Kris Kringle for Prime Minister

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I am Kris Kringle and I'm running for Prime Minister because I think I have the right mix of experience and drive to help lead the region to new heights.

My Record of Regional Service

Most probably know me as the Chief Justice, and while that is the office I have held for the longest time I have done a lot of other things before my switch to the judiciary.

I joined NationStates and the South Pacific in February 2013 and soon enough got involved in the Assembly, where one of my first actions was to draft what became our Bill of Rights. A few months later I ran and was elected as Minister of Foreign Affairs, starting a very rewarding career in the executive branch:

  • As Foreign Minister (2013) I helped negotiate non-aggression pacts and revived our ambassador corps, ensuring that our foreign partners always received news from TSP.

  • As Vice Delegate (2013) I helped coordinate executive policy and learned about how to lead the region as part of a team.

  • As Delegate (2014) I helped begin our transition toward Defending and founded the Southern Journal and the Treasure Island Report.

  • As Minister of Regional Affairs (2015) I helped train future delegates and ministers, continued to build our staffer system, and even interviewed Max Barry for the Southern Journal.

My Policy Goals

Let’s address the elephant in the room: I have indeed been out of the executive for a long time, spending the better part of my regional career as Chief Justice, but I’d like to spend some time explaining what I’d like to do and why I’m able to deliver on this.

  1. Continue recruitment
    There is good work being done to recruit for our region and it should continue. I want to keep our current infrastructure and team and ensure that they have the resources and support they need to do the best job possible.

  2. Develop our regional culture
    We have so much potential for regional culture in more ways than just games, though those absolutely have their place! We need to make concerted efforts to encourage citizens to debate in the Assembly, continue organising festivals that showcase our identity and create a South Pacifican ambience, and start projects that give people avenues for involvement.

  3. Commit to government accountability
    I’m a strong believer in government accountability. We need the government to set clear goals and periodically account for its progress so that (i) officials can know how well they are doing in keeping their promises, and (ii) people can know whether government is doing its job. This isn’t just performative: the more dialogue we have between government and the people, the more voice people have and the more incentive they have to participate.

  4. Empower the next generation
    This isn’t so much a specific policy goal but rather a way in which I hope to lead. I don’t just want to implement my own ideas or those of the people I know the most, I want to create an environment where people have a pathway to join the government and build the skills needed to become ministers or even run for office next time, with their own ideas but most importantly with the experience to implement them.

  5. Take the advice of people wiser than me
    I don’t know everything and I’m aware that there are many areas where others are more knowledgeable than me. I hope to make good use of the Foreign Affairs Council, the Admiralty, and WA Office, and the various members we have to ensure that we build a good team that can meet the challenges we face and help the region come out stronger.

I was nominated late and I accepted even later, so I apologise in advance if this campaign isn’t as detailed as one might expect. I hope that I did manage to make a strong case for why I have the right ideas and the experience to get them done, not just as a loose set of goals but as an agenda for how to continue making the South Pacific a more vibrant and engaging community and a worthy holder of our long-standing nickname: the party region.

If anyone has any questions, I will be happy to answer them and to expand on my qualifications and my vision for the region.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

  • Current Positions in the South Pacific: Chief Justice, Regional Security Councillor, Election Commissioner, Regional Administrator, Senior Moderator
  • Current Positions Abroad: Founder of Selene (this is a roleplay-only region and my duties mainly relate to the processing of member applications and spreadsheet maintenance)
  • Former Positions in the South Pacific: Delegate, Vice Delegate, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Regional Affairs, Deputy Minister of Regional Affairs, Chair of the 2022 Great Council
  • Former Positions Abroad: Citizen of Spiritus, Citizen of the Kingdom of Alexandria

Any omission in this disclosure is unintentional and will be rectified as soon as I am made aware of it.

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Do you intend to continue the fortnightly briefings to keep our region informed? And most importantly do you accept cake as the one true regime?

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Yes, I’m very much a fan of seeing the executive communicate with the region and I hope to make that happen not just with briefings but with constant contact gameside, forumside, and serverside so that people know what the government is doing and how that aligns with the term agenda.

Yes! I was even the Bishop of the Church of Cake at one point.

That being said, I’m all for letting people eat the dessert their prefer in peace.

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What Ministers do you plan to appoint?

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I grew weary and tired of asking questions of the delegate candidates. I will engage you with an onslaught of questions tomorrow. Be prepared.

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(First, I just want to preface this by saying, like Griff did with his questions, please don’t take these as attacks, even if they might come off a bit pointed).

On to the questions

First, I want to ask about your engagement with the region. You’re our Chief Justice and regularly contribute in the Assembly (often with sharp, well thought out questions), but your presence elsewhere is much lighter. You’re not very active on Discord, and you have virtually no activity gameside. In fact, your last post on the RMB was 5 years and 38 days ago! (last post).

If you’re elected Prime Minister, how do you plan to engage with the region, especially the RMB? Will you make an effort to listen to the community there and respond to their concerns, or would this be an entirely off-site administration?

