'New faces, same dictatorship' says Madagascar's Gen Z activist following arrest of protesters

Months after a youth-led protest forced Madagascar's president to resign and flee the country, activists say the new regime is worse than the one it toppled.

Michael Randrianirina, a colonel whose army was supporting the protesters, was suspended on March 25. He won support by promising to restore public trust and fight corruption. He even appointed an anti-corruption chief and subjected cabinet ministers to mandatory vetting.

But the arrest of activists has caused concern. Activist Arimamy Todisoa says the suppression of freedom of expression is against the spirit of the October revolution.

“It's just new faces but the same mafia, the same oligarchs,” he said As It Happened guest speaker Nora Young.

Todisoa is a founding member of Gen Z 261, one of Madagascar's youth organizations. He says that six members of this group have been arrested. They are accused of crimes related to undermining government security and criminal conspiracy.

Todisoa says radical and systematic change is necessary for the country to move forward. Here is part of his interview with Young.

If you hear that this arrest is happening now, after the celebrations of last October, how did you react?

I am saddened and disappointed because that was the practice of the previous administration. There should have been a revolution, but we got a dictatorship. Just a new face.

The arrests came after the protest movement on April 10. How many people in your group have been arrested since then?

Six people were arrested. Five are still in custody, two are in hospital, three are in the National Police crime unit, and one has been released.

What have those arrested been charged with?

There are accused of threatening national security and criminal conspiracy. If the evidence [is] in there, they are done as a way to silence us, [so we do] not to criticize the practices of this new regime.

What is your organization asking?

The dissolution of institutions: the National Assembly, the Supreme Constitutional Court, and the Independent Electoral Commission, all of which have created an unending crisis in this country.

So what would you like to see happen?

We want total systemic change – radical change in the system – because it is no longer helping people. It helps politicians and their families, while those who commit corruption are getting richer and the majority of people are getting poorer.

We don't want to leave this country to find a bright future.

Why are young people especially drawn to these protests?

Because … we have been told that leaving this country is the only way out, as if we are not indigenous to this country, as if this country is not ours. So, we decided it should stop sometime because we are Malagasy and Madagascar is our heritage.

Why should we leave our country for a brighter future? Why should our parents tell us to study hard, work hard to leave your country?

That is unusual. That is why we young people have decided to take it upon ourselves to expel those corrupt politicians and all their colleagues.

The spokesperson of the president of Madagascar responded to his arrest and said: “In Madagascar, there is something we call the separation of powers, so the office of the president has nothing to do with the cases discussed by the national police.” Is that your understanding that the current presidency has nothing to do with this arrest?

Those people are very good at lying, because it was the president's own order that arrested those people. It is a direct order.

So this is a counter-protest campaign?

Indeed, against the leaders, not just any protesters, the leaders.

What makes you so sure?

What makes me sure is that the president's spokesperson has actually talked to me about it. He literally threatened, like, “If you want to continue that way, we'll meet you there in the streets.” That is a threat against freedom of speech.

During the protests in October, those people we put in positions do not respect freedom of speech, that is a basic right.

How is the new regime compared to the one you and other activists wanted to remove last year?

The former regime was better. If the previous regime was bad, what these guys are doing is 10 times worse. We didn't expect what they did.

They have been in charge for six months and now they are wearing expensive clothes. We all wonder how they got rich so fast.

You are in hiding right now, as I understand it, and you run the risk of being arrested as well. How do you deal with this situation?

I deal with it by organizing resistance. I will not hide forever with those people [in power] he won't last very long.

What does this arrest mean for your movement? Where do you go from here?

First of all, we want to inform the world what is really happening, the real evidence of the corruption of this government while informing the common people that this current government is corrupt.

It did not follow the revolutionary ideas, and it is just a new face but the same mafia, the same oligarchs. These people who controlled the economy and the country are still in control and issuing orders to those in charge.

Do you think there might be more protests?

There will be many protests but not on the streets yet. Public opinion is like anesthetized after the excitement of October things and we have to wake them up again.

People need to wake up, and when we are strong enough to go back to the streets, we will go back to the streets. Until then, we will protest online but we must do everything to inform people about what is really happening.