I'm back (primEMinister)

Elections Archive
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I’m back, and what a time it is to do it. It’s almost been a year of busy real life stuff that I had consigned myself to the periphery, watching and occasionally participating in the debates within this region. However, I’ve seen enough, and I believe it’s time for me to step forward once more.

I have a promise to make and a promise to keep, and it is a promise that is summed up perfectly by six words: no apologies, no bullshit, no shame. This is my promise to the South Pacific if elected prime minister.

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MoRA Deletus

First and foremost, in an Em premiership, there will not be a ministry called the Ministry of Regional Affairs. I hate the name, everything it stands for, and everything it led to the last time it existed. We will go back to a Ministry of Culture, but it will not incorporate the entire portfolio that is the Ministry of Regional Affairs. However, the Ministry of Culture will be the only domestic ministry I will look to have in the upcoming term.

Calendar 2.0

If elected prime minister, I will bring back the Culture Calendar, but not in the way it existed before. The Calendar we had before was rigid and inflexible, unnecessary really, but I envision Calendar 2.0 in a different light. When I say Calendar 2.0, I mean bringing back Theme Thursdays, maybe even throw in a Throwback Thursday and Flashback Fridays, using them as callbacks to previous times in our region’s history. We could do a Wikipedia-style “on this day” when we remember an event that happened however many years ago in the South Pacific.

Onboarding

The Ministry of Culture, being the last domestic-oriented ministry since the end of Engagement and Media, should be our frontline force in encouraging newcomers to join and participate in our regional government. The ministry can and should act as our pipeline to the Assembly, the Executive, and the roleplay community. As such, I hope to cobble together figures from our Assembly and the roleplay community as “welcome guides” to regional newcomers and show them what they can do here in the South Pacific. The welcome telegram that new nations receive also plays a role in this.

Revamping our Dispatch Project

Suffice it to say, our Dispatch Project has been neglected or underutilized through various administrations leading it to become somewhat outdated. As such, I will explore turning our Dispatch Project into a semi-open collaborative system somewhat similar to our regional wiki, where people can volunteer their time to update our Dispatch Project on the fly as needed when desired. In the past, we made the Dispatch Project a job, homework that needs to be done, but I believe this has led to a negative outcome that we should no longer encourage or expect in the future. Instead, we ought to allow people to contribute to the Dispatch Project freely without having to be a ministry fellow. Of course, turning the Dispatch Project into something maintained by volunteers requires oversight and monitoring for accuracy, but I don’t see that being too burdensome of a task.

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Our people in the Special Forces are doing the hard and commendable work of protecting and defending not just our region or its allies, but all of NationStates from the menace of raiderdom, and they deserve the continued support of the regional government in fulfilling their objectives and preventing regional destruction whenever and wherever it happens. This means bringing big numbers to Libcord and Aegis and doing better at guaranteeing the defeat of the raider threat. Recruitment to the Special Forces will be critical to this endeavor, and so, I hope to work with our next Minister of Defense and the General Corps in bringing the numbers to prevent the destruction of innocent regions throughout all of NationStates.

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Reinforcing the Aegis

Right now, the defendersphere has never looked better. We’re on the incline and finally have a multiregional defense pact amongst each other that has come to represent one of the most enticing reasons to join the defendersphere. The state of the Aegis can be described in three words: strength, solidarity, and success. In 2023, we went from the founding five to adding The League, TGW, and Europeia, but I don’t think it will end there. Down the road, I believe that more regions will see the Aegis’ utility and aspire to join the alliance.

It is without question that our closest allies in NationStates are the regions within the Aegis. That has been the case for years, preceding the alliance’s formal existence. There is no other region beyond the defendersphere that could ever claim to be our closest ally, for they mostly were fairweather friends if anything. And so, most of our attention in the upcoming term will be on reinforcing the Aegis and accepting other regions into the defendersphere.

Reactivating the Partnership

In the upcoming term, I will work with our friends in the Partnership for Sovereignty to reactivate what has unfortunately become an inactive wing of the defendersphere. Because of the PfS, defenders have a level of influence in the Security Council not seen in a long time, and we’d be fools not to take advantage of it. The PfS is the defenders’ best tool and source of collective power in the World Assembly, and we ought to be putting it to use with a stream of recommendations and aid to people drafting Security Council resolutions.

