NationStates Jolt Archive

March 15, 2012, Tenochitilán, Mexico, ANL...6:27 PM

Very rarely was there ever a great amount of national interest over the ongoings of a university within the ANL. However, it was also rare that a major international figure came to speak to the Aztec people. The former Sultan of the ANL’s largest ally, Dr. Suleiman Al Bashir II had been arranged to speak at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s theatre in the Chapultepec District of Tenochitilán. As with any time a dignitary from an ally came to the ANL came to visit, the government spent much time of making a big deal out of the event. For the Aztec government and the political parties that comprised it, anything that was newsworthy was worth being used as a political event. Aside from the massive promotion of the event, the whole lecture was being televised lived via satellite to other universities, both domestic and abroad; most notably the University of California, Los Angeles, where many transplants from the BFK lived near and were educated at.

The president of the university, Martín Urquidez, looked out from behind the currants on the left side of the stage. He couldn’t help but feel extremely nervous about the whole event – soon, every person in the nation would know of the event and how it went down. There was rumor going around that the well-accomplished university president was being considered as a potential candidate for Minister of Education should Quetzalcoatl Nochtli win a third term in next year’s elections. He could see long-haired Nochtli sitting in the front row with his wife and 9 year old son, Xihuitl. To Nochtli’s other side was the Sub-Tlatoani and Chancellor of the Tlatocayotl Tlactli, Christopher Chavez and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Darius Wellington. It wasn’t so much a matter of if, but when he would be re-elected, barring anything tragic or scandalous happening over the next year. Even then, it would be pretty difficult for the perennial candidate of the Conservative Union, Sergio Garcia would be able to pull of a major upset, even if they are able to gain the support of the centrist Federalist Union Party. Hopefully, today, there wouldn’t be any major controversy.

One of the stage hands and organizers of the event made eye contact with Urquidez and gave him a signal to start. He quickly composed himself and walked out to the center of the stage, hoping to look confident without appearing smug. As soon as he got to the podium, he looked out to the crowd and began his introduction speech…Speaking in slow but slightly accented English, Urquidez began.

“Students and faculty of the National University, People of the Altepetl and of the world, today, we are honored to hear insights from a major leader. The man you are about to hear from ruled as the Sultan of one of our closest allies, during which he survived several attempted overthrows, wars and internal rebellions. He also is a well accomplished military commander and business leader and has continued to transform his nation, and has had an influence of our own. Academically, our guest is well accomplished, earning a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry, an Ph.D from Istanbul Technical University for Economics in Business, a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, an honorary Masters degree from Istanbul University for Literature and an honorary Bachelors from Istanbul University for Analytical chemistry and for World History.

His rule, like the tenure of any leader, was not without controversy, partisan struggles and challenges. Regardless, I have no doubt that history – and I can speak on history, I’m a historian, will judge our guest tonight as one of the great statesmen of our times. It is my pride to say that tonight, as a token of our appreciation; the National Autonomous University of Mexico will be awarding him with an honorary masters degree in military studies. I now ask that you give your warmest of welcomes and undivided attention to our speaker for the evening, Dr. Suleiman Al Bashir II.”

Well well look at things now…its been nearly two years since the bloody typhoon wars (KLM civil war) had ended, the Imperium I was once knew is no more..so much has changed..for the better…maybe who knows. Oh well I manger to make it out of the typhoon wars without getting killed…I guess that’s a good thing, said Sultan as he thought to himself.

He smiled and walks up the stage with the support of his cane; he smiled and looks at the audience. He saw his old friends setting in the front row, he also saw his wives sitting in the front row and his dear uncle Dr.James Maxwell.

Then he begun to speak in English

“Its great honor to be here today at this world renowned university to speak on all the things that I have done during my rule as the Sultan of the Khailfah al Muslimeen…which is known as the Black Banner Khailfah. I hope my answers to your inquires will give you a better understanding of the Khailfah and myself in general. So as let us this session with quota from the Great Khalifah Judge Yunnis bin Rashid “ To not question the status quo is to permit stagnation of society, to question the status quo is to permit society to think about itself critically.”

Uriquidez spoke up again, saying “Before we begin this round of questions, let me say that we received thousands of great questions from across the nation, but unfortunately, we could not choose them all. The committee which helped plan this event, which consisted of faculty, university administration and students, spent many hours looking over the questions and have chose what they felt were the best ones.”

Uriquidez turned to Bashir and said, “Our first question for the night is on the current Sultan of the Black Banner Khalifah. It’s been just over four years since your nation’s legislature issued a vote of no confidence against you. After that came the violent Typhoon Wars which some of our civilians were caught in the cross fire of. Since the end of those wars, there understandably has been much change under the current Sultan. What are your opinions of these changes and the current Sultan’s reign?”

