NationStates Jolt Archive

5th May 2520, Government Compound, PRGR

Lifelong President Ami D'Arcy today signed into law the first ever written Constitution of Golden Rebirth, sacrificing some of her power for what she believes to be the public good.

From now on, the following new concepts will be brought into Golden Rebirth law:


A council of five advisors (the Presidential Council) will be created to serve as an interim government should anything happen to the president.
If the President does not name a successor, or the majority of the Council members decide to challenge the successor's ascension (and win a subsequent national referendum), an election will be held to find a new President.
The body of three advisors as previously appointed by D'Arcy will expand to form an advisory cabinet, which will still have no formal power but will serve to better represent the President in all areas of the government.
The President retains absolute power, but is now formally expected to act always in the public interest and to be free of corruption by the constitution, and thus corrupt Presidents could be declared unconstitutional by the people.
The nation adopts no flag policy or national anthem.


The changes have been hailed by many as the start of a truly fair (albeit autocratic) government in the PRGR.

Empress Applauds New Constitution in Golden Rebirth!

In a public statement this morning, Her Imperial Majesty Empress Taunja told more than a hundred reporters that new developments in Golden Rebirth have left her convinced said nation is "on the right path," and that Romandeos and her potential allies in Golden Rebirth should now establish solid ties of alliance.

Imperial Diplomatic Communication

Madam President D'Arcy,

I am most pleased to learn of this constitution. Though it is not very long and it leaves you in almost total control, such could be a good thing. I do not feel it is always a good idea to make shifts in government too quickly.

Regardless, I feel this proves you would make a worthy ally to Romandeos.

For this purpose, I ask if that you please accept some ambassadors in my name, whose purpose shall be to arrange a formal alliance.

Sincerely,
HIM Empress Taunja I

Official Communiqué, Presidency of the People's Republic of Golden Rebirth

To: HIM Empress Taunja, Romandeos

Your Imperial Majesty,

I am thoroughly convinced that an alliance would be a great idea. Arrangements will be made to accommodate ambassadors at the Government Compound at a date of your choosing, and we would be happy to provide aeroplane transport (although, it has to be said, our plane fleet is significantly lacking in quantity or quality, due to the problems that sector of the economy is facing).

Yours sincerely,

President D'Arcy, PRGR

Imperial Diplomatic Communication

Madam President D'Arcy,

Do not worry about transportation from Romandeos to Golden Rebirth, as the Romandeosian aireal transport industry is quite capable.

I will be dispatching a small Diplomatic Relations Team (DRT) of three persons immediately. They are already getting organized and should arrive within days if all goes as it should.

Regarding economics, this DRT shall be empowered to discuss trade deals and mutual economic pacts, as well as mutual diplomatic relations, cultural exchanges, and so forth.

More detailed arrangements can be discussed when the DRT arrives.

Sincerely,
HIM Empress Taunja I

Office of Jim Montague, President of the Democratic States of Bourgenstein

President D'Arcy,

I applaud the steps that you have taken for the good of your citizens. The Democratic States of Bourgenstein wish to extend an invitation to the Citadel of Anton for a Formal State Dinner to be held in your honor at your earliest convenience. We hope that this will also open up relations between the nations of Golden Rebirth and Bourgenstein.

Sincerely
Augustus James "Jim" Montague
President of the Democratic States of Bourgenstein

DRT Arrival

******************************

It was raining as the modified Romandeosian jetliner’s wheels skidded on to the tarmac, a heavy gray overcast filling the sky. The tarmac was soaked, but the plane landed well and headed without incident to a basic parking area.

Imperial Diplomatic Representative Harold A. J. Cronin looked out the window, as things kept moving around him. The crew was going about their business with practiced ease, an incredibly fast but quiet bustle. Next to him, IDR Lenora Buckley sat quietly and fidgeted in what he assumed was anticipation. He could sympathize. He was nervous.

Especially considering the identity of his second colleague, the person leading the DRT at least in name and the reason the Imperial Household Guards had sent a full defense squad in to the People’s Republic of Golden Rebirth with the diplomats.

Her Imperial Majesty Empress Taunja I Lockeheart would be leading the visit personally.

Her outfit was simple and entirely unbefitting a normal monarch. She wore blue jeans, an incredibly plain white blouse, sneakers and a black jacket. Her brown hair, normally worn in a loose, curly style, was all done up in a basic, but stylish, ponytail, and covered with a black baseball cap with IFSR stenciled in white block letters on it.

“Nervous, Mr. Cronin?” asked the Empress. She looked perfectly calm and easily relaxed in comparison to his fidgeting. If she was nervous, she was very good at hiding it. Truly it made sense. How else could one rule over a sovereign state?