We must utilize the PfS to ensure that the right resolutions pass in the Security Council, that the right nations are receiving commendations or condemnations, and that the right declarations consistent with our collective principles are put in the books. However, we must also use the PfS as a means to convey the strength of defender soft power. In a previous stint as a Cabinet minister, I saw firsthand how the PfS successfully led an unapproval campaign without resorting to quorum raiding, a tactic that some regions misguidedly see as an acceptable strategy to prevent proposals from reaching the voting phase.

It would be a strategic blunder to keep the PfS inactive, only to be reactivated in spurts. After all, the PfS is one of several points of contact between defender regions, a place for us to work collectively and plan our next moves. It’s time for us to get the gang back together and permanently reactivate the PfS.

Reconvening the Council

As prime minister, I would reform the Foreign Affairs Council to include experienced and veteran members of our region to advise on direction, policy, and strategy. As such, I’ll build a Council of the Elders, which I envision including people like Glen, Roavin, and HS. However, I hope to include some newer and younger voices – an apprenticeship – in the Foreign Affairs Council.

The Foreign Affairs Council is the beating heart of our region’s foreign policy, the place where the most critical decisions are made concerning our direction and strategy. It is there where we can be frank in our opinions and not play coy with our words, where we can be 100% brutally honest about our foreign affairs and who we do business with. It is in the Foreign Affairs Council where we debated and calculated our next moves, and that is the role it will continue to play in the next term if I am elected prime minister.

Unfinished Business

As already stated, the Aegis and PfS will take priority in our foreign affairs, which means that other matters will take lower precedence in our region’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That is not to say that we will disregard non-Aegis relations. After all, we are still allies with The East Pacific, and I’m still interested in maintaining that relationship. However, recent events in our relationship with some non-Aegis or non-defender regions have shown that some regions would rather be deceitful and manipulative and seek our subversion and submission than work as equal partners with the South Pacific.

Our policy in engaging with regions beyond the defendersphere is to acknowledge and cooperate with those who show us respect and behave honorably than those who lie about our region and manipulate us. After all, any region that accused us of enabling fascists or desired veto power over our executive appointments is unworthy of our attention and time. If they want to gaslight us and engage in historical revisionism, they do not deserve cooperation. They deserve condemnation.

We’re not in the business of making friends. Foreign affairs aren’t about friendship. It’s about exercising power in the interests of our region and our cause. This isn’t something to be ashamed of or apologize for. This is a basic concept that should be understood by everyone, especially those who subscribe to the Independent Manifesto. However, this form of diplomacy seems to be unacceptable when the South Pacific engages in it. This is abject hypocrisy. We did nothing wrong, we have nothing to apologize for, and we will not bow to bullshit.

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A Return to Action

Just because we are part of the PfS, that doesn’t mean that we should neglect our own WA-oriented institutions at home, namely the Office of World Assembly Legislation. It’s with great sadness to see the OWL fall into inactivity in the past few months. That will change in the next term. If elected prime minister, I will appoint a new director to lead the office and allow our citizens to once again participate in a debate and vote on WA proposals and bring out new recommendations for resolutions as they come in.

A Ministry in its own Right

Also, it’s no secret that I have long supported the establishment of a WA ministry, long before the OWL had even existed. To this day, I still believe that the OWL should be a full-on ministry, and I will propose legislation in the Assembly amending the World Assembly Act and other applicable laws to make this change happen. Under this new system of government where ministers are no longer individually elected, it makes sense now to enact this reform and have a Ministry of World Assembly Legislation and a minister to lead it.

Proposed cabinet

Upon entering office, I will put together a team of active, experienced, and willing citizens of the South Pacific, skilled in their respective fields, which means looking for a foreign minister knowledgeable in diplomacy and having a strong defender ethos, a defense minister highly active in the SPSF, a culture minister with a strong interest in activities and roleplay, and a WA director and potential minister with a history of contributions to the World Assembly. There are already a few people I can see as strong fits in the next cabinet, so I’m fairly confident in being able to assemble this team fairly quickly.

