The Right Way To Change

[Haor Chall]

The Right Way To Change

Fellow nations, members of the North Pacific community,

I stand before you today to begin my campaign for Prime Minister. The time for change may be overdue, but even now there still remains a right way to bring it about. We must change if we are to prosper as a region and as a community, but we must always hold dear to the ideals and spirit that defines the North Pacific and holds our community together.

I think it is quite clear to most people in our community that time has come for a serious overhaul of the Constitution. As, I think, one of the few people with my length of service and dedication to the region who can say that they voted against the current constitution in the convention two years ago, I recognise the need for change. However whilst change is needed, it is important that we recognise that there is a right way to bring about change and that any new governing document must be decided upon by the people of the region. And any new constitution for the region must hold dear the values and ideals of the North Pacifican community, our democracy, our freedoms must remain enshrined in any new constitution. It must maintain the ideals of The North Pacific whilst remaining open and accessible, let none doubt that. But the constitution must serve the people and not the other way around.

Whilst the creators of the current constitution had the best intentions I do not believe that our democracy is served by an overcomplicated document. Not just because it decreases accessibility and therefore participation but because it has become clear over the years that the complexity of the constitution has caused confusion and has actually allowed people to take advantage of it. A less convoluted document is actually less open to abuse and misinterpretation and for this reason as well I think it is in our interests to simplify our constitution.

However important constitutional reform is, that alone will not solve the decline and inactivity. We also need purpose, otherwise we will sink quickly back where we have fallen- even with a new and improved constitution. Whatever our purpose is to be, that also must be decided by the region and must fit in with the views of the existing community.

In these times it appears more difficult to find a purpose, there are no “evil empires” left worth fighting and TNP is not an evil empire itself. I think that perhaps there are many of us who joined the game in the middle of the great conflicts of the past, where there was existing purpose we could join ourselves to, who find it difficult- with those conflicts and the purpose attached gone- to create something new. None the less that is, I believe, what we must do. Perhaps we could look to reinvigorating the NPA, taking a more interventionist and less isolationist stance- opposing those regions who practice various forms of “imperialism” for instance. Or perhaps not. I am sure that there are plenty of other ideas out there for us to consider. It should not be something that puts too great a strain on the community but at the same time we must accept that it may well be something different, something new and we must learn to accept that.However, whatever we decide as a region there will be those who are unhappy or uncomfortable with it. I just say to you, we need purpose, we need motivation, a driving force to sustain interest and activity.

Finally, I know people will want to know about my views regarding the current situation with the Delegacy. Firstly I shall say this; we do need change. However. However there is a right way to change things, through the existing channels, through the representative bodies of the region, through our democracy. Unilateral, undemocratic action will not achieve a lasting solution or return prosperity to the region. I hope that once we have achieved a new changed and improved constitution, that Dalimbar will agree to step down to allow whoever is elected Delegate to take the Delegacy back for the regional community. If not, we will have to use everything within our power to remove him from the Delegacy and secure it to ensure the continued freedom and prosperity of the region.
And also let me also be clear, Dalimbar is a rogue delegate, has betrayed the trust placed in him by the community of this region and as such I believe him remaining as Delegate is untenable in any circumstance. I would not accept any proposal or agreement which left him as Delegate, nor any system which removed delegate elections. I say again, if we are unable to reach an agreement than we will have to do everything within our power to replace him as Delegate. I accept that, in the interests of the community, we may agree not to bring charges against him and consider the matter ended once he has left the Delegacy, as part of an agreement but I do not believe we can make any further concessions.

The time for change is here, but change with purpose and change that holds true to the values of The North Pacific. We must work together as a community to ensure the success of our democracy and our region. I open the floor to any questions.

 

[Flemingovia]

 

[Flemingovia]

Suppose I had better ask a question too....

I am coming to the belief that TNP ought to have a senate / Parliament in place to which people are voted rather than just post an oath to join.

We might have, as other regions do, a minimum post count to join, and applicants would have to andswer in an application thread.

The senate would be responsible for legislation and elections and so on.

What do you think about that as an idea?

 

[Lord Valentine]

I'll have some questions for you soon, if you don't mind.

