that the educational system is the first to suffer and that this budget cut will have dire consequences on the future of the nation<\/a> (fr):<\/p>\n

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C\u2019est\u00a0le manque de financement qui est la plaie de l\u2019enseignement publique<\/span>, les enseignants ne sont pas motiv\u00e9s \u00e0 cause de leur salaire minable, et les enfants issus de la classe d\u00e9favoris\u00e9 ne sont pas assez concentr\u00e9s. Et si on supprime les aides qui subsistent, o\u00f9 va-t-on ?<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

Lack of funding is the main problem for public schools. Teachers are not motivated enough because of their miserable salaries and the children of the disenfranchised classes are not focused on school work anymore. If we cancel subsidies now, where are we headed to?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the anniversary of the coup d'etat of March 17, \u00a02009 \u00a0in Madagascar, individual sanctions are about to be imposed upon the current leaders of Madagascar for not respecting the resolutions of Maputo that were previously\u00a0agreed upon \u00a0by all participants.\u00a0 This decision come after a warning a month earlier\u00a0from the African Union and the\u00a0International\u00a0Contact Group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6208,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}