Most people, if they think of Madagascar at all, know it only as the backdrop for a bunch of cartoon critters from a zoo in New York City who, through a serious of hijinks, end up stranded on that African island nation. But Madagascar has more difficulties with governance than a monomaniacal (though generally harmless) lemur king. Ever since the overthrow of the former president, Marc Ravalomanana, Madagascar has descended into chaos, violence, and insecurity. It appears, however, that five days of intense negotiations have led the country’s four most important political parties toward forging a final agreement that they hope will lead the country from the precipice.
The good news:
Under the auspices of Joaquim Chissano, former president of Mozambique, and other international mediators, four previous Malagasy heads of state agreed in Maputo on the formation of a transitional government to organize presidential elections by the end of 2010.
The not so good news:
They could not, however, agree on the distribution of key posts in the transitional administration. This element of the negotiations has been put on hold and will be tackled in Maputo in the coming days. According to the United Nations representative at the talks, Tiébilé Dramé, the question will be the toughest part of the negotiations.
Half a loaf is better than none, to be sure, but agreeing that there will be a government strikes me as the easy part, relatively speaking, compared to making the hard decisions as to what that government will look like and where the power will be vested (and more importantly, in whom). Hopefully these issues will see resolution in the days to come.