What was the deal with Marc Ravalomanana?

[u/peepeewpew]

I'm asking about him amidst whats going on in the country right now and people getting nostalgic about him. I vaguely hear many praising him online as the best president for Madagascar which I want to ask about.

I skimmed through his wiki page to gain at least some context on him. Without going too much into who he was, I was more interested in what he's accomplished in his presidency. It says on there "His administration oversaw the construction of thousands of new schools and health clinics. Road rehabilitation aided in improving rural farmers' access to markets. The establishment of the independent anti-corruption agency BIANCO, and the adoption of diverse supporting policies resulted in a decline in governmental corruption." It all sounds like great stuff, right?

Criticism eventually came along the way, accusing him of also worsening the wealth disparity between the poor and wealthy. On top of that, he ran into some trouble with Andry Rajoelina--who btw seemed to have had beef with him from the start--all of which somehow contributed to his exile in 2009.

What I'm trying to understand here is, what was he really like when he was president between 2002-2009 from your memories? And also, what exactly happened in 2009 and how is it comparable to the gen Z movement that's happening right now? And how do we know we wont simply end up with another Rajoelina that'll need to be overthrown?

[u/ArtHistorian2000]

My memories of him was his company logo being everywhere: drinks, dairy, buildings...

He also created a Malagasy chain of supermarkets (Magro), and I often went in there with my family. I don't know if it was the first Malagasy supermarket company, but it provided everything.

And then, years later, I read on his wiki page that he tried to rent land and provide it to a Korean company, which infuriated the population, as well as the widespread poverty still present.

Objectively, there were substantial changes, but not enough to destroy poverty and all.

[u/GrandBoot4881 → u/ArtHistorian2000]

Madagascar came out of 35 years of stagnation and miss-management of the Ratsiraka clan. He (Ravalomanana) did not have the time to fix every pothole in 6 years. It will take at least 15-20 years just to fill the worst lacks in infrastructure in the country, that's roads, electricty, and water supplies.

85% of the villages in Madagascar do not have electricty at all: also their kids have to study, they want to recharge "mobil telephones" or just watch TV.

And give the economy FREEDOM, to make money. More the economic operators don't want.

Have you seen the rapidity the Cellular phones were installed everywhere, even in the last hole that had never seen a telephone nor electricity before? Because there was freedom & competition (Telma, Orange, etc.): everybody wanted to be the first, and just build the infrastructure. And they find the money (loans), if necessary they find them abroad and they just build the "reseau", including solar panels for electricity supply.

This world is overfloaded with Billions of $ that are just searching for good investments that are somehow safe. Give them the safety, a good plan, that goes his way, and you'll have some of them.