Bashir smiled and said the following “Well a lot of things have changed for Khailfah, like the disbanding of the Political Commissar Corps, which in my opinion was something should be done long time ago..as for the changes…So far I am supportive of the latest reforms for Imperium, Mainly because most of these reforms are long over due, and also I wasn’t able to enact most of them during my rule due to things beyond my control. As for Sultan Illyas bin Hajji al Uthman, I have great respect for him. He led the Imperium during the most chaotic times and manger to keep it together..Yet we do differ in terms of policy and etc, which is natural. I am also supportive of his reign thus far.”

Urquidez looked over his cue cards quickly, trying to find a suitable follow up question. Out of the several questions that the committee had approved of, he couldn’t find one that suited his fancy. Knowing that it really wasn’t a big deal, he quickly said “Well, I’m going to make a unilateral decision here and ask a follow up question of my own. Speaking on the issue of when the legislature passed the vote of no confidence of you, how did you and your family take the upheaval? Also, how did your supporters handle the change? Was there any attempt to re-instate you as the Sultan?”

Urquidez looked over towards where the committee members were sitting, the student representatives were smiling, almost pleasantly surprised that the university president already had gone off the beaten path. They were all politicos anyways - they were just excited to be only a stone's throw away from a number of politicians. The faculty members on the other hand were visibly indignant - how dare he do something they didn't approve of! Meanwhile, the administrators all looked flat, emotionless and most of all, not surprised. It was a pretty standard question, something you would probably hear on the news channels and punditry, but for some reason, academia had disdain for "personal questions."

Dr.Bashir smiled, he had a feeling a question like that would be asked. Just he answered the question. “We were shocked at first..but we should have known something like that would have occurred. Given the nature of the state at the time…yet my family and I manger the upheaval like everyone else..one step at a time..nothing rash. As for my supporters most of them wanted to rebel and take out the government for this “illegal” action. But all thoughts of rebelling against the new Sultan and his government disappeared once I give my oath of allegiance to him. Which all they saw the light, and follow my led..I was raised never to take up the sword against the Khaif no matter what. Nor would I support such an action. Even during the course of the typhoons wars, and even during the Black Banner Mutiny against the Government, I remained loyal to the Sultan. Furthermore to clear up misunderstandings on the Black Banner Mutiny, it was never a rebellion against the Sultan, it was only against the Government after their throw away attitude towards the arm forces became apparent after the bloody battle of Trotsky Deep.. Those were complex days to say the least..”

Urquidez looked through his cards…he remembered something that a high ranking official in the KLM said – “Today, it’s an oddity when there’s only a little information available.” The Typhoon Wars were only a anecdote to many in the Aztec National League. Although the ANL had long recognized the importance of the Black Banner Khalifah in its affairs, there was no major information out there about the death toll.

“Just to give us an idea,” asked Urquidez, “approximately how many people died and were injured in the Typhoon Wars and the various rebellions stemming out of them.”

“Ah, the question that everyone wants to know…well exactly..are off roughy..100,000 plus or minus with that mind, the figure is including civilian and military deaths..and number is 10.8 million and roughly 1.2 million died as result of the battle of Trotsky deep. Which was major factor for the Black Banner mutiny..” Answered Dr.Bashir

Despite his professional handling of each question, one could tell that Bashir didn’t like talking about what happen at Trotsky Deep.

A silence fell on the crowd…although most of the people present were some how affected by the bloody revolution of 1994, the turbulent decade after the rebels’ victory, the insurrections in 2004 and 2005, never had that many people died. Only the terrible 3 year bloodbath that gave birth to the ANL in 1994 hit the grim one million death mark. However, the revolutions of 1964 and 1987 could possibly compare to the carnage that one battle in the Typhoon Wars wrought, but those were generations ago.

“I’m curious”, Urquidez said, “with so many people dying in that conflict, do you feel that any group in particular bears all the responsibility, or do you feel that the responsibility is shared by a lot of different groups?”

“ It can be argue that one group should bear responsibility for what happen..but we are really lying to ourselves if we thought that way…we all bear responsibility for what happen..we were all there from the first shoots of the war to the last shots of the war..we all accountable for what happen….therefore we can’t just single one group for what happen…we could have stop it before it got to the point of no return but we didn’t…and now look what happen…so 10.8 million people are dead, and our economy is shattered and still recovering…Ironic in a way…we’re look as one of the world leading economic powers, that was more then willing to give a few billion dinar to help the poor of any nation…But now look, we can scarcely afford the price of bread in our homelands..because most of the wheat fields were burned and salted during the war..It will take many years for those fields to recover..Just its wrong to say one group should bear the responsibility of war guilt, while we as whole are all equally guilt for what has happen.” Said Dr.Bashir with a heavy heart.