Madagascar Gen-Z Demands Rajoelina’s Resignation

Madagascar finds itself at the brink of its most serious political crisis in over a decade. What began as small demonstrations in Antananarivo over rolling blackouts and dry taps has spiraled into a nationwide movement demanding the resignation of President Andry Rajoelina. The protests led by disillusioned youth are now turning deadly. In fact, more than 20 people died and hundreds were injured in what observers are calling “the country’s most violent unrest in years."

Madagascar's struggle with poverty has been intertwined with its struggling infrastructure, but that’s only getting worse. Power cuts, lasting up to 12 hours a day in some areas, are now crippled small businesses and paralyzing schools. Simultaneously, water shortages have also forced neighborhoods to turn to unreliable sources just to quench their thirst. This struggle is fueling political outrage, especially for young Malagasy citizens, many of whom have known little besides economic stagnation since Rajoelina first took power in 2009.

But the government has shifted accountability, instead blaming a combination of drought, cyclone damage, and “foreign agitators” for the crisis. Unsurprisingly, protestors don’t buy it. According to a report from Reuters, demonstrators instead accuse the Rajoelina administration of corruption and mismanagement. They believe the crises around them have been fueled by funds meant for infrastructure repair that vanished into political networks. 

The violence escalated earlier this week when security forces opened fire on crowds attempting to storm a regional governor’s office in Fianarantsoa. These actions turned the protests nuclear, resulting in clouds of tear gas and burning tires. Although the president has now gone on national television to quell the protests, his actions haven’t been able to change much. For Madagascar’s citizens, they’ve been left with an unanswerable yet tragic question: When will it end?

For a country that once held hope of democratic renewal, the growing chaos feels all too familiar. As the streets fill with anger and desperation, Madagascar stands once again at a crossroads between reform and repression, hope and collapse.

Read more here:

• Michelle Gavin, CFR

• Farah Najjar, Aljazeera

• Lovasoa Rabary, Tim Cocks and Giulia Paravicini, Reuters

• Al Jazeera, International Court for Truth and Justice

Extemp Analysis by: Roshan Shivnani

Question: What do Madascagar’s protests foreshadow about the nation’s future?

AGD: This is personal preference (a narrative definitely could be safe but I would also think there’s room for humor: ex how the president fled the country)

Background: This is where the article should help! For simplicity sake I think chronological order makes the most sense. 

Answer: It’s remains stranded down a dark path

3 Points

1. Persistent political violence

2. Creation of a generational divide

3. Continued Corruption

Analysis + Concluding Thoughts: I think the points here are fairly intuitive. An important clarification to make, which could help lessen your burden, is that the answer remains stranded. By framing the future as a continuation, you don’t necessarily have to prove that anything gets worse, only that it stays the same. For the first point, this can literally be as easy as saying political violence has risen in the country, and new protests affirm that. This second point on generational divide would mean talking about Gen Z and how they’ve only seen failure, causing them to fuel the protests. The impact would likely be along the lines of having a political divide along a demographic one. Finally, corruption would involve clarifying the existing corrupt practices Rajoelina and other politicians have participated in. The protests could be used to symbolize the revealing of those actions, signifying the dark path ahead of the country.

Concluding thoughts: overall, this isn’t a question that’s very content dense, so it would be in your best interest to use that extra time to focus on fleshed out impacts, clear analysis, and incorporating personality through your AGD and on-tops.