Welcome, Saturday friend. For its fourth consultation, our practice today examines an indestructible patient, contagious for centuries, and who stubbornly refuses any cure: the touchy person. But not the run-of-the-mill touchy. Far from it. The exceptionally touchy. The one with power. Warning to those harboring illusions: power is not synonymous with brains. The recent Harotsilavo Rakotoson affair has thrust the powerful touchy into the spotlight, attempting to make the well-bred jurist pay for his too-free and especially too-truthful words during the Aotra podcast two weeks ago. We don't quite know who in the ruling circle had a sufficiently twisted mind to take offense at this man who spoke of an open secret: the explosion of bizna practices in national life. But the Head of State and Prime Minister should crack down on these wrongdoers who distort their commitments to reform. We're not talking about business, which members of GEM, Fivpama and other business groups are struggling to pursue. But we're talking about bizna. The sordid kind. The kind that proliferates on the garbage of corruption. The police officer demanding "the kafe." The cabinet member monetizing his connections to intervene on behalf of an audience request. The customs officer demanding a voan-dalàna. The magistrate arranging verdicts to exonerate the generous and sink the stingy and poor. Deputies playing weathervane to the music of rustling envelopes or snapping briefcases. The senior official endorsing his necessary signature for obtaining or paying a contract. The minister extorting a citizen. The mpibizina improvising as entrepreneur and "commissioning" decision-makers to turn a blind eye to irregularities in public contract awards. We'll refrain from discussing the financing of methods used to reach power outside any electoral framework. One could go on indefinitely. This description of reality is only offensive to those who know they're part of it. And who have an interest in preventing too-raw speech from spreading in public opinion. As in any good dictatorship, those who whistle against the prevailing wind are silenced. Those refusing the mediocrity of the ambient mold are reduced to silence. What sticks out is cut, even if it's heads. At least figuratively speaking. Touchy perhaps, but not too savage. At least not yet. For decades, authorities have used and abused the magic formula: threat to state security. You wear a t-shirt with an inscription deemed subversive? Threat to state security. You point a reversed thumb at the presidential motorcade? Threat to state security. You photograph the surprisingly heavy heels of the head of state's luggage? Threat to state security. Such were some documented examples of democracy under Rajoelina. What sinuous curves trace the tortuous character of a mentality offended by people daring to speak of disturbing realities and uncomfortable truths. Those damned intellectuals preaching bad words preventing the public from sleeping soundly while swallowing the powerful's words. And who divert the critical thinking of minds that should content themselves with the official version? So when we talk of threat to state security, we wonder if we're talking about the state. Or about heaps of we-don't-quite-know-what and their petty, jealous, arrogant state of mind. Of course the solelakists and their herds of fako on social media rush to insinuate that Harotsilavo Rakotoson's misadventure has nothing to do with his brilliant performance in the Aotra podcast, but that there's something else. The kind of statement that reeks of announcement, if not promise. They'll look for something more justifiable. And if they don't find it, they will. Tropical justice has never lacked imagination for sending innocent citizens into the shadows under various pretexts. Since Rajoelina's departure, has reform changed the style of democracy under the tropics, as the street movements of September-October 2025 demanded? "Efa miadana ve ny Malagasy" Ratsiraka would ask? Is Gen-Z satisfied with the results of its September-October uprising? We'll leave it to each to answer and take the risk of receiving an invitation to appreciate a stay at Fiadanana. Notice to interested parties: depending on your ability to bend your back and hold your tongue, your fiadanana could take different directions, such as a neighborhood below Fort-Voyron. Besides, this place has a name that leaves one perplexed, given how the leaders...