Some Proposals

Alright, now that I'm able to post here, I'd like to post some general proposals. This isn't exactly a single motion or law or anything, but rather a shopping list of changes that I think would benefit the region, and can be added to various measures and stuff.

Now, some people have been complaining to me about how I came back to z13, telling me that the reasons that I initially left were still valid. I've told said people that any problems with z13 are nothing compared to the path that WW is heading down, but that I would attempt to make some necessary changes. Note that not all of these are my opinions, per say, but that some were suggested to me by others who defected to WW but are not sure whether to stay there or come back here, as well as some people in the region who haven't made up their mind on which forum to join.

Anyways, here they are:

*The Offices of Delegate and Speaker of the House should not be held by Admin. The Admin are generally supposed to be custodians of the board, and having them dominate such high offices allows the accusation of the Admin controlling the politics of the board in a self sustaining way. My proposal is that if an Admin gets elected to one of these two offices, they should be downgraded to Global Mod for the time of their term. Any other political position can be held by Admin without any special conditions, including Vice Delegate.

*The CLO should be abolished. Its duties of watching over the delegates shoulder can be performed by the Regional Assembly, and a beefed up NPIA can keep an eye on a delegates suspicious outside activities (IE, contacts with Gatesville), if needed.

*Some forum layout reform. I posted my proposal in a separate topic here: http://z13.invisionfree.invalid/TNP/index.php?showtopic=4319

*New Constitution based on Southwest Asia's minimalist frame. We can tack on and expand stuff as needed while we are writing it. Legal Code and Bill of Rights should be rewritten as a combined document.

*NPA needs to get rid of its whole "Defender" aspirations. It is first and foremost the Protectors of this region, and should not constrain itself based upon an ideology from a conflict that is winding down anyways.

*Encouraging new people to take initiative. New blood in government is always good. Maybe term limits would help with that, but they should not be implemented without a good deal of prior discussion.

*I like the whole guilds idea. I think that several ministries, in particular the Interior and Foreign Affairs Ministry should be run based on it. Also, the University could be restarted as a Guild, and since the Order of Gryphons' central forum is essentially dead, the TNP Gryphons could be restarted as a guild that operates on its own without having to wait for the rest of the Gryphons to get active. Another guild I would like to see formed is a "TNP Watchmen" of sorts- basically volunteers who keep an eye out for possible movements of troops into TNP, as well as interesting developments in NS as a whole. Sort of like the TITO Coastwatchers, I guess. Other guilds form as necessary.

*Other than the forum reform, none of these would come in effect until after the region is secured and we have elections. Speaking of which, I think elections should be held a week after the region is secured, or in a few months if that has not happend by then.

*Anything else I might think of later.

a beefed up NPIA can keep an eye on a delegates suspicious outside activities (IE, contacts with Gatesville)

Click to expand...

Not to denigrate the great work that the NPIA has done for our region, but the evidence appears to indicate that this is precisely what they failed at...

Well, that goes along with the whole "new blood" thing that I'm talking about.

Wanted to post it before but my internet lost it... here goes...

The Offices of Delegate and Speaker of the House should not be held by Admin. The Admin are generally supposed to be custodians of the board, and having them dominate such high offices allows the accusation of the Admin controlling the politics of the board in a self sustaining way. My proposal is that if an Admin gets elected to one of these two offices, they should be downgraded to Global Mod for the time of their term. Any other political position can be held by Admin without any special conditions, including Vice Delegate.

Click to expand...

This has actually been supported before by both myself and the Speaker, the argument against is that you need admin powers for some ministries. Especially anything involving immigration, forum security, and citizenship. We bog down and slow down those services when it becomes the job of two separate entities over one. As much as I dislike the concentration of power, having admin capabilities or admin experience is a major boon for those respective ministries. Lastly, these are elected officials. Who are we to exclude those that the public call for, let the people decide and let the people throw them out if they're abusive.

*The CLO should be abolished. Its duties of watching over the delegates shoulder can be performed by the Regional Assembly, and a beefed up NPIA can keep an eye on a delegates suspicious outside activities (IE, contacts with Gatesville), if needed.

Click to expand...

Absolutely not. As stated before, these are the special prosecuters keeping an eye on appointed officials with way too much power already. Obviously we don't have the power to show up at the Del's door and rough them up should they go rogue but who or what can? Their duty is to inform and investigate and in lieu of an independent separately elected AG this is the best we have.

Also I'm Minister of the Interior right now so that's a major job promotion.

