Rotaka

In 1969, foreigners controlled 95% of the modern industrial sector and produced a quarter of all exported agricultural products, despite making up a tiny fraction of the population.

Among his loudest critics was Monja Jaona, a Tandroy politician of the MONIMA party who had served two years as mayor of Toliara (1959–1961) before being chased from office by power politics.

Jaona's eventual action would provide PSD with an opportunity to arrest the leader and other key party figures in the "rebellion", which they would stave off before it grew large enough to pose a threat; Tsiranana's advisers expected the arrest of Jaona would also demoralize and hobble southern PSD politicians and their constituencies alike, and cement northern control of the party and the country's politics.

[5] While the protest had been quickly foiled and MONIMA disbanded, Jaona's efforts made a significant impact on public opinion of Tsiranana.

The Malagasy people's image of their country as moramora (laid back, gentle) and their first president as a refined leader had been shattered by his violent crushing of the clearly harmless farmer protest.

[6] On 24 March 1971, students at the College of Medicine in Antananarivo started a protest[6] to express popular rejection of the policies and repression of president Tsiranana's neo-colonial administration.