Conflict of interest disclosure

Below, you will find previous positions I have held and previous citizenship in other regions. If you wish to view a more comprehensive declaration, please press here.

  • Citizen of the South Pacific (2014–present)
  • Member of the South Pacific’s Council on Regional Security (2020–present)
  • Soldier of the South Pacific Special Forces (2021–2022)
  • 1× Prime Minister of the South Pacific (2022)
  • 1× South Pacifican Minister of Regional Affairs (2020)
  • 2× South Pacifican Minister of Foreign Affairs (2020, 2021)
  • 1× South Pacifican Director of the Office of World Assembly Legislation (2021–2022)
  • Former citizen of The North Pacific (2020–2021, with Winston Island)
  • Former citizen of The Rejected Realms (2021, with Karasonia)
  • Former writer and editor at NationStates Today (2020)
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What’s your stance on the RP?

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Could you be more specific with your question? If you’re asking about my opinion on roleplay, it’s that more people should get involved in the RP community of our region. After all, I started out as a roleplayer, and you may recognize me through my RP nations of Valkyria and Hystaiga. I still consider myself an active roleplayer, I suppose semi-active would be a more accurate descriptor, but I still have it in me to continue involving myself in roleplay.

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In what way will the WA ministry be different from the OWL? Does it operate differently?

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This is more of a historical correction than anything. When we originally created the OWL, it was a deliberate collective choice not to name it a ministry due to the conditions of the time, which was the election of individual ministers. There was a concern then that there were too many ministers to elect and that no one or just one person would end up running. This is a moot point now that the only elected Cabinet official is the prime minister.

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Can you describe the time commitment you can comfortably make to being Prime Minister? Why do you believe that will be sufficient?

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I’ve recently been lurking the forums and Discord almost daily, so it would be a matter of actually contributing. I think I’ve found a decent work–life balance, so I think I’m good to return to the Cabinet. I also have a vested interest in leading the next cabinet to implement my proposed agenda and see our region thrive again, so don’t expect to see me going awol.

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ProfessorHenn has in the past mentioned the possibility of a Ministry of Roleplay, although they weren’t able to guarantee it. What is your stance on a potential Ministry of Roleplay and, if you would make it, how do you see it functioning under your administration?

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We will have a Ministry of Roleplay, albeit under a different name, which is the Ministry of Culture. As stated in my campaign, I want the Ministry of Culture to be a pipeline, a facilitator, to roleplay in our region. Their mission objective will be simple: providing newcomers with knowledge of what they could do within our region, whether it’s joining and participating in the debates of our Assembly or having a fun time creating a story with other roleplayers in the South Pacific.

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I’m a bit surprised to see you run for Prime Minister, honestly. I already hinted at my biggest reservation in my previous question, i.e. activity. For a few months, you haven’t been terribly active here and haven’t been involved in any Ministries, so I am a bit concerned that your current ability or interest in investing time will stay. That said, I also respect that motivation dictates our investment in NS just as much as external constraints, and you do have a fairly comprehensive platform. I think you’re setting up an interesting campaign.

A few more specific questions:

This is not, in and of itself, a bad tagline and is clearly intended to contrast with the incumbent’s handling of the TNP SC votes situation. I do find it a bit odd that it’s a slogan not really brought up anywhere else in the campaign, but that’s not the root of my question.

I think Prime Minister ProfessorHenn took a lot of flack for how they handled this situation, both from those who think we should have rolled over completely to our bestestest ally The North Pacific to appease the GP hoards (which they certainly manipulated to force our hand) and from those who thought we should have started torching things ASAP. There was definitely room for improvement in how the Prime Minister handled things at various stages, but I honestly do thing the strategy was the right one. (It’s worth noting, since some have speculated otherwise, my resignation was entirely my initiation and idea, and was not under the direction of the PM.)