*New Constitution based on Southwest Asia's minimalist frame. We can tack on and expand stuff as needed while we are writing it. Legal Code and Bill of Rights should be rewritten as a combined document.

Click to expand...

I support this.

*NPA needs to get rid of its whole "Defender" aspirations. It is first and foremost the Protectors of this region, and should not constrain itself based upon an ideology from a conflict that is winding down anyways.

*Encouraging new people to take initiative. New blood in government is always good. Maybe term limits would help with that, but they should not be implemented without a good deal of prior discussion.

Click to expand...

We do have term limits, personally I don't believe in them as elections tend to have better results historically but I digress. It's always bothered me too that we are a "defender" region, effectively cutting out half of the NS players but given their role in the tyranny of today and the shifty moves when I laid my own career out for them in removing the defender aspect, they have yet to be proven that they can be trusted.

I've grouped this with "fresh blood" because the current band of invaders have also touted themselves as "fresh." Ermarian, ZS and many others have been a great plus but a great many of them are mere sychophantic machiavelli wannabes out for their own (or usually foreign) agendas.

Let them be citizens, let's hear their arguements and engage them in a meaningful way, let's gain their wisdom and grow from it. But trust needs to be earned, especially with all this region has been through.

mr_sniffles:

Absolutely not. As stated before, these are the special prosecuters keeping an eye on appointed officials with way too much power already. Obviously we don't have the power to show up at the Del's door and rough them up should they go rogue but who or what can? Their duty is to inform and investigate and in lieu of an independent separately elected AG this is the best we have.

Click to expand...

Then at least make the Speaker of the Assembly a non-voting observer in the CLO. In the current system, a particularly powerful Speaker could emerge and use powers as Speaker and a member of the CLO to make himself the most powerful person in the region. While I'm all about sharing power, the fact of the matter is that delegate is the only real "boots on the ground" power in the region that can actually do stuff outside this forum on a large scale. I think its only appropriate that the delegate be the most powerful single figure in the system, even if by a tiny amount, and even if the rest of the system does check and balance the delegate.

Outer Kharkistania:

mr_sniffles:

Absolutely not. As stated before, these are the special prosecuters keeping an eye on appointed officials with way too much power already. Obviously we don't have the power to show up at the Del's door and rough them up should they go rogue but who or what can? Their duty is to inform and investigate and in lieu of an independent separately elected AG this is the best we have.

Click to expand...

Then at least make the Speaker of the Assembly a non-voting observer in the CLO. In the current system, a particularly powerful Speaker could emerge and use powers as Speaker and a member of the CLO to make himself the most powerful person in the region. While I'm all about sharing power, the fact of the matter is that delegate is the only real "boots on the ground" power in the region that can actually do stuff outside this forum on a large scale. I think its only appropriate that the delegate be the most powerful single figure in the system, even if by a tiny amount, and even if the rest of the system does check and balance the delegate.

Click to expand...

The key philosophical difference is that no matter what our Constitution says or does, the Delegate is most powerful person in the game. Fears of an all-too-powerful Speaker is unfounded as the CLO constitutes three other seats, and the worst the Speaker can do is flame and hold up legislation which puts his own position let alone bloc at risk of a backlash.

Except the CLO can force through whatever legislation it wants and the Speaker can hold up any it doesn't.

Not a good recipe in my opinion.

Outer Kharkistania:

Except the CLO can force through whatever legislation it wants and the Speaker can hold up any it doesn't.

Not a good recipe in my opinion.

Click to expand...

Once again the CLO is made up of three members, you might think Roman, FALCONKATS, Grosse, and I think alike because of our opposition to L&C but if you look back at other non executive privillege issues spanning the years, we're scattered very far apart.

And once again, the Delegate's executive powers right now and in the current Constitutional proposals also display many powers that circumvent the power of the Speaker. The threat of a "rogue" Speaker is miniscule compared to the other branches of power. To limit the Speaker is to remove a necessary check and balance.

I understand your concerns in regard to being 'defender' but I can't see TNP as a region that goes on the offensive ever. Evidence shows that those with invader tendencies often like the idea of 'chaos' and so are unsupportive of the fair and democratic delegates and are much more likely to give their backing to rogue delegates. As someone said above, it takes a long time for those sorts of people to earn true trust in a community like ours that has seen so many dictators and invasions. It is natural, therefore, that we lean towards the defender side of things and our informal allies are more likely to be defenders as well as a result.

I simply said that we cannot be simply a defensive region.

Granted, I don't expect the NPA to go on grand offensives anywhere, but the NPIA could certainly do small scale work that is more proactive in nature. In secret of course.