The Gupta Dynasty
03-09-2007, 18:17
The following is an excerpt from The Times of Chelmar, international edition, coverage of the Yaforite elections.
For the second time since the nation entered the international stage, the Grand Democratic Duchy of Yafor 2 is having Ducal elections. Once again, the Grand Democratic Duchy stands at a crossroads. From this fork in the road are three paths - one proposed by the people of each party. The Grand Democratic Duchy faces a decision - who will become the next leader of Yafor 2? Who will turn Yafor 2 to face the future, to turn their back on the past, of the Woodstock Pact and the Sovereign League, of Gholgoth and beyond. The past is the past, as all in the Grand Democratic Duchy know. The days of old are gone. The days of the future await.
Whoever is elected to the position of Elected Duke will have a nearly impossible task in front of him or her. These elections herald the end of the Rudiv Sodo era - he who brought Yafor 2 onto the international stage, so many years before, he who first inducted Yafor 2 into the Woodstock Pact, who brought Yafor 2 closer to their closest friends of all - Pacitalia, he who turned Yafor 2 from a state fresh from the idealistic plains of independence and then brought them to that exalted pedestal of the first tier of nations of the world. Rudiv Sodo is, to put it in terms that others will be able to understand, a record-breaking blockbuster and the person who will follow him will be the next play to open into that theater. The expectations are high, but the expectations to fail are higher.
But what is at stake is far too great to ignore. Rudiv Sodo lead Yafor 2 with a soft touch, but a firm hand, when necessary. He managed to hold them on a course of neutrality when it was necessary and yet intervene (in such cases as the attack on innocent Yaforite submarines by Generian troops) when it was necessary. Meanwhile, Rudiv Sodo managed the right the ship in terms of the economy, steering through the last of the mistakes of the post-independence era, while managing to avoid the rocks of mismanagement. His mastery of both expanding and prohibiting the free market allowed Yafor 2 to have a mixed economy that both generated money and gave jobs, while keeping people with the basic rights they deserve.
Rudiv Sodo now looks to continue his path as director of the Imperial Yaforite Aid Foundation (IYAF), which has developed such countries as The Burnsian Desert after financial and natural disasters. That was another of the great things of the Sodo era - the fact that he managed to aid countries in their moments of greatest weakness, all the time doing it out of the utter kindness of his heart, without hope or expectation of return. Meanwhile, Sodo says that he looks to expand the IYAF's lucrative micro-credit division, while still keeping the charity plans as back up - he also plans to work with Libra Design Incorporated to finance a program to create a rescue version of their Iris Support Helicopter. But all that has little to do with the elections at hand.
With Sodo gone, the YKMK-PLP Coalition is very much like a rudderless ship. Guillermo Vicente, the brains behind much of what the Sodo era accomplished, is gone, as are many of the others of the Rudiv Sodo era. Some in the YKMK-PLP suggested that the nomination go to Davrain Nayadol, the charismatic young Foreign Minister who was often regarded, in many intellectual political circles as "Sodo's successor". However, many pointed out Nayadol's relative inexperience and Guillermo Vicente himself noted that Nayadol would be ready to run perhaps next election, not this one. In all ways, this changed the YKMK-PLP plans.
The YKMK-PLP, the "center" in the Yaforite political spectrum, essentially had the problem that they were unable to unite behind a single candidate. With the Sodo era over, many pointed out that perhaps it were good if the YKMK-PLP avoided the Sodo legacy by picking someone he had marginalized or ignored, while many in the base disagreed. Moreover, with the Yaforite mindset that "a new party should be given a chance", many in the YKMK-PLP believed that they had no chance of winning, anyway. Finally, a compromise candidate, Faranel Balon, an environmental activist, was chosen. Few expect Balon to gain any more than 20% of the vote anyway - the party's choice of candidate came too late for that.
With the YKMK-PLP very much out of the picture, this looks to many as the chance for the more right-wing Libertarian-Capitalist Party (LCP) to strike. The LCP received great tragedy late last year, when their leader, Josain Alanor, was murdered (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=506687) by assassins in his home. With the death of his second in Questers, during the riots (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=525070), the LCP, too had trouble finding a leader. Luckily, the young Business Minister, Vas Aderon, who is much loved and admired for his political skill and his truthfulness, has managed to step into the gap and has lead the LCP well since then. Now he faces his first major national test, as he tries to run for Elected Duke.
In the past, the LCP collected international support from businessmen and corporations worldwide, trying to run on a more extreme platform of de-nationalization. That has, in no way, been forgotten. Instead, Aderon's main move has to been to ignore the more disliked policies of military expansion and pro-Havenic thinking. Instead, Aderon's main foreign policy positions are of isolationism and increased trade with both Gholgoth and Haven, while managing to stay militarily out-of-the-way from both sides. However, his experience does not lie in the field of foreign policy, and he needs to back up his promised with action.
