Madagascar has witnessed a bizarre tale of money- laundering that has deposed its president, reports Chris McGreal
Madagascar has called a snap election, pitting the island’s impeached populist president against parliament in a struggle with roots in a bizarre effort to revive a decrepit economy with loans from drug traffickers and scam artists.
Madagascar’s former military ruler, in exile in France, has also said he will compete in the presidential ballot set for November 3.
The vote was called after the high court upheld parliament’s impeachment of President Albert Zafy for exceeding his powers, and ordered his removal from office until elections have been held. Zafy said he is the victim of a constitutional coup and would not be prevented from regaining office.
“I am not a murderer and I have not committed any crimes. I therefore intend to stand for re-election and nobody can stop me from doing so,” he said.
Zafy (70) overturned 17 years of military rule when he handily won the presidency in 1993. But he swiftly ran into a political mire over Madagascar’s economy which was reeling from mismanagement by the former Marxist- turned-reformist regime. The island is $4-billion in debt and unable even to meet interest payments. It has the lowest international credit rating possible, putting it on a par with Zaire where the formal economy barely exists.
The government is divided over how to handle the crisis. Madagascar’s former prime minister led one faction in favour of following an International Monetary Fund austerity plan, without which the country found it all but impossible to borrow money through the normal channels.
But Zafy rejected the social cost of large public- sector job and service cuts as too high on an island where nearly half the children suffer retarded growth or acute malnutrition.
When the World Bank refused new loans, officials sought alternative sources of money with the president’s backing. The administration called it “parallel financing”. The World Bank called it money laundering.
Among other deals, the Malagasy government attempted to borrow $450-million through the bank account of a goat farmer in Texas. The World Bank warned Madagascar the money was being laundered by drug cartels.
In a series of other bizarre schemes — involving an array of characters claiming to be anyone from the board of governors of The United Nations of America to a relative of the Prince of Liechtenstein — Madagascar’s treasury appeared to lose more money than it gained.
In the ensuing political battles, Zafy tried to fire the prime minister. Parliament said he could not. A year ago the president called a referendum on the issue, which he won handily among poverty-striken islanders fearful of yet more austerity.
The legislature responded by impeaching the president on the grounds that the referendum and subsequent dismissal of the prime minister were unconstitutional.
Zafy’s principal rival in the election will be the speaker of parliament, Richard Andriamanjato, a former ally who led the charge for impeachment.
This week Zafy accused the speaker of using the crisis to further his own presidential ambitions and of pursuing an alternative parallel financing plan by agreeing to a $300-million scheme to dump toxic waste in Madagascar.