Founder of the MFM, the left party of the 1972 student-revolution generation
As the MFM was at last admitted to the front, Ratsiraka declared, 'There is no longer any reason to exclude the MFM.'
A sociology professor at Madagascar's agricultural college, Rakotonirina entered politics through Monja Jaona's MONIMA and helped organize the May 1972 protests that brought down the Tsiranana regime. In December 1972 he founded the Maoist left party MFM (Militants for Power to the Little People), which championed the poor, peasants and slave-descendants; after Ratsiraka dissolved the party and placed him under house arrest in 1976, he brought the MFM into the FNDR the following year and as head of the CSR's economic commission managed the nationalized enterprises. He later turned to liberalism, led the 1991 pro-democracy movement, and in 2009 was arrested as the prime minister named by the exiled president.
Career Timeline
- 1966Joined MONIMA
- 1968Head of MONIMA's Antananarivo section
- 1972Founded the MFM (27 December)
- 1977–1989CSR member, head of the economic commission
- 1989Second in presidential election (~20%)
- 1991–1993Co-president of the transitional recovery committee
- 1993–1998Member of the National Assembly (Manandriana)
- 2009Prime minister named by the exiled president