I think this is a great idea, if there’s one thing TSP needs, it’s new faces in government. But isn’t your decision to step aside as Election Commissioner mid-race to run against a promising newcomer like @UnitedDisneyStates doing the exact opposite? If we truly want new members to rise through the ranks of TSP politics, we need to give them a real chance to run and get elected. When the old guard keeps stepping in to claim key positions, it sends a message that there’s no real path forward for newcomers, and that leads to burnout, frustration, and eventually, people walking away from regional politics altogether.

That said, I also don’t like uncontested elections. This is a democracy, and it’s your right as a citizen to run, but is it really appropriate?

On the topic of government accountability, it’s been nearly three years since the last Sunshine Act release. If elected Prime Minister, will you commit to upholding and following the Sunshine Act?

Some final questions:

  1. You mentioned that you helped revive our ambassadors corps back when you were Foreign Minister in 2013. If elected Prime Minister, would you be interested in doing that again, especially since we currently don’t have an ambassadors program?
  2. On the topic of diplomacy, do you have any plans to revise our embassy policy? We recently closed our embassy with Caer Sidi, do you intend to close any others or open new ones?
  3. As OWL Director, I’m interested in hearing your vision for OWL. Would you prefer to maintain the current setup on Discord, or are you considering trying something different?
  4. There’s currently a strong sovereigntist movement within the WA. Would you say you align more closely with the NatSovs or the IntFeds on WA matters?
  5. Finally, this term we’ve experimented with having a WA policy. Is that something you’d like to see continue, or do you prefer OWL to maintain a more neutral, purely administrative role?

I appreciate you taking the time to consider my questions, and I look forward to your response.

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What’s the alternative? A mandatory retirement age? After which people should… walk away from regional politics altogether?

I think it’s especially bizarre to accuse Kris of “claiming” a position that was literally an uncontested election up to this point.

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he’s Santa Claus. got my vote!

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Do you plan to increase your RMB presence if your elected as Prime Minister?

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Initially I think a simple structure of Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Culture. That being said, I don’t want to set that in stone in case things change during the campaign and, should I be elected, in the days after.

Yes, I would engage with the region in a manner consistent with the way a Prime Minister should be and with the views expressed in my campaign. This would include having a constant presence on the RMB, providing regular briefings, and holding and promoting events both gameside and offsite.

I think that is a question that each citizen must answer.

I did consider that very question before declaring and, while I understand your point and see how it could be seen as “the old guard keeps stepping in to claim key positions”, in the end my own thought process was as simple as thinking that this is something that I find enjoyable, so why not give it a go.

Yes, I would.

That particular incarnation of the ambassador corps was simply me drafting a monthly regional news update and having our ambassadors post it in each of our embassy partners’ forums. I’m not sure that is a good use of effort but I am open to arguments to the contrary.

I think that there is merit in periodically assessing our embassy/consulate policy, but that’s something I’d want to do with our Foreign Minister rather than committing to a specific policy or to opening/closing embassies without hearing from people who probably know more about this than me.

I think the current setup is the most logistically convenient. Of course if you or anyone else has ideas on how to bolster our WA programme then I’d be more than open to that discussion, but all things being equal I don’t necessarily plan for any overhauls from the offset.

I myself don’t have any strong positions on WA matters. It’s not an area of NationStates where I’ve had much participation so my interest would mainly focus on ensuring that those who do have an interest receive all the support they need to develop OWL and have it be an active and self-sustaining area of our community.

Yes, I do intend to keep an active presence in all three regional venues (gameside, forumside, serverside) if elected Prime Minister.

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Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate it. :slight_smile:

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On Regional Culture:
You mention the need to develop our regional culture beyond games. What are some concrete cultural initiatives or programs you would like to implement or revive to build that South Pacifican identity?

On Empowering Others:
As the person who was the serving Vice-Delegate when I founded in the region some 12 years ago, who is no stranger to holding public office in TSP, you talk about empowering the next generation of leaders — what would be your approach to onboarding new citizens and integrating them into government roles, especially in Ministries where activity has historically fluctuated?

On Foreign Affairs:
We have had some extremely bitter feuds with regions in the time you have spent away from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I am a former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs myself and during my time, I learnt it was very important to be sensitive to feuds and arguments, not to fuel them, be aware of them, ask staff to leave these alone and if anything happened, tell me and I would sort it with the Minister. I was actually serving when the TNP-TSP fascist incident occurred, where they made accusations of us being fascists, which turned into a big scandal. How would you catch up on all of these things and will you ensure you appoint a Minister who is well aware of the history, aware of how to approach it and can handle anything which arises delicately?

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I think there’s space for festivals that draw from our holidays, which is something that is already being done, as well as other themed festivals (we used to do themed festivals for a variety of occasions) or multi-game events (perhaps a more fit-for-the-times version of the old Regional Games) that help cement our identity as a laid back and fun-inclined region both gameside and offsite. I also like the idea of relying on written interviews, VCs, and other projects that help us preserve our history and also help build (or maintain) a sense of community.

To be clear I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel here, most of these are ideas that are already out there and have been done, and there are probably other really good ideas that people may have if we start asking, as I’d love to do. I’m just making a point that we need to be more consistent and systematic about using them to build on our regional culture.

