1938–2019
○ Natural death
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.
Also known as: Koto
Activities and affiliations
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1972–
MFM – Movement for Proletarian Power / Movement for the Progress of MadagascarChairmanMain
Political and party leadership
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
Related historical events
From the 1987 'four-M' front to co-presidency of the 1991 transition
In the late 1980s, Rakotonirina worked to widen the space for criticism inside the Ratsiraka system without openly rejecting the legal channels that were the only ones available. In 1987 the MFM joined Maharanga Tsihozony's VSM, Marojama Razanabahiny's VITM and Monja Jaona's MONIMA to form the "mouvement des 4 M" inside the ruling National Front for the Defence of the Revolution (FNDR). Named after the four leaders' initials, it was a kind of mini-front that called itself a "front of refusal": its member parties stayed inside the system while criticizing it. The Christian organisation CEADAM later joined to form the Alliance democratique; CEADAM was not a political party but a Christian body linked to the churches. The Alliance put Rakotonirina forward in the 1989 presidential election, where he took second place behind Ratsiraka with 891,161 votes, or 19.31 per cent. Razanabahiny Marojama won 14.87 per cent and Monja Jaona 3 per cent. After the election MONIMA and the VITM left the mini-front to return to the FNDR, leaving the MFM, the VSM, CEADAM and the AKFM splinter AKFM Fanavaozana (AKFM Renewal) in opposition. In April 1991 these forces merged with other associations into a new body, the Forces Vives, whose leadership included Rakotonirina alongside Albert Zafy and the pastor Richard Andriamanjato. From May to October 1991 they organised a campaign demanding the liberalisation and democratisation of the socialist regime installed in 1975. In this period the MFM abandoned its long-standing programme of struggle for proletarian power and renamed itself the Militant Party for the Development of Madagascar, moving to the right. When the October 1991 Panorama Agreement created transitional institutions, he and Andriamanjato became co-presidents of the 130-member Committee for Economic and Social Recovery (CRES), serving until 1993. In the November 1992 presidential election he took 10.2 per cent and third place behind Zafy and Ratsiraka, and in the 1993 parliamentary election he was elected to the National Assembly for Manandriana, his first elected office, serving until 1998. From a member of the Supreme Council of the Revolution running the nationalised enterprises to co-president of an anti-regime transitional body, this trajectory shows how an accumulation begun in the narrow legal space of loyal opposition was converted into a demand for the overthrow of the system.