 

[Monte Ozarka]

Good job, and I agree with everything you have said.

Perhaps you could enlighten us as to what type of reform you envision for TNP? I'm going to assume that a legislature of citizens is a given, but how would you handle the other bits of government, mainly:

Do you wish the Delegate to be Head of State and Government?

Do you wish Ministers or other top officers to be appointed or elected directly?

 

[Emperor Matthuis]

I quite liked your campaign so far, could you please go into detail as to your plans to our foreign policy in regards to both the feeders and other userite regions.

 

[Haor Chall]

Suppose I had better ask a question too....

I am coming to the belief that TNP ought to have a senate / Parliament in place to which people are voted rather than just post an oath to join.

We might have, as other regions do, a minimum post count to join, and applicants would have to andswer in an application thread.

The senate would be responsible for legislation and elections and so on.

What do you think about that as an idea?

I’ve thought about this myself before, I think it would be quite a large change from what we’ve had in the past but that shouldn’t stop us from considering it. The main advantage that I see is that it makes ‘membership’ more valuable- it would mean a little bit more than it does currently- because it isn’t just posting once in a thread and then disappearing- it’s answering questions and then being voted on, so that people who pass through the process are more likely to stay around and be active contributors to the community.

At the same time, I think we should take care not to set the bar too high for membership. One of the things that I think TNP has always stood for is an openness and inclusiveness of our community and I wouldn’t like that to be changed. Whilst I think a questioning/voting system would be good in many ways I think we must be careful not to allow it to become too much of a “merit” based system, the danger of a voting system is that it can become too selective when I believe that if we had such a system in TNP, people should be accepted if they are willing to take part and be involved in the region rather than on the basis of their knowledge of Roman history or something. For the same reason I’d be wary of setting the requirements , like a minimum post count, too high as well. After all, to a certain extent (unless they’re really into the OOC /spam stuff) it would be difficult to get a high post count before being accepted in, when really what is more important is what they contribute once they are a part of the RA/Senate/whatever you want to call it, if you see what I mean.

I'll have some questions for you soon, if you don't mind.

I look forward to them, provided there are no haikus.

 

[Haor Chall]

Good job, and I agree with everything you have said.

Perhaps you could enlighten us as to what type of reform you envision for TNP? I'm going to assume that a legislature of citizens is a given, but how would you handle the other bits of government, mainly:

Do you wish the Delegate to be Head of State and Government?

Thank you. Having the Delegate as Head of State and Head of Government is not a bad idea. We’ve seen it work in many other places and there is no reason why it wouldn’t work here. I am sure it would work satisfactorily and I would happily support a system with the Delegate having both roles.

However I do have a few more thoughts.

First off, the argument given for extending the Delegates constitutional authority is; because the Delegate has “ultimate” power (in-game) we should give them authority and a role within government as way to prevent the Delegate going rogue. But Delegates run for the position in TNP with full knowledge of the limited role they have- if they don’t like the limitations placed on the office perhaps they should have run for something else instead? It isn’t like the limited constitutional power of the Delegate is sprung on them as a surprise after they’ve been elected, so I don't really have that much sympathy for that argument in one sense. At the same time, however, I agree that restraining the constitutional power of the Delegate is not an effective means to combat the threat of a rogue Delegate. I don't think that there is any reason why the Delegate should not be a position of authority within the region and I do largely agree that as the in-game representative of the region it makes sense for the Delegate to have a larger role within government.

Secondly, I do also wonder whether creating a sort of ‘presidential’ Delegate is the best way to go. As I said, I’m sure it would work, as it has elsewhere but I have been pondering a few different ideas myself. I just think it would be good to consider something a little bit different rather than just aping the systems other regions use. Now in all likelihood these probably aren’t any good but here are some of my ideas:

1. The Delegate is Head of State, with a Prime Minister (or Chancellor if you prefer, this is sort of inspired by the German system) as Head of Government. The Prime Minister heads the executive, consisting of his appointed cabinet. The Delegate then heads a group equivalent to your CLO. The Delegate also heads a special advisory group, consisting of former Delegates and his Commissioners, which would form a sort of senior advisory group for the Cabinet and the RA (or maybe even operate as the SC). The idea is that the Delegate still plays a large role within the region but as a more apolitical role- leading the Arts and Entertainment Commission, etc. In this way the PM and the Cabinet run the “political” side of things (the current MoIIA, MoEA, MoD basically) whilst the Delegate than runs the non-political side of things, the community stuff, A&E, C&E, Communications, etc perhaps called Commissions rather than Ministries. In this way the Delegate runs the areas which I think are best related to the Delegacy, whilst the PM runs the more political side of things. It’s just a different way of splitting things, in a sense it runs the danger of being seen as having two governments, the Delegate would nominally be overall head though but would not have authority to overrule the PM. The advisory group again draws on the German idea that by having the President (our Delegate) as an apolitical figure they would rarely intervene in political affairs but when they do (the advisory group issuing a statement against a bill being put through the RA for example) it has more weight and impact as a statement from a sort of respected non-political figure (whilst having no actual legal force).


2. The Delegate is Head of State, PM is Head of Government again. This is a bicameral legislature, with the lower chamber equating to the RA (the commons), the upper chamber (the lords) consisting of former Delegates and chaired by the sitting Delegate. The Prime Minister would sit in the RA, he could draw his executive from either the upper or lower chambers (and they would vote in which ever they sat- so no cabinet votes- if the cabinet is going to sit in the legislature then there shouldn’t really be a cabinet vote as well anyway IMO). Legislation would obviously have to pass through both chambers to pass (maybe with some kind of parliament act if you wanted). The upper chamber could even maybe function as the supreme court (again, like the lords). For elections the easiest thing to do would be to just tally the votes of both chambers.

I know, probably entirely useless but just a couple of ideas that are a little different, rather than the same old sort of thing again. Food for thought again.

Hmm, that was longer than I was expecting (OMG I’m turning into Grosse! ).

In the case of TL;DR here is the short version:

Del as both Head of State and Government is fine, and I would support it. However I’d like to maybe have a look at something a little bit different, a little bit more unique to TNP first rather than just having something the same as lots of other regions.

Do you wish Ministers or other top officers to be appointed or elected directly?

A short answer!

Depends on the rest of the system really. The executive (the cabinet) should be appointed by whoever heads it but other top positions outside the executive (if there are any) should be directly elected.

I quite liked your campaign so far, could you please go into detail as to your plans to our foreign policy in regards to both the feeders and other userite regions.

I favour a more internationalist and interventionist policy. Whilst it may not be popular with some, I don’t think we can just sit around doing nothing, if the game is dying it’s because people aren’t prepared to leave their comfort zones, to take risks any more. As I said at the beginning of the thread, the conflicts of the past have died out and we need to find something new- this is a game after all. We should make more of an effort to stand up for our principles outside of the region. As for the other feeders, as a rule we should look to better relations with our fellow feederites and improving our co-operation with them. I know that’s not particularly detailed but I hope that it is satisfactory.

 

[New Kervoskia]

Would you be willing to have a public debate with Candidate Polts?

PM for details if interested.

 

[Monte Ozarka]

Excellent reply, HC!

I may disagree with you somewhat in the most optimal government setup, but I greatly appreciate the thought that you have put into this issue. I urge you to bring your suggestions to broader RA discussion so that we may better weigh against each other the options open to us. Open discussion is the first step to positive reform.

Good luck in your campaign.

 

[Emperor Matthuis]

Your answers are well reasoned and thought out, although I may have further questions, for now I wish you good luck in the vote.

 

[Haor Chall]

Excellent reply, HC!

I may disagree with you somewhat in the most optimal government setup, but I greatly appreciate the thought that you have put into this issue. I urge you to bring your suggestions to broader RA discussion so that we may better weigh against each other the options open to us. Open discussion is the first step to positive reform.

Good luck in your campaign.

Thank you. Just to say, I think in reality something along the lines you have already proposed is probably the most palatable to the majority and would be the practical solution for a new government. I just like looking for options that are a little different.

Your answers are well reasoned and thought out, although I may have further questions, for now I wish you good luck in the vote.

Thank you.