That said, I do think in the broad strokes the last administration made the right calls. And here’s why, and why I want to push back on your simple slogan. After LWU’s Good Friday statement, we faced an extremely bitter scene interregionally. TGW’s commanders publicly threw their own leader under the bus along with us. When TGW flipped, which we had previously seen no signs of happening, TL decided to join them in pinning the whole thing on us. XKI woke up the next morning and realized they didn’t have the consensus either. TRR was never going to be reliable in supporting this type of maneuver and all of our Independent allies were either sitting things out or ready to bite our heads off. We just didn’t have the muscle to stand by the statement.

In the midst of that, sure, one option was to double down and say “we did nothing wrong”. However, such an option was not remotely feasible. We would have had not a single region support us, all due to a manufactured outrage by some of our own citizens which badly damaged the region’s PR and foreign relationships. Damage control was not a sexy option but it was a necessary one to avert far greater losses. It was never about repairing our relationship with TNP. It was about retaining and building the rest of our relationships – ones that actually matter – with other defenders who were sounding alarm bells.

Given that set up, would you really have stood your ground? I respect taking pride in your principles. (In fact, my principles are why I resigned: the Coalition comes first and I come second.) Yet, even the most principled player, in my opinion, at some point must recognize which fights they can and cannot win. If you would have stood your ground, how would you then have won the fight? Or re-established the region’s reputation and repaired its relationships after it?

I find this idea interesting, but I have two questions.

  1. How will you give this Dispatch project the structure that it needs to avoid being a “camel”, which is arguably the biggest problem with our Dispatches currently?
  2. How would you manage the technological/coding side of this? Or, what tool would need to be created to manage it?

Somewhat relatedly, how do you feel about the Discourse Wizards and Integration and Dispatches/TGs projects/discussions?

At this point, the quiet part needs to be said out loud. I agree that Aegis can be described by strength, after all the updater might of Aegis’ regions is unparalleled. Success too, although to a bit more mixed of an extent.

Solidarity though? Solidarity does not describe the current state of the Aegis or of Defenderdom. Defender solidarity is at its lowest point since the UDL’s existence, quite arguably, and to a truly devastating effect. The TNP debacle showed that defenders don’t even have loyalty to their own regionmates, much less others in the faction, when raider smear artists in the GP forum are loud enough. The Euro/TRR incident further cemented this, possibly making things even worse in terms of setting a tone for future interactions. Trust in this faction is hard to come by right now, and as much as I would love to play the blame game for that, now we have to fix it. A few events wouldn’t hurt, but there’s some tough conversations that need to be had to restore credibility to Aegis, imo.

How would you build solidarity and cohesion in Aegis?

How is this different from the current foreign affairs council?

I think, in concept, this is good. How will this work in practice? I realize both you and @ProfessorHenn are avoiding naming names of who you’d put in your Cabinet (which, as an aside, is an interesting precedent that you’re both setting in our first ever election for PMs that appoint their Ministers!), but I am curious if you have a shortlist of names for this job. I, personally, see recent inactivity in OWL as driven by lack of interest that goes so deep it might be hard to find a WA Minister.

Full support for this. It doesn’t really matter to me what we call it, but the WA Act just doesn’t make sense given our recent government reforms, so I’d be happy for us to rework it.

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The way I see it, a lot of the ‘front line’ is what newcomers first see when they join the game — our welcome telegram, our WFE, our pinned dispatches, maybe our RMB. On that front, you mentioned revamping the dispatch project. What role do you envision our dispatches playing in our pipeline into our community?

How do you see this in relation to our current mentorship program?

To be fair, I also read that section as taking a contrasting stance compared to when Henn wanted to do away with the foreign affairs council entirely :stuck_out_tongue: — so investing in building a council with both more and less experienced members would be a contrast to that.

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There are times when I agree with you, and there are times when I don’t. The TNP debacle was a severely mishandled non-scandal that accomplished what I never thought I’d see, which was the cannibalization of the defendersphere. People turned on each other and ran for the hills instead of fighting back against the bullshit narrative.

Omega stood his ground when McMasterdonia slandered our region. There were no U-turns. Because we were right, just as much as we were a few months ago. So, yes, I was fucking livid to see region after region after region capitulate to the bullshit. That should’ve never happened.

