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Madagascar The Second Republic, 1975-92
Ratsiraka was elected to a seven-year term as president
in a
national referendum on December 21, 1975, confirming the
mandate
for consensus and inaugurating Madagascar's Second
Republic.
The guiding principle of Ratsiraka's administration was
the need
for a socialist "revolution from above." Specifically, he
sought
to radically change Malagasy society in accordance with
programs
and principles incorporated into the Charter of the
Malagasy
Socialist Revolution, popularly referred to as the
"Red Book"
(Boky Mena). According to this document, the primary goal
of the
newly renamed Democratic Republic of Madagascar was to
build a
"new society" founded on socialist principles and guided
by the
actions of the "five pillars of the revolution": the SRC,
peasants and workers, young intellectuals, women, and the
Popular
Armed Forces. "The socialist revolution," explains the Red
Book,
"is the only choice possible for us in order to achieve
rapid
economic and cultural development in an autonomous,
humane, and
harmonious manner." The Red Book advocated a new foreign
policy
based on the principle of nonalignment, and domestic
policies
focused on renovating the fokonolona,
decentralizing the
administration, and fomenting economic development through
rigorous planning and popular input.
Several early policies collectively decided by
Ratsiraka and
other members of the SRC set the tone of the revolution
from
above. The first major SRC decision was to bring the
French-held
sectors of the economy under government control. This
"economic
decolonization" was welcomed by nationalists, who long had
clamored for economic and cultural independence from
France. The
government also lifted martial law but retained rigid
press
censorship. Finally, the SRC ordered the closure of an
earth
satellite tracking station operated by the United States
as part
of its commitment to nonaligned foreign relations.
Political consolidation proceeded apace following the
addition of ten civilians to the SRC in January 1976. This
act
constituted the beginning of a civil-military partnership
in that
the SRC became more representative of the country's major
political tendencies and ethnic communities. In March the
Vanguard of the Malagasy Revolution (Antokin'ny
Revolisiona
Malagasy--Arema) was founded as the government party, and
Ratsiraka became its secretary general. In sharp contrast
to the
single-party states created by other African Marxist
leaders,
Arema served as simply one (albeit the most powerful)
member of a
coalition of six parties united under the umbrella of the
National Front for the Defense of the Revolution (Front
National
pour la Défense de la Révolution--FNDR). Membership in the
FNDR,
necessary for participation in the electoral process, was
preconditioned on party endorsement of the revolutionary
principles and programs contained in the Red Book.
Ratsiraka and Arema clearly dominated the political
system.
In the fokonolona elections held in March 1977, for
example, Arema captured 90 percent of 73,000 contested
seats in
11,400 assemblies. In June 1977, Arema won 220 out of a
total of
232 seats in elections for six provincial general
assemblies, and
112 out of a total of 137 seats in the Popular National
Assembly.
This trend toward consolidation was most vividly
demonstrated by
Rasiraka's announcement of his 1977 cabinet in which Arema
members held sixteen of eighteen ministerial posts.
Yet, less than three years after taking power,
Ratsiraka's
regime was confronted with growing popular disenchantment.
As
early as September 1977, antigovernment demonstrations
erupted in
Antananarivo because of severe shortages in foodstuffs and
essential commodities. This trend intensified as the
economy
worsened under the weight of ill-conceived economic
policies that
gradually centralized government control over the key
sectors of
the economy, including banking and agriculture. Ratsiraka
defiantly adopted authoritarian tactics in response to the
evolving opposition, sending in the armed forces to stifle
dissent and maintain order during student riots in May
1978. In
the economic realm, however, Ratsiraka accepted the
free-market
reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund
(IMF--see Glossary)
in order to ensure an infusion of foreign
assistance
vital to keeping the economy functioning. Whereas
Ratsiraka's
drift toward authoritarianism provided his enemies with
political
cannon fodder, his economic reforms led them to charge him
with
abandoning "scientific socialism" and alienated his
traditional
base of political supporters, as well.
The results of presidential elections within the de
facto
single-party framework that prevailed throughout the
Second
Republic clearly demonstrated Ratsiraka's declining
political
fortunes. Widespread initial enthusiasm for his socialist
revolution from above secured him nearly 95 percent of the
popular vote in the 1975 presidential elections, but
support
declined to 80 percent in 1982 and to only 63 percent in
1989.
The year of 1989 marked a special turning point in that
the fall
of the Berlin Wall heralded the intellectual death of
singleparty rule in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union
and
similarly transformed electoral politics in Africa. In the
case
of Madagascar, increasingly vocal opposition parties
denounced
what they and international observers considered massive
fraud in
the 1989 presidential election, including Ratsiraka's
refusal to
update outdated voting lists that excluded the
anti-Ratsiraka
youth vote and the stuffing of ballot boxes at unmonitored
rural
polling stations. Massive demonstrations against
Ratsiraka's
inauguration led to violent clashes in Antananarivo that,
according to official figures, left seventy-five dead and
wounded.
Popular discontent with the Ratsiraka regime heightened
on
August 10, 1991, when more than 400,000 citizens marched
peacefully on the President's Palace in order to oust the
Ratsiraka government and create a new multiparty political
system. Ratsiraka already faced an economy crippled by a
general
strike that had begun in May, as well as a divided and
restless
military whose loyalty no longer could be assumed. When
the
Presidential Guard opened fire on the marchers and killed
and
wounded hundreds, a crisis of leadership occurred.
The net result of these events was Ratsiraka's
agreement on
October 31, 1991 to support a process of democratic
transition,
complete with the formulation of a new constitution and
the
holding of free and fair multiparty elections. Albert
Zafy, the
central leader of the opposition forces and a
côtier of
the Tsimihety ethnic group, played a critical role in this
transition process and ultimately emerged as the first
president
of Madagascar's Third Republic. The leader of the Comité
des
Forces Vives (Vital Forces Committee, known as Forces
Vives), an
umbrella opposition group composed of sixteen political
parties
that spearheaded the 1991 demonstrations, Zafy also
emerged as
the head of what became known as the High State Authority,
a
transitional government that shared power with the
Ratsiraka
regime during the democratization process.
A new draft constitution was approved by 75 percent of
those
voting in a national referendum on August 19, 1992. The
first
round of presidential elections followed on November 25.
Frontrunner Zafy won 46 percent of the popular vote as the
Forces
Vives candidate, and Ratsiraka, as leader of his own newly
created progovernment front, the Militant Movement for
Malagasy
Socialism (Mouvement Militant pour le Socialisme
Malgache--MMSM),
won approximately 29 percent of the vote. The remaining
votes
were split among a variety of other candidates. Because
neither
candidate obtained a majority of the votes cast, a second
round
of elections between the two frontrunners was held on
February
10, 1993. Zafy emerged victorious with nearly 67 percent
of the
popular vote.
Data as of August 1994
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