Instead Vas Aderon's main experience is in Business, and thus relating to corporations and businesses. Aderon has used this extensively to garner support from his base, in such matters as the Uharan-Cardorel railroad, which Aderon supports auctioning off to a private company, instead of the "corrupt public management". This and other such concerns have been the cornerstone of Aderon's campaign thus far, holding his pro-corporate line, but not extensively criticizing the more Marxist parts of the economy, such as the government-run health care system and fully financed public education, which have been the doom of the LCP before him - as such programs are widely supported in the population at large.
But what the YKMK-PLP Coalition has lost may also by gained by the Socialist Party. With the death of Kjurat Lovitad in Czardas (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=513303), the Socialists were thrust into the capable hands of Eliana Dagora, who is now running to become the first Elected Duchess ever (and the third elected leader) of Yafor 2. She gained much praise for her success managing the Alanor crisis (she was put in charge of the investigation into Alanor's death) and was subsequently made Internal Minister. She has since run a tight ship, and using her experiences with the Education Ministry and Welfare Ministry, she has gained much praise for her job there as well.
The great majority of Eliana Dagora's experience lies in Internal matters and that is what she is running on, as her strength. She was greatly responsible for her job with Welfare and Education, and improving both systems and their efficiency. As such, she has been looking to gain on environmentalist sympathies, while keeping many of her base, who are dissatisfied with her, for her centrist tendencies. This alienation of base bodes well for her chance with the population at large, as she has not supported any broad nationalization plans, nor vastly supported any failing ones. While this is not good for her hopes as Socialist leader, it is well for her chance on the broader scale.
Of course, Dagora's inexperience at foreign policy makes her plans there all the more ambitious. She supports Yaforite intervention internationally, as well as several anti-biological and chemical weapon bills which are making their rounds around Parliament. Her speeches have had a clear anti-war tone, but she does support a program to upgrade the Imperial Yaforite Navy. She has always supported Yaforite police actions in Marerius (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=536496) and points out what they have done for that ex-colony. However, her plans are being received well by the populace, if cautiously. After all, Yaforites have never been pro-militaristic expansion.
If anything, both Vas Aderon and Eliana Dagora have good chances of becoming the next leader of Yafor 2. The prize will go to the one who seizes the day and seizes the moment for good. May the best man or woman win!
For the second time since the nation entered the international stage, the Grand Democratic Duchy of Yafor 2 is having Ducal elections. Once again, the Grand Democratic Duchy stands at a crossroads. From this fork in the road are three paths - one proposed by the people of each party. The Grand Democratic Duchy faces a decision - who will become the next leader of Yafor 2? Who will turn Yafor 2 to face the future, to turn their back on the past, of the Woodstock Pact and the Sovereign League, of Gholgoth and beyond. The past is the past, as all in the Grand Democratic Duchy know. The days of old are gone. The days of the future await.
Whoever is elected to the position of Elected Duke will have a nearly impossible task in front of him or her. These elections herald the end of the Rudiv Sodo era - he who brought Yafor 2 onto the international stage, so many years before, he who first inducted Yafor 2 into the Woodstock Pact, who brought Yafor 2 closer to their closest friends of all - Pacitalia, he who turned Yafor 2 from a state fresh from the idealistic plains of independence and then brought them to that exalted pedestal of the first tier of nations of the world. Rudiv Sodo is, to put it in terms that others will be able to understand, a record-breaking blockbuster and the person who will follow him will be the next play to open into that theater. The expectations are high, but the expectations to fail are higher.
But what is at stake is far too great to ignore. Rudiv Sodo lead Yafor 2 with a soft touch, but a firm hand, when necessary. He managed to hold them on a course of neutrality when it was necessary and yet intervene (in such cases as the attack on innocent Yaforite submarines by Generian troops) when it was necessary. Meanwhile, Rudiv Sodo managed the right the ship in terms of the economy, steering through the last of the mistakes of the post-independence era, while managing to avoid the rocks of mismanagement. His mastery of both expanding and prohibiting the free market allowed Yafor 2 to have a mixed economy that both generated money and gave jobs, while keeping people with the basic rights they deserve.
Rudiv Sodo now looks to continue his path as director of the Imperial Yaforite Aid Foundation (IYAF), which has developed such countries as The Burnsian Desert after financial and natural disasters. That was another of the great things of the Sodo era - the fact that he managed to aid countries in their moments of greatest weakness, all the time doing it out of the utter kindness of his heart, without hope or expectation of return. Meanwhile, Sodo says that he looks to expand the IYAF's lucrative micro-credit division, while still keeping the charity plans as back up - he also plans to work with Libra Design Incorporated to finance a program to create a rescue version of their Iris Support Helicopter. But all that has little to do with the elections at hand.