What this debacle showed is that Omega should have called for the end of the Aurora Alliance when he was MoFA. I love him to death, but that was his biggest mistake, and no one but Glen knew that then. But the biggest takeaway from this entire experience is the fact that when the liars and manipulators came with their torches, the defenders went home. “Please shut the fuck up.” We should have fucking spoke up and showed some spine. But cowardice and weakness won the day.

I can’t profess to know what was going on in the private halls of TGW, TL, or XKI, or what happened for them to so quickly disavow the joint statement, but I painfully admit that you are right on the question of solidarity. Maybe, I should have used another word. Perhaps, some collective soul-searching is in order.

However, to finally answer your question, would I have stood my ground when we were the last region standing and I had people in my own region calling for an absolute capitulation to the narrative? You’re damn fucking right I would. I didn’t care if a motion of no confidence was lodged against me by Roavin and his ilk. You bet your ass I’d be fighting like Leonidas fighting the Persians, and not be Ephialtes.

But that’s all in the past now. We can’t change it, but we sure as hell can fucking learn from it. I think changes are in order in how we respond to these situations because we all know this isn’t gonna be the last time the liars and schemers try to fuck defenders over. They will be back, and how we collectively respond – or choose not to – will determine how that situation goes.

You mentioned damage control, but that’s something that should have come sooner and more forcefully. What happened was that defenders gave the mic to the scheming bastards and never made a single attempt to take it back. They came out in droves and echoed the same bullshit over and over, and only a handful of people from the defender side saw it fruitful to fight back the narrative, most opting to resolve things in the background. We saw how beautifully that turned out. The apologyfest that was borne from it.

Frankly, this stems from years of a prevailing social attitude and expectation that defenders are not to come out in droves themselves and fight back against the narrative on the GP subforum, that we should expect regional leaders to quietly resolve things. This behavior is what led to this debacle, and it will happen again if we don’t finally learn that we ought to fucking speak up and fight and do so as early as possible.

Based on my experience working on the Dispatch Project in the then-existent Ministry of Engagement, I believe that it is possible to have a comprehensive but not overburdened guide that can explain what the South Pacific is and how it operates, presenting opportunities for newcomers to join in on the fun, whether it’s the Assembly or roleplay or both.

It’s also through my MoE experience that it looks simple enough to maintain the Dispatch Project through Google Spreadsheets. However, I hope to work with our resident wizards in ensuring that the Dispatch Project is kept in order.

On the matter of Discourse Wizards and the Dispatch/TG discussions, I do believe our forum wizards are equally useful in encouraging regional engagement and participation. The wizards provide a quick and simple way of navigating our regional forum and giving them an opportunity to apply for legislatorship, SPSF membership, or go straight to roleplay, whatever choice(s) they make.

The latter discussion ties closely into the Dispatch Project, and I do have to agree that our welcome dispatch shouldn’t have to explain every little tidbit about our region, but through simple navigation links to additional dispatches, we have the chance to explain who’s in charge, what each institution is and their responsibilities, how we operate as region, and what newcomers can do to get involved.

I believe we will collectively heal with time and patience, but I strongly agree that tough conversations are needed. I’ve already said plenty earlier in this post about my thoughts on the TNP debacle, but I also publicly made my views clear on the Euro/TRR incident elsewhere, the sheer stupidity of it all.

We can do some events or show some camaraderie on the battlefield, but they are just band-aids to broken bones. Europeia officially joining the defendersphere was something to be celebrated, but it ended up being soured by the whole leaker situation. Now, I’d like to thank Amerion for smoothing things over between our two allies. Things are looking better because of that, but there is a lot of healing to be done, and further discussions are necessary within the Aegis to prevent such a thing from happening again. I’m hopeful that such discussions have been ongoing since the joint statement made by Europeia and TRR.

Indeed, I want to keep the Foreign Affairs Council intact, but I am looking at permanently sprucing it up a bit from the original composition of the FAC, which was the PM, MoFA, MoMA, and whatever adviser(s) the MoFA brought with them. Glen had the right idea of forming the Foreign Affairs Council in the first place, and I want to keep it around in the next term and beyond.