I’d say two things about this:

  1. I strongly believe in mentorship as a way to help promising newer members to get familiar with the workings or government, build their confidence in their own ability to manage and lead, and let them be ready to succeed us when the time comes. That’s how we did it back in the day at the Ministry of Regional Affairs (MoRA) and, whatever criticism one may have on how bloated it became, one can’t deny the fact that MoRA gave us several future ministers and delegates. To that effect (and this is something I’ve long advocated), I’d love to see ministers take on 1-2 people as their deputies and work closely with them so that they don’t just do low level tasks but actually participate in regional governance and have a chance to help us set and implement the term agenda.

  2. Addressing your specific point of onboarding new citizens, I think change here won’t necessarily be immediate. I’d like to work towards setting up programmes and encouraging citizen activity to the point that things are active enough for new citizens to find something to do without the Cabinet having to hire them and give them sometimes meaningless jobs (the old staffer system). For example, I’d love to work with the Chair to promote the Assembly as a much more active discussion forum so that new citizens can see without much prompting (even though promotion does have its place) that the Assembly is the place for political debate.
    Until this happens, I think the first order of business would be to take a look at what kind of information we give to new citizens both at application and at admission. To give you an example, I see that the “Get Involved” form doesn’t actually provide much information about how to get involved in roleplay (or what roleplay even means) to those who select that option. We could and should remedy that so that someone interested in roleplay has easy access to information on how to sign up. It might also be good to provide people with points of contact so that they can know who to ask for information, or perhaps even build an FAQ for new members that’s visible in Get Involved.
    Basically, our onboarding process can’t remain limited to obtaining information for CitComm, it has to be reimagined as our opportunity to help members find their place in the region (and if there isn’t one that fully fits them, we also want to know that and figure out if there’s anything we can do about it).

I’d rely on the advice of the Foreign Affairs Council and consult with the outgoing Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. I think there is definitely an upside to already knowing the key facts of the foreign affairs landscape (and I fully intend to get there), but there is an even greater upside to knowing what questions to ask, whom to ask, and how to respond to evolving scenarios; I think my real life studies and work have helped me develop the latter skills.

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I am very pleased to finally see and vote for this campaign. We have fought at times, often extremely bitterly, and with honesty I expect we will at some point this term should you be elected.

That said, you are also dedicated, consistent, and steady while also being open to innovation and initiative. Over time of us discussing in the Assembly, I think you’ve articulated a clear vision for the executive, and I think your premiership would bring a streamlined, purposeful, and accountable executive with potential to lay a real foundation for months and years to come. Not only this, but I expect and hope that your premiership will set a template for what we expect from prime ministers as well as showing the benefits of those standards for regional health and engagement.

I think there is a perception when electing an “older” candidate that they will be isolated, stuck in their ways, and unwilling to change. I think this would be true for others in our “old guard” (say, Roavin or Glen) but not for you, because your vision for the region is always about embracing initiative and growth through our regional democratic ethos.

Best of luck in your campaign and in your hopefully forthcoming administration

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Well, I mean, I’m glad you brought real life studies and work into it because it is my real life study and work as a teacher that prompted me to ask about mentorship, because I am doing that in my work as a teacher, so I was interested to see the answer.

My probe on FA is there because it still means a lot to me.

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I strongly disagree with your statement, as someone who was Roavin’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs twice, you did not see the efforts he went to and the incredible leadership he offered that position, I’m sorry, you’re talking rubbish. This was in the days when the Minister was elected, if he was as unwilling to change as you claim, I refuse to believe the vast majority who voted for him would have done so. If you are referring to something in particular, make it very, very clear. Be extremely careful about making big, sweeping statements like that because people like me won’t sit back and ignore them.

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I have an interest in seeing a MoD appointed, as I believe it’s a good first step of many in breathing more life back into the SPSF. Seeing that you’ve signaled your intention to appoint one, I’ll ask you one of the same questions I asked you opponent:

Previous administrations have signaled their desire to appoint a MoD but failed to do so, seemingly because they were unable to find a candidate they were happy with. Do you have a candidate in mind for MoD? Secondly, do you have a plan for the SPSF should you be unable to find a candidate you believe in?

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Uh, sorry, this sounds like a big, sweeping statement.

Are you volunteering? :face_with_tongue:

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I definitely appreciate the questions and hope I answered them well.

I can’t predict or control what might happen if and when I need to appoint a MoD, but my view is that either I manage to find a MoD or I work directly with the Admiralty and the SPSF to develop a coherent plan to develop our military leadership so that a MoD can be appointed later in the term or no later than the following term. I’m clearly not a military expert so I’d want to have a more focused discussion with the SPSF rather than claim to have a definite plan from the outset. Again though, I think my strength here is in being able to face different situations and being able to work with people to get an effective plan going.

Either way, it is unacceptable for us to be in a situation where “unable to find a candidate” is an expected scenario. TSP has a huge talent pool, we just need to help our members develop that talent.

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I apologise for nothing, someone who did not serve under Roavin in any capacity will not be better versed than someone who did. I couldn’t care less if you don’t like that fact, that is the reality of the matter.

And yes, it is sweeping, well done, you got the point of it.

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