“I suppose I would be mad if I wasn’t, Your Majesty,” he responded. The Monarch gave him a big smile at that.

“Maybe so, Mr. Cronin,” she said. “These are Communists we’re working with, after all.”

“Not solid Communists, though,” Buckley contributed. “They really don’t know anything less controlling. They can still be guided to a good path.”

“In good time, Mrs. Buckley,” replied the Empress. “For now, we simply need allies, and it looks like Golden Rebirth could be a good friend, in time, if treated properly.”

Buckley and Cronin both nodded at that.

Moments later, the DRT, led by the unspectacularly dressed Empress, and guarded by two of the eight IHG men, made its final preparations and debarked the plane quietly, heading for a meeting with Golden Rebirth.

Ami was extremely tired. For the past few hours, she had been writing correspondence to other national leaders - a letter to Neo-Ixania confirming permission to inaugurate an embassy in Golden Rebirth, and a communiqué to Bourgenstein asking to schedule the Formal Dinner for next week - and attending boring meetings with her advisors in which they constantly lamented about the deterioration of the economy, and she refuted their claims on the basis that "citizen happiness is far more important than citizen wealthiness".

She also refused to replace the current system of providing government officials free board in the Government Compound, tax cuts and access to the compound's amenities in exchange for both office and menial work with simply paying the officials salaries, asking "What is the point in giving officials wages if they're going to pay them straight back in taxes?"

She then went on to claim that "the system ensures that everyone works for the benefit of the nation, both on an economical basis and on an administrative basis", and that "[she does] not consider the scheme mad or unwieldly in the slightest".

---

She had anticipated the DRT's arrival all day, and as soon as she received a telephone call from the government complex front desk announcing their heavily guarded arrival, she instantly decided that the best plan of action would be to meet them in person.

---

As she got to the foyer, and saw the massive swarm of guards around the party of three from Romandeos, and saw the modestly dressed Empress, she instantly realised that someone highly important had arrived. Her suspicions were confirmed as the foyer receptionist got up from her desk, walked slowly over to the President and said, "Madam President, may I introduce Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Taunja the First, sovereign of Romandeos and leader of the Romandeosian Diplomatic Relations Team."

Ami nearly fell over in a combination of shock and a sudden burst of nervousness - she had never met another national leader before. She attempted a half-bow and said, "An honour to meet you, Your Imperial Majesty. Um, apologies for the st-state of the compound, it's probably, well, nowhere near your standards. Especially today... we're redecorating."

Punctuating her statement, a worker suddenly bumped into Ami carrying a statue of ex-President Astari on a crude trolley, and, behind her, someone was hastily painting over a mural of the former leader.

"I'm afraid it's quite a walk to the diplomatic suites... but anyway, that gives me plenty of time to, uh, for you to ask questions... and stuff!" Ami felt as if her lack of professionalism and experience was clearly showing, and wished she had President Astari to hide behind. But, the problem was, she was the President now; nobody in the entire city, except for the three people in front of her now, were her superiors.

It was honestly hard for the Empress not to laugh openly at President D’Arcy as the small horde of politicians and guards moved toward the aforementioned diplomatic suite, whilst her guards kept a subtle but keen watch on pretty much everybody. In all honesty she was highly doubtful President D’Arcy or any of the locals now in the walking group would be looking to cause her harm. She had two guards present and six more on the plane because her guards had insisted, but she doubted she would really need them.

“And stuff?” she asked, with a barely suppressed chuckle. It was obvious D’Arcy was not liking this situation too much.

“Your Excellency,” she began. Hopefully being treated with the respects due her position in her own nation would fortify D’Arcy’s courage just a little bit. “I am not some fop who inherited a crown. My position was earned. I spent the first few weeks of my reign aboard my Navy’s flagship, too, and so I am not going to complain.”

For a moment the Empress was silent. Then, she continued on.

“I’ll be frank, Madam President,” she began. “To my eyes, Golden Rebirth is a good state in all, but you require assistance. My intelligence gatherers tell me that your economy is a lot less powerful than it should be. You’re in much the same position as I was when I first had to assume my office. Luckily, you do not have a plague to deal with as I did, but even having said that, what you have done is quite admirable. It may be difficult, but then you know what you're doing well enough from what I've seen."

Having said her opening piece, the Empress went silent.

“Ah,” she said following a moment’s silence. “It feels good to stretch my legs out.”

Ami felt very small, having, in her view, just lost any chance of starting the evening well. She pulled up one of her advisors, who had joined the walk towards the meeting rooms, and whispered in his ear, "Could you buy me a little time? I need to step out for a while." She then rather hurriedly left the procession, diverting down a corridor and slamming a door behind her as the advisor quickly caught on and attempted to distract the party.