With respect to not naming names, I see it as more of a question of ethics. If I were to name my Cabinet picks right now, it gives those particular people an incentive to vote for me instead of voting based on who’s better suited for the job. It’s almost like clientelism. So, Henn and I not naming names and setting that precedent in this new election system is a good one if you ask me.

Concerning your actual question, I want us to resume our Discord-based way of doing things, having us vote and debate on WA proposals on the server as we did a couple months ago. On the matter of finding a suitable director and potential minister, I have a shortlist for all of my cabinet positions. However, I have not yet approached anyone on joining the next cabinet. Right now, I want to give our region the free and uncorrupted choice of deciding who will lead in the next term instead of voting because they might get a spot in the Cabinet.

However, if I ultimately fail to find a WA minister, I may just end up trying to find a way to automate the task of setting up votes with Coco, if it’s possible to do so. What’s important in the end is not the bureaucracy of our WA vote, but having a democratic way to exercise our vote and consistently at it too. We sadly haven’t been doing that for months.

I don’t see it exactly like the mentorship program. Instead, I see it more as giving directions to newcomers on getting involved, such as pointing them to our forums or the server or roleplay. However, I do believe that the mentorship program is another useful spot for knowledge for our newcomers.

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How do Frontiers factor into your plans with regard to military, FA, or the federation system put into practice by several regions, if they factor in at all?

Additionally, do you have a plan to counter the drop in nation spawns in TSP? If so, what would that entail?

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I see the Aegis playing a central role in our frontiers policy. Already, three of our allies’ frontiers have already been granted protected status through the Aegis, namely the frontiers of XKI, TL, and TGW. Europeia itself became a frontier as well. The Aegis is like NATO. If you attack one of us, you attack all of us. That includes the frontiers among us.

When F/S was implemented, the nation drop became an inevitability. Feeders now have to compete with UCRs for spawns. Moving forward, user retention is important to keeping our region competitive with frontiers. There was once a day when our delegate had a thousand endorsements. Those days are gone, and they’re not coming back anytime soon, not unless some celebrity gives NS free promotion, but we shouldn’t bank on that.

Several times, I’ve brought up engaging newcomers, and that is the single most important thing we can do for user retention and keeping our region competitive. Our efforts should be centered on giving people a reason to stay in this region.

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As for the precedent-setting actions the Prime Minister will take in the upcoming term… we already have the stated Assembly preference for individual appointments rather than whole cabinet appointments. However, should you win the election, do you plan on submitting your minister appointments to the Assembly during the transition and/or the opening weeks of the term?

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Ideally, I’d like to submit them during the transition, but we don’t live in a perfect world, and sometimes hiccups happen that would prevent or delay making appointments that early. The transition would be the best time to get appointments through the Assembly because that means hitting the ground running on Day 1. However, I do realize that things may not run as smoothly as anticipated, whether it’s trying to find backup options or surprise rejections.

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I apologize: I accidentally posted this in another thread because my computer is old and I am stupid.

I’m confused because if we go through the amending work of making OWL and official ministry, I feel like we’ll just see that OWL as an office is the exact same as a ministry. OWL, even before Cabinet Ministers were handpicked by the Prime Minister, was an appointed position. Now all ministries are appointed positions like OWL. So…what’s the difference?

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The difference being that we finally do what should have been done in the first place, which is having a Ministry of World Assembly Legislation once and for all. We created the OWL not as a ministry because we ministers were all elected. Now that we don’t do that anymore, why keep the distinction? It just doesn’t make sense anymore.

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So, I am slightly confused about your WA ministry position…

Under current law, the OWL office is the only (cabinet level) position that the PM is mandated to appoint someone to. All other minister positions have an evolving portfolio dependent on the minister’s wishes. Is your aim to make it in line with all other minister positions at the will of the PM of the day? Or is it just to change the OWL name to MoWA?

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Also; How do you plan to run your cabinet? Will you treat the appointed members as voting members of the cabinet? Or will you be the sole vote on providing direction?

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