With Sodo gone, the YKMK-PLP Coalition is very much like a rudderless ship. Guillermo Vicente, the brains behind much of what the Sodo era accomplished, is gone, as are many of the others of the Rudiv Sodo era. Some in the YKMK-PLP suggested that the nomination go to Davrain Nayadol, the charismatic young Foreign Minister who was often regarded, in many intellectual political circles as "Sodo's successor". However, many pointed out Nayadol's relative inexperience and Guillermo Vicente himself noted that Nayadol would be ready to run perhaps next election, not this one. In all ways, this changed the YKMK-PLP plans.
The YKMK-PLP, the "center" in the Yaforite political spectrum, essentially had the problem that they were unable to unite behind a single candidate. With the Sodo era over, many pointed out that perhaps it were good if the YKMK-PLP avoided the Sodo legacy by picking someone he had marginalized or ignored, while many in the base disagreed. Moreover, with the Yaforite mindset that "a new party should be given a chance", many in the YKMK-PLP believed that they had no chance of winning, anyway. Finally, a compromise candidate, Faranel Balon, an environmental activist, was chosen. Few expect Balon to gain any more than 20% of the vote anyway - the party's choice of candidate came too late for that.
With the YKMK-PLP very much out of the picture, this looks to many as the chance for the more right-wing Libertarian-Capitalist Party (LCP) to strike. The LCP received great tragedy late last year, when their leader, Josain Alanor, was murdered (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=506687) by assassins in his home. With the death of his second in Questers, during the riots (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=525070), the LCP, too had trouble finding a leader. Luckily, the young Business Minister, Vas Aderon, who is much loved and admired for his political skill and his truthfulness, has managed to step into the gap and has lead the LCP well since then. Now he faces his first major national test, as he tries to run for Elected Duke.
In the past, the LCP collected international support from businessmen and corporations worldwide, trying to run on a more extreme platform of de-nationalization. That has, in no way, been forgotten. Instead, Aderon's main move has to been to ignore the more disliked policies of military expansion and pro-Havenic thinking. Instead, Aderon's main foreign policy positions are of isolationism and increased trade with both Gholgoth and Haven, while managing to stay militarily out-of-the-way from both sides. However, his experience does not lie in the field of foreign policy, and he needs to back up his promised with action.
Instead Vas Aderon's main experience is in Business, and thus relating to corporations and businesses. Aderon has used this extensively to garner support from his base, in such matters as the Uharan-Cardorel railroad, which Aderon supports auctioning off to a private company, instead of the "corrupt public management". This and other such concerns have been the cornerstone of Aderon's campaign thus far, holding his pro-corporate line, but not extensively criticizing the more Marxist parts of the economy, such as the government-run health care system and fully financed public education, which have been the doom of the LCP before him - as such programs are widely supported in the population at large.
But what the YKMK-PLP Coalition has lost may also by gained by the Socialist Party. With the death of Kjurat Lovitad in Czardas (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=513303), the Socialists were thrust into the capable hands of Eliana Dagora, who is now running to become the first Elected Duchess ever (and the third elected leader) of Yafor 2. She gained much praise for her success managing the Alanor crisis (she was put in charge of the investigation into Alanor's death) and was subsequently made Internal Minister. She has since run a tight ship, and using her experiences with the Education Ministry and Welfare Ministry, she has gained much praise for her job there as well.
The great majority of Eliana Dagora's experience lies in Internal matters and that is what she is running on, as her strength. She was greatly responsible for her job with Welfare and Education, and improving both systems and their efficiency. As such, she has been looking to gain on environmentalist sympathies, while keeping many of her base, who are dissatisfied with her, for her centrist tendencies. This alienation of base bodes well for her chance with the population at large, as she has not supported any broad nationalization plans, nor vastly supported any failing ones. While this is not good for her hopes as Socialist leader, it is well for her chance on the broader scale.
Of course, Dagora's inexperience at foreign policy makes her plans there all the more ambitious. She supports Yaforite intervention internationally, as well as several anti-biological and chemical weapon bills which are making their rounds around Parliament. Her speeches have had a clear anti-war tone, but she does support a program to upgrade the Imperial Yaforite Navy. She has always supported Yaforite police actions in Marerius (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=536496) and points out what they have done for that ex-colony. However, her plans are being received well by the populace, if cautiously. After all, Yaforites have never been pro-militaristic expansion.
If anything, both Vas Aderon and Eliana Dagora have good chances of becoming the next leader of Yafor 2. The prize will go to the one who seizes the day and seizes the moment for good. May the best man or woman win!