I believe education is important

Last December, we did our presidential election in Madagascar. There were 36 candidates! Among all of them, three of them were a democratically elected president, the one was president of the transition and the rest were some rich personalities in my country. After the first run of the election, two candidates received the majority of the public vote: the former president elected in 2002: Marc Ravalomanana and his predecessor who did a coup d’état in 2009: Andry Rajoelina. After the second run, Mr. Andry Rajoelina was elected to be the new president. 

What surprised me the most during this election happened during the campaign. Each candidate has his/her own strategies to attract people. However, they all know that the population in Madagascar have the tendency to follow candidates who have the most extravagant campaign. By extravagant, I mean a campaign with a lot of musical show and animation. So, they bring the best singer in the country during their campaign. In addition to that, those kinds of politicians also share a lot of T-shirts and foods so people love that. But the sad truth is, those politicians buy people’s choice by their money and it works. Why? Because of the lack of education. When you are not educated, you have a limited mindset. It is easier to trick you because you are not rational. You do not know the long term implication of one choice. Yet, each choice matters during an election. A short term solution for that problem could be the limitation of the campaign budget for each candidate. And the other long term one is to educate the global people. I think the second option is very important and critical.

My country received its independence in 1960 but since then we have never had a significant change. Our economy has never been stable. In my opinion, a democratic vote is a too much responsibility for people who are less educated. Yet, as citizens, everybody has his/her own right to vote. So, it is hard to limit others to not vote. In Madagascar, the majority of people are still non-educated so the majority of the vote will be based on an entrainment interest but not a rational interest. By educating everybody, I believe that the majority will be wise voters but not blind voters. Education can also help people to learn new things and make innovation in their lives. For example, it is hard for you to do your own business if you do not even know how to read and write. 

 

Since high school, I began to be interested in volunteering. I think it was the best way for me to fight that poverty. I especially focused my volunteering in educating children because I think they can be a different generation. They can learn from their young age to become wise and intelligent citizens. All my wish is that one day the sun will shine from my homeland.