"Er, sorry about that, the President isn't feeling very well. She'll be at the suite in time for the talks, though. ...Anyway, we're nearly there, it's just across this yard", he said, pointing out of a pair of double doors that led to a rather drab-coloured Brutalist building, with PRGR flags fluttering down from brackets on the walls.

---

Ami closed the toilet door, rushed into a cubicle, barred the door and sighed. The stress of public office was really getting to her, and she silently blamed Astari for choosing her... Why couldn't he have chosen someone based on their competence, and not their connections to him?

She looked miserably at the ring on her finger. It was a reminder of a day that would never come...

Her phone rang. She fished it out of her handbag - a nasty, black brick of a device, its tiny display told her that it was the DRT advisors calling. She paused a little, then answered.

"Listen, Madam President, with all due respect, I don't know what you think you're doing, but we need to open these talks as soon as possible, or else -"

"Fine, I'm coming. Just... give me a minute or two to steel myself."

Empress Taunja watched President D'Arcy as she fled the party in what was not quite obviously a controlled panic. Though the Romandeoaisn leader gave little outward sign of it, she was feeling something for the young woman that heavily resembled pity.

'Poor kid probably thinks I'm laughing at her, or something,' she thought. The newly-minted President couldn't possibly know the opposite was true. Taunja knew first-hand what being thrust into high office like this felt like, and could laugh at D'Arcy just as easily as she could laugh at Plague victims.

For those around her, however, the Empress looked completely unaffected by having been walked out on this way.

"Not feeling well, is she?" the monarch asked. "I can understand that. Offices like hers and mine do generate a lot in the way of stress."

Having said that, Taunja let the subject fall at the wayside and continued on like she had been. She even commented on the diplomatic suite as they were moving in closer, trying to draw attention away from the President's awkward midway departure.

"Brutalist architecture?" She looked at it for a moment and then nodded once in approval. "Very nice. Fits the necessary function, wastes nothing."

IDRs Buckley and Cronin, meanwhile, just followed along in silence, along with Empress Taunja's guards.

The diplomatic functions room was covered in cobwebs and relics harking back to times before even Astari's reign; it had never been used before. As the party were ushered in, there was a short pause, then Ami walked through the door, a mixture of horror and triumph on her face. She sat down at the seat with the name tag "Pres. Joseph Astari" in front on the table (all of the seats seemed to be the same, except for the tag in front of this one) and sweeped it off with a little flourish. She then cleared her throat.

"OK, as you may be aware already, Golden Rebirth has never entered into an alliance with a foreign nation before, so, uh, this is a first for the nation as well as for me."

(OOC: I also have no idea how to go about this)

She paused a while, probably to check that the little fragments of speech she had hastily concocted in the toilets were still there.

"As you have rightly pointed out, Golden Rebirth is in a situation of economic crisis. Of course, an alliance would certainly open trusted avenues for trade, and thus greatly impact the economic outlook for the future.

"I believe the main problem is how Golden Rebirth can hold up its end of the bargain. ...What I mean is, I cannot think of many benefits that an alliance would have for Romandeos; the People's Republic is hardly a tourist paradise, nor does it enjoy great economical throughput. Its military teeters on nonexistence, and, well, I think you get the point.

"I am, however, very open to suggestions from your party as to how to make this alliance work, and hope that some agreement can be reached that mutually benefits us."

(OOC2: The previous president was Michael Astari. Joseph was, according to PRGR history, the first President and Founder of the nation)

IC:

Empress Taunja smiled when President D'Arcy entered the room. She seemed like she was ignoring the cobwebs and dust.

"Madam President," she began. "It may seem to you that Golden Rebirth does not have anything to offer, but, you have, in fact, four resources Romandeos might find useful."

Right on cue IDR Cronin reached in to his briefcase and pulled out papers that had several lines of text and figures on them. He handed them to his Empress.

"For one thing," the monarch said. "Golden Rebirth mines uraniam. Romandeos has been trying to build up nuclear energy stations for some time now. If you have no problem with selling uranium, we would be willing to pay both with an impressive sum of cash, and by helping you build energy stations here also. It is a profitable agreement for both sides."

It was fairly plain the Empress had more to say, but it was also plain she was holding back to gauge D'Arcy's response to this idea.

Ami seemed pleased that some progress was occurring. For a second, she felt like going to get an advisor to tell her what to do, but she was already beginning to make connections in her head between uranium trading and economic stability, and the fact that the PRGR was squandering its uranium and seldom actually used it.

"I believe it would be the right decision for Golden Rebirth to trade uranium. As far as I can tell, there would be no detriment to the nation."